Thank you to all the local Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services and workers who contributed to the development of the five-year Macedon Ranges Early Years Workforce Plan. The plan has now been finalised and submitted to the Department of Education and will serve as a guidance document to support the Early Years team at Council in workforce attraction, development, and retention.

Background

Macedon Ranges Shire Council received funding from the Victorian Government to develop a Workforce Plan to support the rollout of the Best Start, Best Life reform.

These reforms look to increase statewide access to free kinder, including 15 hours for three-year-olds by 2029 and 30 hours of pre-prep in the year before school by 2032.

Council's Early Years Workforce Plan will focus on identifying ways to support the attraction, retention and development of our local workforce, and to develop strategies to build the collective quality and capacity of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) across the Macedon Ranges.

How we'll develop the Workforce Plan

To help inform the development of the plan, Council will be seeking feedback from those working in ECEC across our shire, including both Council-managed and privately managed services.

This feedback will be gathered through targeted interviews and surveys. The plan is required to be submitted to the Victorian Government's Department of Education by June 2024.

The below Workforce Survey has now closed and we are working to collate feedback, in consideration of drafting our Workforce Plan. Thank you to all those who took the time to provide feedback through this survey or through one-on-one interviews.