Mr van Manen was invited to visit the ‘All About Kids Early Learning Centre’ to learn more about the difficulties being faced by childcare workers on a daily basis.
“After spending some time with the staff yesterday it was confirmed that their workloads have been increasing because of additional regulations,” he said.
“Childcare workers have a very important role in assisting infants and children with their development in the formative years of their lives and all parent’s want to give their kids the best start in life.”
“Childcare workers work longer hours than school teachers to coincide with working hours and often spend their days off completing paper work.”
Assistant Director, Chantelle Taylor said that the reporting requirements had become so consuming that taking work home has been a way of life for staff to ensure play time and care of the children was not compromised by filling in forms.
Mr van Manen said the staff believe the requirements are a complete waste of time as many of the checklists and reports are plain commonsense.
Some of the checklists included putting sunscreen on kids before they went outdoors, a sleep chart and a cleaning chart.
“These checklists and charts are just another example of where the Government has drowned another industry with additional red tape.”
“Some 18,000 regulations have been introduced by the Labor Government since 2008 with only 86 being repealed.”
“A reduction in red tape would go a long way in reducing the workload and ensuring childcare workers have more time to spend with the children and with their own families at home.”