Child care is emerging as an important issue in this year's election from the perspective of both the people who work in the early childhood education and care industry and parents.

Child care shortages and long waitlists are constantly raised by parents as the most significant barriers to securing child care. We are currently conducting research for ABC News on the reality of waitlists across the country.

Please tell us what's going on in the world of waitlists in your service by answering the Mini Poll below.

The results of the Mini Poll will be shared with ABC News and will hopefully shed some light on how long people are waiting to secure care and which areas have the longest lists.

Time and time again early childhood education and care professionals tell us the biggest challenge they face is attracting and retaining high quality staff.

With the well acknowledged staff shortages facing the sector and the pressure on services to recruit qualified staff in time for the 2014 ratio changes it seems timely to offer some suggestions on what your service can do to attract the best and brightest through writing appealing and effective job advertisements.

The techniques offered below were written by Alan Chapman who runs the Business Balls website a learning and development resource for people and organisations.

The best techniques for writing effective job advertisements are the same as for other forms of advertising. The job is your product; the readers of the job advert are your potential customers. The aim of the job advert is to attract interest, communicate quickly and clearly the essential (appealing and relevant) points, and to provide a clear response process and mechanism.

Design should concentrate on clarity or text, layout, and on conveying a professional image. Branding should be present but not overbearing, and must not dominate the job advert itself. The information must be communicated effectively one way or another to the target audience.

Job adverts and recruitment processes should follow the classical AIDA selling format: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
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Child care providers are advised to be aware but not alarmed about an outbreak of enterovirus 71 (EV71) in south eastern Australia.

The spike in recorded cases prompted NSW Health to write to early childhood education and care providers about the best ways to prevent and respond to an outbreak of EV71.

EV71 is fairly rare in NSW and there is currently no vaccine available in Australia. General enteroviruses are relatively common in the community, particularly in the warmer months, and can cause a range of illnesses, including fevers, rashes, and the common childhood infection hand, foot and mouth disease, and may sometimes lead to neurological complications, including inflammation of brain or spinal cord, leading to irritability, jerky movements, unsteadiness and weakness.

These symptoms can also be caused by other types of serious infections, including meningococcal bacterial, so any child or adult with these symptoms should see a doctor immediately so the cause can be investigated and managed quickly.
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