Today committee chair and Greens spokesperson for Children, Anasina Gray-Barberio handed down the interim report for the Inquiry into the Early Childhood Education and Care Sector in Victoria. The Greens-led inquiry has already resulted in better outcomes for child safety.
The inquiry received 99 written submissions and has held 5 days of public hearings so far.
This interim report released today gives an update on the evidence heard by the committee on issues such as quality of services, the growth in private, for profit-providers, child safety and well-being, and cultural safety for First Peoples.
Since the inquiry was established, the national and state governments have made several important changes including improvements to working with children checks, establishing a new regulator, a national early childhood worker register, new offences and penalties, and a CCTV trial in certain centres.
These welcome steps are thanks to advocacy from the Greens and the community.
The select committee will continue its work with further hearings in May before presenting a final report by the end of July.
As stated by Victorian Greens spokesperson for Children and Committee Chair, Anasina Gray-Barberio:
"This Greens-led inquiry has already been effective in getting the state and federal governments to act on child safety. We've seen tangible outcomes including improvements to working with children checks, establishing a new regulator, new offences and penalties and a CCTV trial in certain centres."
"Families deserve real answers, and this is exactly what the Greens-led inquiry is providing.
"We've heard too many stories of children being harmed while complaints were ignored. The Greens-led inquiry is helping to uncover what's gone wrong and more importantly, how we fix it."
