Pay childcare workers more: union
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Australian Community Children Services says a higher level of care for children outweighs the cost. (ABC News)
The union representing childcare workers says improving skill levels would encourage more people to take up the profession, but they also need to be paid more.
A panel of experts has told the Federal Government all childcare workers should have TAFE or tertiary qualifications and recommended a higher ratio of staff in centres.
Liquor Hospitality Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) secretary Louise Tarrant says improving skills and pay for childcare workers would encourage more to stay in the profession.
"We've got some great people who work in the sector now, but they really struggle to stay in the sector," she said.
"Wages are just too low for them to support their own families, so as we improve qualifications and recognition and value for this work, we absolutely need to increase the wages and conditions and job security of the workers in it."
There have been concerns the cost of childcare would rise as a result of having better qualified staff.
But Ms Tarrant says the Government needs to get the balance right.
"What we need to make sure, is that we have workers to provide this valuable service, we need to make sure that the training's available in a form for existing workers to take up and that there's good pay at the end of it to keep them in the escort when they're trained," she said.
"We also need to make sure that there's still affordability for parents."
Earlier, Australian Community Children Services spokeswoman Prue Warrilow said the higher level of care for children outweighs the cost.
"If you can imagine one adult holding a baby and bottle-feeding that baby, and having four other babies on the ground that they're responsible for that could be in some kind of distress, I think a parent would understand having a better child-staff ratio would have much better care and education outcomes for their child," she said.
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