Quality Early Education for All : Fostering creative, entrepreneurial, resilient and capable learners

Overview There is a mismatch between investment and opportunity in early childhood policy in Australia. The early years are a critical window for building foundations that enable all children to become creative, entrepreneurial, resilient and capable learners. Yet current policy settings are not meeting the needs of the children who stand to benefit most.  Early education is one of the most significant investments in education and productivity that governments make. It has positive impacts on all children and is a key strategy for overcoming the impact of early disadvantage on educational outcomes and life chances. However, in Australia, there remains an unacceptable divide in both opportunity and outcome between the poorest and wealthiest communities, between cities and very remote towns, and between children from different cultural backgrounds. Recommendations: 1. Establish affordable access to preschool as a legislated entitlement, make a permanent commitment to funding Universal Access for 4 year olds, and commence work on extending Universal Access to 3 year olds. 2. Scale up evidence-based, high-intensity programs for the most vulnerable children, prioritising the communities in each state that are in the bottom decile for developmental vulnerability in the AEDC. 3. Ensure the NQF is achieving its objectives and is appropriately resourced to do so, and that all services are meeting the NQS, at a minimum, by mid-2017. 4. Deliver a national early childhood data strategy that establishes the information infrastructure needed to drive policy and practice improvement into the future. 5. Commence a national campaign to strengthen family and community knowledge and beliefs about children’s early learning