We are pleased to announce that at the Executive Committee meeting following the October Annual General Meeting, the following office bearers were appointed for the 2019 year:

President

• Paul Mondo, Bimbi Day Care

Vice-Presidents

• Sarah Tullberg, Knox Childcare & Kindergarten
• Nick Moutzouris, Monash Vale ELC

Secretary

• Amanda Mawer, Think Childcare

Treasurer

• Sam Rosenberg, Buddies ELC

Making up the balance of the Committee are:

• Jennifer Kearney, Kekeco Childcare
• Chris Sacre, Jane's Place Early Learning

We look forward to working with a very active and involved Executive Committee with a breadth and depth of experience both in the early learning sector and more broadly.

The Long Service Leave Act 2018 will come into effect on 1 November 2018 and supersede the 1992 Act. 

The changes include:

• greater flexibility for women, families and people transitioning to retirement
• access to long service leave after seven years, not ten
• allowing employees to take long service leave in smaller increments (i.e. for any period of one day or more)
• most absences from work do not break continuous employment
• unpaid leave, including parental leave, counts towards long service leave
• increased penalties for employers who do not keep records or do not produce them when requested. 

Please see here for more detail and FAQs on the changes.

The Australian Childcare Alliance Victoria (ACAV) congratulates the Andrews' Government on their recent announcement that they will invest almost $5 billion over the next decade to deliver a full 15 hours of three-year old kinder, with the rollout beginning in 2020.

President of ACAV, Mr. Paul Mondo says, “We congratulate the vision of this Government and its recognition of the many benefits of early learning to both individual children and to our society in the long term. We look forward to working with the Victorian Government to continue its proud tradition of supporting the delivery of early learning in a range of service types.”

In their announcement, the Government recognizes that early learning is delivered across multiple service types and makes allowance for the benefits of the funding to flow to families, whether their child/ren are in stand alone kindergarten or long day care.

“With the long day care sector already established and delivering quality early learning programs, this recognition further emphasises the importance of the long day care sector as a significant partner in the delivery of early learning to the children of Australia” Mr. Mondo said.

Coming at the same time as the Federal Labor Party’s announcement that they will extend the 15 hours per week of subsidised kindergarten/preschool to three-year-olds for the first time, if Bill Shorten wins the next federal election, this is an exciting time for early education in Victoria.

To read the Andrews' Government announcement, click here.