Media Centre

Good afternoon.

It’s a great pleasure to be here and I’d like to thank the University of Newcastle for inviting me to address the Centre for Education, Research and Children’s Annual Forum.

The theme for this forum, ‘Investing in Our Future: Connections in Childhood’ is one that resonates with me, and with the Australian Government, as we embark on a bold new agenda for children in their early years.

Indeed, it is a privilege to be among people who are dedicated to ensuring Australian children get the best possible start in life.

In this respect, I commend the efforts of the NSW Government, as highlighted by the previous speakers.

What we’ve just heard from those speakers is part of a groundswell of support for improving early childhood experiences and outcomes for children and their families.

And that change can’t come soon enough.

In recent weeks, we’ve been reading one tragic headline after another.

We know this is NOT the norm because MOST children ARE doing well. In fact, just last week the Australian Institute for Family Studies released research that confirmed this. Children now are more sociable, less destructive and sleep better than their counterparts of 20 years ago!

But consider these statistics.

In Australia each year there are 58,000 substantiated cases of abuse and neglect.

There are 350,000 notifications to authorities.

And the best estimates are that one child dies every day from abuse or neglect.

The statistics are staggering by any measure.

It’s important that we understand this is not just a welfare issue. It’s about health and education too. About bringing essential services together and making sure they’re communicating with each other. It’s about developing an effective, energetic and whole of government approach to helping families raise their children in the best possible way.

And the kind of care and learning experiences we can deliver for those children, is a significant part of this approach.

The critical importance of a child’s early years to long-term development, health and well-being is now universally recognised.

We know too that early intervention for disadvantaged children is the most effective way of reducing the social gradients identified by Professor Fiona Stanley.

In her book Children of the Lucky Country, Professor Stanley concluded that the greatest improvements have occurred for the most advantaged children and youth, and there is less or no improvement for those who are most disadvantaged.

The National Institute for Early Education Research also tells us that providing access to high-quality early education programs in the year before formal schooling is one of the best ways to help disadvantaged children get the best possible start in life.

Yet more research tells us that early childhood and care services can be a platform to connect with vulnerable parents and support them to give their children the best possible experiences in the critical early years.

In this regard, the Prime Minister’s 2020 vision of ‘one stop shops’ for parents with young children could provide such an opportunity. These integrated family centres would combine parenting support, health checks, and early childhood learning and child care services.

This approach resonates in the community. My office has received more emails and encouraging comments about the PM’s parent/child centres than about any other proposal this year.

And the fact is, we actually have good models around the country that are heading in this direction.

The integrated family centre is a model that brings together a range of services that support the ongoing needs of the child, the family and the wider community.

In South Australia, it’s being done at CAFÉ Enfield, run by the wonderful Joan Gilbert.

On one of my first interstate visits this year I visited Café Enfield…let me tell you a bit about it.

CAFÉ Enfield sits within one of the poorest postcodes in Australia. It fits within what Professor Tony Vinson has described as a community that has above average inter-generational unemployment, teenage pregnancies, limited computer and internet access, early school leaving rates, physical and mental disabilities and long-term unemployment.

But the Enfield model aims to address this extreme social disadvantage.

Café Enfield brings together health and education experts.

They run parenting classes, help very young mothers finish high school and most important of all, they bring together care and quality learning opportunities for young children in a safe, stable and nurturing environment, often so very different from the one they experience at home.

To give one example. Joan Gilbert deals with a lot of young children who suffer language delay. There can be many reasons for this, but Joan told me the story of one little boy who is only ever yelled at when he’s at home. He never hears an encouraging word. There’s no confidence building. Needless to say he doesn’t hear too many rhymes or songs. He is not put to bed with a story book.

Consider what’s NOT happening in this little boy’s life.

With no exposure to rich language at home his vocabulary use is limited, and we know that word knowledge by age 3 is a predictive measure of language skill in the later primary years of schooling.

Without the sort of intervention provided by the Joan Gilbert’s of this world..and she spends as much time working with parents as she does with their children, then we’ll lose these people and the sad stories will be re-told in one report after another about dysfunction in families and communities.

