Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care, Maxine McKew, welcomed today’s announcement by the New South Wales Minister for Community Services, Linda Burney MP, that New South Wales,will increase the ratio of carers to young children in long day care.From 2010, all centre-based and mobile child care services in New South Wales will be required to provide one carer for every four children under two years of age.

This is an improvement on current NSW licensing requirements which mandate one carer for every five children under two years of age.

“It’s important that parents using child care services are confident their children are getting the best possible care and attention.”“I congratulate the Minister and the New South Wales Government for moving decisively to support families and improve the quality of care for very young children.”

The Rudd Government is working cooperatively with the New South Wales Government to ensure working families have access to quality, affordable and accessible child care services.A high quality early childhood education and care workforce is crucial to achieving these goals. The Rudd Government has committed $126.6 million to deliver 1500 additional early childhood education university places and remove TAFE fees for child care diplomas and advanced diplomas from 2009.

In addition, to help make child care more accessible, in the 2008-09 Budget the Commonwealth Government committed $114.5 million to establish the first 38 of 260 Early Learning and Care Centres.

Eleven of these 38 centres have been allocated to New South Wales and the Commonwealth is currently negotiating with the New South Wales Government to confirm sites and funding arrangements.

Delivering on the Government’s commitment to provide better information to parents, mychild.gov.au, a virtual hub that provides comprehensive health, early learning, child care and parenting support information was launched yesterday.

The mychild.gov.auwebsite also provides families with information about Government initiatives and assistance with child care options. The website holds details of local child care centres, the services they offer and the fees they charge.