March Newsletter – ED Update

As we move through March, I want to share a quick round-up of Quarter 1 and acknowledge the energy and commitment across our organisation. We are now approaching our first year of implementation against our Strategic Plan, and it’s encouraging to see steady progress across each pillar, particularly in the quality of practice in our centres, the strength of our community connections, and the behind-the-scenes work that keeps our people supported, and our systems safe.

Strategic Plan – Quarter 1 snapshot

Excel in our Centres

One of the most meaningful indicators of how we’re tracking is what we see in everyday practice - and Quarter 1 has given us strong evidence that the work being led in our centres is both intentional and high quality. This was reinforced through a recent CECA spot check at our Flynn Centre, where no non-compliances were found upon inspection and the team received positive feedback about the overall standard.

"I thoroughly enjoyed the visit as my observations were clearly of a service running best practice and doing a masterful job of managing the transitions for the children that were happening at the time of the audit. I’m delighted to inform you that during the Compliance Audit visit to Flynn Early Childhood Education Centre dated 15th January 2026, no Non-Compliance matters were identified. Thank you to yourself and the team at Flynn Early Childhood Education Centre again for your time during the compliance audit visit."

Engage Meaningfully with our Community

Alongside what happens in our centres, there’s important work underway across our systems and infrastructure to better support our people and protect our organisation. Our work to progress a program of technical hardening to help align with Right to Disconnect requirements, and to ensure our digital tools encourage healthy boundaries and more sustainable ways of working.

This work also strengthens our cyber resilience - reducing risk, improving protection across key platforms, and helping ensure we are better prepared for increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. Thank you to the teams involved for driving this work thoughtfully and carefully, especially where changes require new habits and processes.

Elevate Our Sector

Under our Elevate pillar, it was fantastic to see the impact of the external workshop we delivered on 5 January with Nornie Bero. The session supported educators, chefs and cooks to confidently incorporate Torres Strait flavours and ingredients into ECEC menus, bringing culture, learning and nutrition together in a practical and respectful way.

Community connection highlights

• Our Holi Day Incursion at Cooinda brought colour, culture and celebration into the centre community.

• Kenny Koala visits continued to be a favourite, creating joyful shared moments and reinforcing our focus on connection and belonging.

• Looking ahead, we’re proud to support the Karinya House Home Hope Horizons Luncheon - an important opportunity to stand alongside a service that provides critical support in our community. We hope to see you there!

  
  

International Women’s Day, gender equity, and recognising our workforce

Reflective practice is something we do a lot of and is one I find myself doing more of around International Women’s Day which has just passed with “Balancing the Scales” as our theme this year. Our workforce is largely feminised so having a comparison point has long been the challenge to determine fairness for our amazing teams. The education and care delivered every day across our services is both skilled and significant yet often undervalued as “babysitting” work in society. NBCA continues to pay our staff 15% above award rates while taking advantage of the federal governments workers retention grant to support enhanced retention in our sector which provides a further 15% on top of what we offer to recognise the professionalism, and care that our teams bring together, for children.

Looking ahead

As we head toward the first anniversary of our Strategic Plan implementation, I’m excited about the upcoming Special General Meeting which will to take place in the coming months to endorse organisational structure and new name and look forward to seeing you there.

I’m pleased with the direction we’re taking, and grateful for the way our teams take on the strategy to complement centre philosophies for day-to-day impact.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment, and for the care you show to one another, to children and to families. I look forward to sharing more updates as we move into Quarter 2.

Jocelyn Cronin

Executive Director