‘More regulated than a brain surgeon’: How the Illawarra is preparing for an avalanche of reform

Experts call for the care sector to be recognised as a 'critical asset' for the region

Providers in the Illawarra care sector are expressing alarm as the government contemplates or finalises major reforms across the early childhood education and care, aged care and disability sectors.

Providers and advocates in the early childhood education and care sector say a lack of funding for the state-based regulator put staff and children at risk.

Illawarra care CEO, including Warrigal’s Jenni Hutchins (insert, left) are preparing for major legislative changes. Nicky Sloan from Community Industry Group (insert, right) warns these changes need to be supported to improve services. Picture credit: Insert images supplied, background image generated with Canva.

Early childhood education and care in the spotlight

After reports of abhorrent alleged behaviour in Victoria child care centres, nationwide, the sector has come under increased scrutiny.

In NSW, a pre-existing parliamentary inquiry has heard widespread concerns, prompting demands for action to prevent similar behaviour from occurring.

However, in a submission to the inquiry, Illawarra-based, not-for-profit child care providers have called out the NSW regulator, the Department of Education, for potentially failing to adequately assess services to ensure the safety, health and well-being of children in care.

“As one provider noted, the regulator currently only assesses two of the seven quality areas due to funding limitations,” a submission from the Illawarra-based Community Industry Group notes.

It’s a sentiment shared across the sector, with a joint submission from major not-for-profit providers, including Wollongong-based Big Fat Smile, noting one in four services have not been assessed for more than four years, including 11 that do not meet the minimum standards, something backed up by the Productivity Commission in its 2024 report.

“The resourcing of the regulator has not kept up with growth in the sector,” the providers state.

Early childhood education and care providers are assessed against seven quality areas - including children’s health and safety, physical environment and governance and leadership - under the National Quality Framework.

Changes introduced in 2023 by the national body, the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority, allowed state-based regulators to conduct partial assessments.

These changes were billed by the NSW Department of Education as improving the efficiency and effectiveness of assessments, and enabling the regulator to “conduct more A&R visits”.

However, national figures show that actual assessments and ratings have remained static, despite an increase in the number of providers, particularly private, for-profit centres.

The Department of Education was contacted for comment.

Under the National Partnership Agreement to fund the National Quality Framework, NSW was provided with $48.7 million in Commonwealth funding from 2010, in part to support the state-based regulatory system. When the agreement expired in 2018, this funding stopped.

With the NSW parliamentary inquiry currently contemplating the effectiveness of current regulation, providers and experts note that the sector is already overburdened by administration.

“We’re more regulated than a brain surgeon,” one Illawarra provider said, as quoted in the CI Group submission.

Internationally regarded University of Wollongong childhood education expert Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett concurred, telling the committee in August that the current system is “world class”, it just needs to be implemented effectively.

More regulation is not the answer.

“What I believe is needed is better funding and more effective regulation in order to develop and to really deliver the developmental outcomes that every child deserves.”

It’s a sentiment that CI Group CEO Nicky Sloan hears frequently from Illawarra providers.

“The framework is great, but it's got to have all of the pieces behind it as well,” she told The Pulse.

But, as Sloan points out, the issue of finding the right balance between regulation and independence is not unique to the early childhood sector.

“The administration associated with that is so time-consuming, it takes away from direct delivery to all of those vulnerable groups - children, people with disability and older people - and the incredible amount of regulation now that sits across all three of those is incredibly administratively burdensome.”

Uncertainty amid welcome reform

Someone who is all too aware of this is Warrigal CEO Jenni Hutchins. The entire aged care sector is in the midst of preparing for a generational change to the way services are provided to older people, with the new Aged Care Act scheduled to come into effect from November 1.

Speaking to The Pulse, Hutchins said the move to a “rights-based” system was necessary and welcome, with the former legislation being outdated, but with the significant overhaul starting in less than two months, there were numerous unknowns.

“We haven't had the information from the government to get ready. They haven't had, and they still don't have the rules.”

There are also still major question marks about a number of IT systems which aged care providers will have to report into from November 1, despite $127.9 million in Commonwealth administrative funding across the 2024-25 and 2025-26 budgets to implement the reforms and $1.2 billion over three years for the rollout of the IT systems.

Despite this uncertainty, Warrigal engaged early, being part of a pilot group testing the new quality standards with the Aged Care Commission. This not only allowed Warrigal to get on the front foot for the forthcoming reforms, but is also part of “changing the face of aged care”, as Hutchins put it, repositioning the sector as one that’s innovative, future-focused and an attractive career prospect, both for those on the front lines and in the back office.

This has been helped by having a local voice who understands the sector sitting around the table in Canberra.

Whitlam MP Carol Berry said she understood the concerns of the Illawarra’s care sector and was taking these to Canberra. Picture credit: Supplied

Former Disability Trust CEO and recently elected Whitlam MP, Carol Berry, said it was critical that these major reforms hit the mark, with the care economy playing an outsized role in the Illawarra.

“The care sector is the backbone of communities like ours, and Labor has been working to ensure that reforms strengthen, not destabilise, this vital workforce,” Berry told The Pulse.

“Within government, I will continue to be a strong voice for the community services sector. As a former CEO in the non-for-profit space, I understand what many of these challenges are.”

With disability care, aged care and early childhood education and care at a turning point, Hutchins said it was vital that these sectors were recognised for what they are: essential infrastructure.

“We provide care, we provide employment. We are not just ‘nice to have’, we're actually a critical asset.”

You can read more of the Future Proof series here.