Worst time to lose quality care
Cut to funding is a blow to standards in early education,
YOUNG children and the quality of early education and care are at risk because of changes to the National Quality Framework.
Last month’s Federal Budget will impact on state and territory governments’ capacity to regulate early childhood education and care services by withdrawing funding for the National Partnership on the National Quality Agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care.
This signals the Federal Government’s withdrawal from the National Partnership Agreement, under which the quality framework began almost a decade ago.
This is a great shock — done without any consultation with regulatory bodies or the early education and care sector. The loss of the national framework is significant and places a unified national approach to quality regulation in jeopardy.
Axing the funding suggests the Federal Government no longer supports quality improvement.
With the continued growth and expansion of the sector and more and more children accessing early learning programs, it is imperative that a rigorous and robust assessment and rating process is in place.
Not only is it a critical driver for improvement, it provides families with a level of confidence in the quality of education and care provided to their children.
There is strong and irrefutable evidence that early childhood development has a lasting impact across a lifespan — including supporting a smooth transition to school, staying engaged with education and experiencing social and emotional wellbeing through their adult life.
During their first five years, children develop the skills for lifelong learning, including underlying cognitive skills required for later literacy and numeracy development, as well as social and emotional skills, such as participation in groups, negotiation and selfregulation.
The quality of early education and care is crucial.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in the “Starting Strong: Key OECD Indicators on Early Childhood Education and Care” identifies that children who attend high quality early childhood education and care have better outcomes later in life, and that disadvantaged children can benefit the most.
The National Quality Framework provides a uniform system by which Australian education and care services are measured against standards to ensure safety, health and wellbeing, and deliver educational and developmental benefits.
It has delivered benefits to families and children through improved adult to child ratios, improved educator qualifications, and better support for learning.
According to a Snapshot published by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, since the commencement of the National Quality Framework in 2012 until 2018, 14,691 services had been assessed and 93 per cent of services had a quality rating. Of those 77 per cent rated as “meeting” or “exceeding the standard”.
Despite this high percentage it means that 23 per cent of services are not meeting the standard and are either rated “working towards” or even lower.
This reinforces the need for the ongoing system that drives ongoing improvement. Quality cannot ever be considered as “done”.
For the sake of children who will come into the early childhood education and care system in future years, and for those who already participate in services that have not met the standard, we cannot afford to reduce support for strong, single national quality agenda. The National Quality Framework must be maintained and there must be no reduction of regulation that would compromise quality of services provided in children’s most formative years.
In Tasmania, the Liberal Government has committed to a number of initiatives in the early childhood education and care space.
The commitment for kindergartens to participate in the National Quality Framework, the Working Together With Three Year Olds and the Early Childhood Learning Hubs all rely on a rigorous and robust quality agenda. The reduction of
financial support through the National Partnership Agreement has the potential to impact negatively on these important initiatives in terms of ensuring they meet the standard required to support children in their optimal development.
It is imperative the Federal Government reinstate its commitment to the National Partnership Agreement, including financial support to state and territories.
Despite the ongoing advocacy by individuals and peak organisations to improve the understanding and increased awareness of the importance of the early years with government and the broader community, the value of the early years is underestimated.
The Early Learning Everyone Benefits campaign launched in 2016 and supported by the early childhood and care sector nationally, aims to increase public understanding of the benefits of quality early learning for all children under five years of age.
At a local level, the Tasmanian Government B4 Early Years Coalition established last year has three goals with one centred on raising awareness of and understanding the importance of lifelong benefits of strong healthy development. Such campaigns demonstrate how all Australians benefit from quality early learning. When we improve programs and services that help all children to be healthy, to get a good education and to contribute to our prosperity, we all benefit.
As a member of the sector for over 30 years, like many colleagues I live in hope that early education and care is one day viewed in the same way as the early years of school, funded accordingly and recognised and valued as an investment in the future.
Ros Cornish is chief executive of Lady Gowrie Tasmania, a B4 Early Years Coalition leader and national president of Early Childhood Australia.
With more and more children accessing early learning programs, it is imperative that a rigorous assessment and rating process is in place