We all know the evidence on the returns from investing in the early years. It makes good developmental and economic sense to expand the system and raise standards.

That is why we have an ambitious reform agenda for expanding and improving the quality of early childhood services, starting with the integration of care and education.

And that is why the Education Revolution should and does begin here – in the early years - with significant fresh investment and a new approach.

We recognise that, compared with other developed countries, Australia has been found wanting in this critically important area.

For example, Australia’s investment in preschool has been one fifth of the OECD average.

In my view, that’s simply not good enough.

From my discussions with parents and early childhood professionals, it seems that sessional preschool doesn’t meet the needs of all families, particularly where parents are working, and the quality of early learning programs in long day care centres is inconsistent.

Arrangements for preschool delivery, fees, and preschool participation rates vary from state to state.

As a consequence, some children are missing out and often they are the children with the greatest needs.

Up to 20% of all four year olds, and over 50% of all Indigenous four year olds do not go to preschool at all.

Despite these discouraging statistics, there’s reason to be optimistic.

The Rudd Government is committed to working in partnership with state and territory governments, the early childhood sector, families and educational experts to turn the situation around.

And can I say that we are going to set the bar very high for early learning and child care.

Our education revolution is founded on a long-term vision; it is driven by notions of the kind of Australia we want to be as the 21st century unfolds.

The Commonwealth Government’s focus is now firmly on three key areas in early childhood development: affordability and accessibility; quality, and the early childhood workforce.

To help with accessibility, the Government is investing $533.5 million over 5 years to provide universal access to early childhood education in the year before formal schooling. Funding will increase to $450 million per year from 2013, when the measure is fully implemented.

By 2013 we want all children, including Indigenous children living in remote communities, to have access to 15 hours of affordable, quality early learning programs each week for 40 weeks a year.

The evidence tells us that children benefit more when educational programs are taught by trained teachers. So it’s our intention that these early learning programs will be delivered by degree-qualified early childhood teachers whether they are in public, private or community-based preschools or child care centres.

This commitment is being implemented in close cooperation with states and territories through the COAG process.

Let’s be clear about this. Our aim is not to make preschool compulsory. Our aim is to ensure that every child has the opportunity to participate in early learning, and that cost is not a barrier to access, particularly for disadvantaged families.

Another important measure in delivering on accessibility is the Government’s commitment to establish up to

260 additional Early Learning and Care Centres by 2014.

The 2008-09 Budget provides $114.5 million over four years for the establishment of the first 38 centres, all of which we expect to be fully operational by 2010.

To date, we have announced 33 priority locations across Australia, one of which is for an autism-specific centre.

I am pleased to announce that Newcastle is a priority location for one of these first 33 Early Learning and Care Centres.

We are working closely with the NSW Government to determine a suitable site in Newcastle for the centre, and there will be community consultation prior to a decision being made on this.

Funding for the remaining 222 centres will be delivered as part of the COAG National Partnership arrangements, to be finalised later this year.

We are already working with our state and territory colleagues to identify locations and sites for these centres, and priority will be given to areas where there is unmet demand.

We will also explore opportunities for co-investment with local government authorities, the independent education sector, community organisations and non-government organisations.

And I can also say that when it comes to selecting a provider for each centre, we will consider a number of factors, but a track record of delivering high-quality affordable care will be at the top of the list.

Last week our most significant initiative in helping families with the cost of care took effect.

From 1 July the Child Care Tax Rebate increased from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of out-of-pocket expenses for approved child care.

Under this measure, the maximum amount of Child Care Tax Rebate increased from $4354 to $7500 per child per year.

We also want to ensure more timely assistance to families in meeting their child care costs, so the rebate will now be paid quarterly, rather than annually with the first payments being made from October 2008.

Another key priority for this government is improving the quality of early years services.

In the short time I’ve been in this job I’ve visited many centres – including some that are leaders in their field, and some that are struggling to keep up.

