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Home-based ECE supported to grow

A national home-based early childhood education (ECE) provider group welcomes today’s announcement that the provision of home-based ECE will be made easier by the cutting of red tape in the sector so that more families can access home-based ECE for their children.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour has shared changes to the qualification requirements for home-based ECE services to provide more flexibility around educator training options.

“While the commitment to supporting great outcomes for children through a qualified workforce hasn’t changed, providers are being given more flexibility around on-the-job training for educators. This means practicum study requirements can be completed while working and more families can access the care that they so desperately need”, says Erin Maloney, chair of the provider group and Managing Director of Tiny Nation Early Learning.

“We are often turning experienced educators away simply because they are not qualified at the level required. The current rules mean that it’s just not viable for services to carry unqualified educators, which seems a bit counter-productive in an economy that needs more training opportunities for workers and care options for parents.”

As of 1 January 2025, home-based services were expected to have at least 80 percent of educators qualified, with only 20 percent ‘in training’ at any one point in time. This has been scrapped, with a new expectation that 100 percent of educators are either fully qualified, or in training to be qualified, within six months of first starting as an educator.

“Essentially, we are now able to offer untrained educators and stay at home parents a career pathway without capping our workforce pool. This helps us to provide families who need care with more choice, which means we are more able to meet the demand for our services. All educators will still be trained or in training – we just benefit from the ability to expand our reach”, says Erin Maloney.

These changes introduced are a part of a wider Government effort to reduce red tape in the early learning sector. Maloney agrees that this is a great first step in breaking down barriers in home-based ECE.

“The submissions made by parents across the country as a part of the current regulatory review in ECE indicate just how important it is to support home-based services to grow. Parent responses showed that those who sent their children to home-based ECE were the most satisfied with their ECE service.”

“We were once the fastest growing service type in the sector. We do things very differently to centre-based services by offering smaller ratios, safe home environments and ‘real life’ education. There is a strong evidence base that supports home-based ECE as being incomparable when looking at the long-term benefits of our model. It’s great to be listened to as a provider group and to see a strong commitment from Government to the future of home-based ECE provision.”

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