A new perspectiveon early childhooddevelopment
The Office for Early Childhood Development was formed with a clear mandate: to create a fairer and better future for all children in South Australia. We’ll do this by responding to the full suite of recommendations of the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care.
The Royal Commission provided a clear path to deliver quality preschool programs for all 3 and 4-year-olds and how to support families in the first 1000 days of their child’s life. It also made recommendations on how to improve access to out of school hours care, and the flow-on benefits of this for increasing workforce participation from parents.
The Government of South Australia has committed to action on all recommendations, whether it be direct state investment and reform, identifying an alternative approach or advocating to the federal government for change.
A new system across every stage of the early years
The new early childhood development system will support all children from birth to 5 with information and services for families and carers.
The system will use data and evidence to uphold and drive quality and help us adapt over time as new evidence comes to light.
Birth and Baby
- Better access to parenting support
- Information about early childhood development and why it matters
Toddler
- Increased access to child health and development checks
- Facilitate better access to childcare in areas of need
- Childcare that connects you to other supports
Preschool
- Universal, high-quality preschool for all three and four year olds
- 15-30 hours for most developmentally vulnerable children
- Three-year-old preschool available in early childhood education and care services, government and other settings
- Gateway to additional supports & connection to other services
- Introduce out of hours care in preschool
School
- Increase OSHC access across the state
- Improved quality of OSHC services
- More support for inclusion in OSHC
Why do we need a new perspective on early childhood development?
As they enter school, South Australian children are experiencing a concerning level of developmental vulnerability. The national Australian Early Development Census found that South Australian children are not faring as well as their counterparts elsewhere in Australia.
It also told us these children live in families across all walks of life, with growing evidence of vulnerability in higher socio-economic groups.
The good news is intervention in the early years of life can be effective in reducing vulnerability and positively influences a child’s life trajectory.
Through bold reforms, our 20-year aim is to turn this around and reduce the rate of developmental vulnerability from 23.8% to 15%, as measured by the Australian Early Development Census.
