The Education and Care Unit Stakeholder Reference Group (ECU SRG) provides an opportunity for the Education and Care Unit to engage with the sector.   The ECU SRG’s members provide expert advice to the ECU about the operation and context of education and care and child care services across Tasmania on matters that are affecting educators, services, and communities in Tasmania.  This also includes providing advice and feedback on how to support outcomes for children through early and middle childhood.  ECU SRG members assist in identifying issues and opportunities that have the potential to affect the sector or outcomes for children.

The ECU SRG members will provide information, data, feedback and advice to the ECU to:

  • inform decisions regarding the administration of the National Quality Framework (NQF) in Tasmania
  • identify opportunities and strategies to assist services to comply with national and state legislation and requirements
  • identify emerging issues related to the education and care sector
  • support quality education and care, health and wellbeing outcomes for children in education and care settings
  • engage with key issues and matters impacting the sector and the community
  • identify or provide feedback on these and any other matters related to state and national policy, the education and care sector, children’s needs in early and middle childhood, and in education settings and schools as required, and
  • identify opportunities to connect with other organisations, schools, education providers and agencies to ensure every child gets a great start.

The ECU SRG’s members include representatives of organisations and individual members representing community or sector cohorts.  The ECU SRG meets approximately four times a year but also uses email or other means of contact to share information and seek feedback outside of these meeting times.

Following each meeting, a Communique is developed to share relevant points of discussion. This Communique is distributed via email to all providers and services within the Tasmanian education and care sector.