Cherbourg mayor calls for pay equity for early childhood in advocacy message

Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council Mayor Elvie Sandow has spoken out about the workforce crisis in early childhood education and care (ECEC) saying “we’ve been struggling around early childhood trying to get a fair deal for early childhood learning, you know, they don’t get the same incentives as lead educators, teachers at our local schools, and I would say they do a good job of even a better job than some of them at times.”

Mayor Sandow is closely linked with, and passionate about, the ECEC sector, having served as the CEO of Gundoo Early Childhood Centre.

Gundoo is unique, in that it is community run, not by council but with a board of directors and committee made up of locals. 

“Early Childhood workers need incentives, and we need to attract workers too, because, you know, we are here changing the mindset, we’re not just the local child-minding service,” she said.

Gundoo’s current Director, Aunty Jacqui Tapau, reiterated the Mayor’s call for support, increased training and incentives, not only for existing workers, but encouraging young people to choose early childhood education as a career pathway.

“We need younger people in our community to come along, walk through the centre, do an induction and go onto our relief list, we are targeting young people so that we can train them up, part of a succession plan as well, so we can keep our childcare (sic.) centre within our community,” she explained.

Gundoo also operates as a community hub and drop-in centre for the local community, making it a unique working environment. 

“We’ve got an EYP (Early Years Place) a space for community to come in during the day anytime, sit and have a cuppa, yarn, get help with needs like connecting to health professionals, filling out paperwork for things like birth certificates, tax file numbers or other assistance you might need help figuring out,” Aunty Jacqui explained.

Both Aunty Jacqui and Mayor Elvie agreed that pay rates and incentives are “exceptionally low. The lowest paying in Australia, and the workers are doing an excellent job, but we are seeing a lot of burnouts with staff leaving, it’s all one big cycle.”

“Retrain and retain, that’s what we constantly work to do here at Gundoo” Aunty Jacqui continued, “and we do a wonderful job to give our people the opportunities and support, to work toward achieving certificates and diploma qualifications on the ground here at our centre.”

Commenting on Queensland’s current issues with youth crime, the Mayor shared her perspective that there needs to be work put in at the start.

“Just imagine if all these kids that went through early childhood, you know the ones that got access to early childhood [learning] go to the school, they walk in, they sit down, they’re ready to learn, they’re in a routine, not bouncing off walls without a routine or structure, this is why it’s so important for our Cherbourg families to access and realise how important it is for our [communities] future to start our Gundoo off the right way, early learning is the foundation, to transition them into school.”

Both Mayor Elvie and Aunty Jacqui have been on a journey, fighting for better recognition of the role of early learning and the need to support the ECEC sector better, for over 20 years.

“We still haven’t stopped, and I know [the] government is slowly listening, setting up a peak body now for early childhood, a long time coming,” the pair note.

Aunty Jacqui welcomes volunteers from the community into the service, to see the unique opportunities presented by a career in ECEC, and to support the children enrolled. 

“If you’ve got a skill, or even if you just feel like getting out of the house, want to come and read a book to our little ones or with your children, maybe do some baking or make some damper with our babies, you’re more than welcome,” she said. 

“It really warms your heart the conversations you have here with the children, they’re very warm. If you have had a bad morning, they (the kids) don’t see that, they just see the person wanting to spend some time with them, come in, kick a ball, do a painting, it’s all beneficial and you will go away feeling all warm and respected.”

Learn more about Gundoo Early Learning here.