My name is Sim, I'm a mum. Like so many parents, I rely on amazing childcare workers to take care of my kids. Early Childhood Education workers are an essential part of the COVID workforce, but they're not part of the current vaccine rollout.

Childcare workers have been the unsung heroes throughout the pandemic. For more than 12 months, they have put themselves in vulnerable positions to provide a safe and secure environment for our children.

The nature of caring for children requires workers to be in close contact with kids - you can't socially distance from a toddler!

Our family would be lost without the fantastic educators at our son's centre. Many of us can work from home to minimise risk - they can't.

While in earlier outbreaks, children were lower risk, the Delta variant has changed that - with more than 3000 cases in Australia in children under 9 since the start of the pandemic - and that number is rising. We need to protect our childcare workers, to help protect our families and wider community.

We urgently need our Early Childhood workers vaccinated.

We urge the Federal Government to add all Early Childhood Education workers to stage 1B of the vaccine rollout.

Please share and sign this petition to show your support.

UPDATE - AUGUST:

I've recently partnered with The Parenthood, to help get the word out.

Georgie Dent, Executive Director, The Parenthood, says: "Early educators have unwittingly found themselves on the frontline of a health pandemic and what they have done for the community for the last 18 months is nothing short of heroic. They do not have the luxury of working from home so they have turned up, day after day, and accepted the risk to their own health to ensure children are educated and cared for. They are essential, invaluable frontline workers who deserve to be vaccinated as early as possible. This is the least Australia can do for this phenomenal workforce."  

The Parenthood is an independent, inclusive, for-purpose community movement of 72,000 parents, carers and allies working to make Australia the best place in the world to be a parent. Because we believe that when parents are supported, children can thrive and our communities will be stronger. Find out more at: www.theparenthood.org.au