Tasmanian government’s $5m incentive package for childcare workers in bid to fix ‘crisis’

Childcare workers will be offered scholarships and incentives worth up to $30,000 in an effort to solve a workforce crisis currently plaguing the sector.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff entertains a baby at Lydia’s Tiny Tots Retreat in Launceston. Picture: Supplied

Tasmanians who commit to working at an early childhood service for two years will be able to access scholarships worth up to $30,000 as the state government launches an effort to fix the childcare workforce “crisis”.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff and Education Minister Jo Palmer announced the $5m package at a Launceston childcare facility on Sunday, saying it was one of 77 initiatives the Liberals had pledged to tick off in their first 100 days in office following the March state election.

“We recognise the workforce challenges in the early childhood education and care sector. And it’s important that we build that workforce to not only have more people participating in the workforce but also that critical access to early childhood education and care,” Mr Rockliff said.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff, Lydia Burr of Lydia's Tiny Tots Retreat, Education Minister Jo Palmer, and baby Edith. Picture: Supplied

The Early Years Workforce Development Fund will provide 200 education and care qualification scholarships, with each scholarship worth $15,000 or $30,000 and an extra 20 scholarships to be made available for speech pathologists and psychologists to secure employment for a minimum of three years.

Ms Palmer said there will also be financial assistance for childcare workers to relocate to regional and remote parts of the state, such as Flinders and King islands and the West Coast, with incentives of up to $2500 on offer.

“We will also offer incentives of up to $2500 every year for between 4 to 6 years to retain staff in rural, isolated, and other hard to staff areas,” she said.

Lauren Muralt, a physiotherapist and mother of a one-year-old boy, Harrison, said the workforce challenges in the childcare sector had made it hard for her to return to work following maternity leave.

“He was on the wait list for about six different centres in town. And then we eventually got accepted out at Riverside, which is essentially about a 20-minute drive from where we live currently,” she said.

“It was a bit of a stressful time because you don’t know what your future looks like in that moment.”

Sebastian Tuttle, who is the treasurer of Early Childhood Australia’s Tasmanian branch, said his organisation was looking forward to working with the government to “address the workforce crisis” in the early education and care sector”.

Labor leader Dean Winter speaks to the media at Macquarie Point on Monday, July 8, 2024.

“It’s just been slowly getting worse as people leave the sector and we don’t have the incoming Certificate III levels and we don’t have the people moving from Certificate III to diploma, which all require qualifications for our educators,” he said.

Mr Rockliff said his government would now embark on a new 100-day plan to act on “ things affecting Tasmanians right now”, including its public housing maintenance program and emergency mental health response.

Labor leader Dean Winter welcomed the government’s childcare workforce package, noting that the number of children on waiting lists at some facilities was twice as long as the number of children in childcare.

He said the government’s 100-day plans were “a nice gimmick”.

“Every time they call an election, usually early, they do a 100-day plan, they come out and say they’ve ticked all the boxes. But Tasmanians keep telling me the same thing and it’s that this government never delivers,” he said.

Originally published as Tasmanian government’s $5m incentive package for childcare workers in bid to fix ‘crisis’