I’ve spoken to many educators, carers and experts. I’ve listened to a lot of parents. Interestingly, they all tell me they same thing when it comes to quality. They urge us not to compromise on standards and that’s why we are determined not to.

We have committed to strengthening the national quality standards and introducing an A to E quality rating system. This will drive continuous quality improvement in early childhood settings and provide parents with more comprehensive and meaningful information about the service they’re considering for their child.

Improving the quality of early learning is not just about setting appropriate standards and benchmarks; it is also about looking at the way the sector is regulated.

What we have in Australia is a multi-layered, fragmented, and in some ways, over-regulated system.

This is something we will address. Together with our state and territory colleagues, we are working on linking the Commonwealth quality accreditation scheme with the state and territory licensing regimes.

We know that it is critical to get this right – and we know that the key to getting it right is engaging in extensive consultation with stakeholders.

So there will be consultation across governments as well as with providers, teachers, carers, parents and early childhood experts.

Once we implement changes, we want to make sure that parents have access to useful and relevant information about the child care and early learning services they are using or may be considering.

This is not just about letting them know where child care is available or how much it will cost, but also about enabling them to make informed choices and to better understand what their children might experience.

That is why we committed to implementing an A to E rating system, to provide parents with information about the quality of the service they are considering and the type of early learning programs that it offers.

Underpinning the Government’s commitment to affordable, accessible, quality care and education is the Early Years Learning Framework.

This framework will be developed in consultation with state and territory governments and early childhood educators and professionals.

When completed, the framework, along with supporting documentation, will guide educators working with children and provide for continuity of learning and transition across early childhood settings.

It will also inform families about children’s learning and development and assist parents and educators in supporting children through the early learning years.

The framework will be linked to the National Quality Standards for Child Care and Preschool, ensuring delivery of nationally consistent and quality early childhood education across sectors and jurisdictions.

The early learning environment is different from that in the school sector. Play is the vehicle through which young children learn. A play-based approach that builds on the unique and special nature of the early childhood years, must therefore be a central part of the Early Years Learning Framework.

As I’ve been describing, we have big plans, but we will not achieve any of them without a well-qualified, well-respected early childhood workforce.

For all of us, the challenge is how to attract and retain talented and committed early childhood teachers and child care workers.

Consider the workforce issues facing the sector.

Child care workers have been in short supply across the nation for many years.

Job turnover is high – over one-in-five child care workers leave the occupation every year.

Pay is low and conditions are poor.

Demand for early childhood teachers is strong, and will get stronger as we move towards universal access to early childhood education programs.

There’s no doubt, the challenges are significant. They require innovative and creative long-term solutions, because the system isn’t working.

In the Budget, the Government introduced a package of measures worth $126.6 million over four years to start implementing measures to improve the situation.

The money will be used to remove TAFE fees on around 8,000 child care diplomas and advanced diplomas from 2009; to create additional university places for early childhood teachers, starting with 500 places in 2009 and rising to 1500 places by 2011; and to reduce by around half the HECS-HELP debts of early childhood teachers who work in regional and remote areas, Indigenous communities and areas of high disadvantage.

In addition, we are working with the states and territories as well as other key stakeholders on a National Early Years Workforce Strategy. The strategy will provide a long-term blueprint to improve recruitment and retention of the early childhood workforce, develop pathways that reward and support workers, and raise the level of qualifications.

These certainly are terrific incentives, and a good start, but we need something more.

We also need to raise the status of the early years workforce and we can start by recognising and rewarding the work they do.

After all, these people have an important role to play. They are the people we entrust to care for, nurture and teach our infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

We need to create a paradigm shift so the community understands, acknowledges and appreciates the work of early childhood educators and carers.  

Conclusion

Today I’ve outlined an ambitious and far-reaching agenda for early childhood development and learning.

It is an agenda that I believe is exciting, achievable and absolutely necessary to the wellbeing of Australian children.

If we can get the early years right – for children and their parents - then there is much more likelihood of children going on to live successful, happy, rewarding and productive adult lives.

And that is what this is all about.

Thank you.

END