NSW regulations cost $3,000/child/year more than other Australian states

The NSW Productivity Commissioner has published a new report declaring that "... the cost of NSW maintaining requirements above the national standards equates to around $3,000 a year for each child attending ECEC."

This latest report follows their Green Paper (2020) and White Paper (2021) that represented the first NSW Government agency to publicly agree with ACA NSW that NSW has higher regulatory requirements than all other Australian states, and also questioned whether the NSW's regulatory framework was fit-for-purpose.

The NSW Small Business Commissioner's recent report in 2022 essentially questioned similar issues.

ACA NSW has been consistent in at least asking for financial offsets from the NSW Government, as well as a significant rethink of the excessive regulatory burdens placed on NSW's early childhood education and care (ECEC) services while pursuing a long overdue consensus on measurable outcomes.

Moreover, despite now 10 years of the National Quality Framework (2012-2022), complying ECEC services would be frustrated and deflated when told by the NSW Government (12 September 2022) and the Federal Minister for Education (6 October 2022) that 40%-45% of children are not developmentally on track when they start school.

We do applaud the NSW Department of Education for what appears to be very serious consideration of the above. But we ask them to implement reasonable and practical improvements as quickly as possible, especially during worsening labour shortages.

ACA NSW is certain ECEC services all want the highest quality services for all their children through an effective, measurable, consistent, transparent, efficient and a financially sustainable operational and regulatory framework that benefits children, parents, educators, teachers, services, NSW and Australia.

For any further information/clarification, please contact the ACA NSW team via 1300 556 330 or nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.

PUBLISHED: 7 DECEMBER 2022