Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, , 7:22:36 to 7:24:31
The committee discusses data from a Four Corners report regarding the prevalence of for-profit early learning services and how the government ensures child safety and quality when providers face competing commercial pressures.
Topics: Education, Child safety
Speakers: Senator Fatima Payman, Ms. Kylie Crane, Unknown Speaker
>> Thank you. Uh just on the four corners uh episode um I understand that Four Corners displayed a figure stating that 98% of new early learning services opened over the past two years were forprofit. Does the department confirm
>> Uh Senator, we'd have to take that on notice. I I suspect what has um occurred in that is that they're looking at potentially some of the data that a SQA has. we wouldn't have that in our
do you know what the breakdown of forprofit and not for profit?
>> Not over that period that you're referencing. No, we'd have to take it on notice.
>> Uh, thank you. The Commonwealth directs substantial public money uh into the for-profit system through the childcare subsidy. uh when a corporate early learning provider faces pressure, more margins uh and returns while also deciding what it spends on uh you know whether that's qualified educators, supervision and quality, what guarantees that the child child's interest win in that situation when they've got competing priorities.
Senator, um I think as we've given testimony today and in previous hearings, uh no matter the provider size or type, um all governments have an expectation of quality service provision. Um whilst there might be individual business decisions made within those entities, um the expectation is that those services are safe uh and quality. Some of the changes that uh minister's agreed to and it was implemented in national law um earlier this year go to the um paramountcy principle where any decision that he's made uh by a board or others responsible for that entity need to take that into consideration in the decisions that they are making about staffing about layouts about program design food choice etc.