Outcome 3: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are engaged in high quality, culturally appropriate early childhood education in their early years

Target 3: By 2025, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children enrolled in Year Before Fulltime Schooling early childhood education to 95 per cent.

Minister responsible

Minister for Early Childhood Education, Minister for Education

Productivity Commission national progress against the target

The path forward

Work is underway to increase First Nations children preschool enrolments and attendance. Outcomes 3 and 4 aim to improve access to and quality of early childhood education and care for First Nations children. Access to culturally appropriate quality early childhood education and care is critical for preparing First Nations children to participate in and enjoy life-long learning, assisting them to build language, cognitive, social and emotional skills, and engage with their peers.

Implementing the Commonwealth’s early childhood reforms, including the Plan for Cheaper Child Care, and the Preschool Reform Agreement with states and territories, will drive improved engagement in early learning for First Nations children. In addition, the Productivity Commission will conduct a comprehensive review of the early childhood education and care sector.

The Commonwealth’s Early Years Strategy supports these early childhood reforms and will create a new integrated, holistic approach to the early years and strengthen strategic efforts across Outcomes 3 and 4. Early childhood learning outcomes are foundational for laying the pathway for success in secondary and tertiary education and furthering progress against Outcomes 5 and 6.

A 10-year formal partnership has been established with SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, First Nations representatives, community-controlled sectors and the Commonwealth. This partnership is developing initiatives to increase outcomes across early childhood education and care, maternal and child health, child safety, children and families, and across intersecting areas such as disability and housing.

Priority actions

Preschool Reform Agreement

The Commonwealth has committed $2 billion over four years from 2022 to 2025 to states and territories through the Preschool Reform Agreement (PRA), which will support universal access of 15 hours of quality preschool a week for every child in the year before full-time school. Through the PRA, the Commonwealth, states and territories have agreed to a reform agenda that aims to improve participation and maximise the benefits of preschool for children, with a particular focus on increasing participation of at risk First Nations children and children from communities experiencing disadvantage.

Access to child care

The Plan for Cheaper Child Care will make early childhood education more affordable for First Nations families by increasing Child Care Subsidy (CCS) rates. From 10 July 2023, CCS rates will lift from 85 per cent to 90 per cent for families earning $80,000 or less, and subsidy rates will increase for families earning less than $530,000. Families will continue to receive existing higher subsidy rates for their second and subsequent children aged five years or under in care, up to a maximum rate of 95 per cent.

The Commonwealth is also amending the CCS activity test to introduce a base level of 36 hours per fortnight of early learning for First Nations children, regardless of a family’s activity levels. It is expected the base entitlement will benefit up to 6,600 families in the first year and encourage more families to engage in early childhood education and care. The measure will commence from 10 July 2023.

The Productivity Commission will conduct a comprehensive review of the early childhood education and care sector. The review is expected to commence in the first half of 2023, with a final report in 2024.

Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership

The Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Policy Partnership enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to work in partnership with government to accelerate and increase outcomes for First Nations children and their families. The Commonwealth has committed $10.2 million to support the ECCD Policy Partnership, ensuring First Nations peoples have a say in early childhood matters that affect them, strengthening the formal partnership mechanism to develop advice on measures and reforms to support First Nations children to thrive in their early years.

The ECCD Policy Partnership has identified priority areas which will progress action on Priority Reforms and Closing the Gap Targets 2, 3, 4, 12 and 13. Key themes across the opportunities include:

• Reforming funding models for early years community-controlled services to better meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families (consistent with Priority Reform Two)
• Improving government procurement processes to support community-led service delivery
• Enhancing system accountability, coordination and integration across the sectors and government agencies that influence the health and wellbeing of children and families.

The ECCD Policy Partnership provides for a coordinated approach to drive reform opportunities from the evidence-based and co-designed National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Strategy and actions from the ECCD Sector Strengthening Plan.

The ECCD Policy Partnership will meet four times a year, and make recommendations to Joint Council to drive progress on early childhood outcomes for First Nations children and families.

Shaping Our Future

The National Children's Education and Care Workforce Strategy ‘Shaping Our Future’ aims to address the complex issues associated with the attraction, development, and retention of a high-quality early childhood workforce. Aligning with Priority Reform Two, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations have a critical leadership and service delivery role across the country supporting the safety, wellbeing, health and development of children in their early years.

Two key priorities for targeted workforce programs under the National Children's Education and Care Workforce Strategy’s Focus Area 2: Attraction and Retention, are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the regional and remote workforce. As implementation of the Strategy progresses in 2023, the Commonwealth and SNAICC will remain engaged to help build strategic partnerships that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to enrol in and complete early childhood education and care qualifications.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission childcare inquiry

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will carry out a wide range of consultation and information gathering activities as part of an inquiry into early childhood education and care prices. This includes running roundtables with a broad range of stakeholders, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Summary of new actions

*A full appendix of new and existing measures being undertaken by the Commonwealth to support Closing the Gap efforts is on the NIAA website, at Closing the Gap implementation measures.