Support needed from the ECEC community sector: Complete TICCS survey ASAP!

With a pending federal election, and another review of the National Quality Framework (NQF) on the agenda, ‘there has never been a more crucial time for community services to share their experiences under the NQF.’

The Trends in Community Children’s Services (TICCS) survey is Australia’s only longitudinal study measuring the impact of the NQF. With recent commentary from Australian politicians in relation to the NQF and the lack of data to support it, prominent voices in the community section of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector are calling for support to provide input into the survey, to provide high calibre data in support of retaining the NQF.

In the 2018 Red Tape Inquiry Interim Report, the committee noted “insufficient evidence” to support staffing ratios and qualifications as a quality component of the NQF. TICCS, a spokesperson from the Community Child Care Association (CCCA) said, is the data that will provide the evidence base.

Australian Community Children’s Services (ACCS), via the TICCS, has been tracking how not- for-profit services have engaged with and implements the NQF since 2012. The data collected from previous TICCS surveys was used to defend the NQF during the review period in 2014, and to advocate for the sector in response to the Jobs for Families package.

Currently, the responses to the 2019 survey are being collected. A spokesperson from CCCA said it was vital for community based, not-for-profit services to provide their input to ‘ensure our politicians sit up and take notice of the evidence that the NQF works’

Directors, coordinators and nominated supervisors of not-for-profit services are invited to ‘add their voice to the research, and defend the future of the NQF’, CCCA said. This includes managers in not-for-profit long day care services, outside school hours care, vacation care, family day care, kindergartens/preschools, occasional care, multi-functional Aboriginal child care services and mobile services.

The survey closes next Friday, 29 March, and can be completed here. Services who complete the survey will go into the draw to win a $100 voucher from Educational Experience, with one voucher per state up for grabs.