Draft policy and funding guide
Core partnership requirements
Requirements to maintain eligibility
To remain a partner service and be eligible for funding, the service must continue to meet both provider and service requirements.
In addition, they must comply with the following core partnership requirements to enter into a funding agreement with OECD.
1. Teacher-led program
Qualifications
All partner services must have an early childhood teacher in place to deliver the preschool program for the full program hours. This can be:
- an early childhood teacher registered with the Teacher’s Registration Board (TRB) of South Australia who meets National Quality Framework (NQF) qualification requirements (ECT)
- a person completing an Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) approved qualification and holding a Special Authority for an Unregistered Person to Teach as an Early Childhood Teacher (ECT SAT) from the TRB.1 In these circumstances, the OECD requires services to ensure there is another registered teacher available to coach and support programming and practice where the program is being led by a person with an ECT SAT.
[1] For more information, see Specific Authorities | Teachers Registration Board of South Australia (trb.sa.edu.au).
Ratios
All funded preschool programs must be led by an early childhood teacher for all funded hours for all funded children (see above). This teacher can be counted as part of the National Law and National Regulations ratio requirements.
Staffing waivers
Where there is a waiver in place that does not affect the service’s ability to deliver the requirement to have an ECT delivering the full preschool program hours, funding will not be affected.
If, however, a service is seeking to use an ECT SAT to meet the preschool teaching requirement, they must ensure there is another registered teacher available to coach and support programming and practice.
Leave, illness or resignation
A diploma-qualified educator or person who holds a qualification in primary teaching may replace an ECT or a person with an ECT SAT for a period up to, but not exceeding, 60 days in a 12-month period to cover illness, leave and resignation, as long as another registered teacher is identified to coach and support programming and practice.
The partner service would be required to ensure families know that the program over this time is not ‘preschool’ as it is not being delivered by a teacher. The service will need to document the days the ECT or ECT SAT is not delivering the program. For over 60 days in any 12-month period, funding will be paused. Local support teams will work with the service to identify the approach to re-establishing the program.
Notification
When there is a change or replacement of an ECT, partner services must check they still meet both regulatory and preschool funding requirements.
2. Non-contact time
The Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care noted the importance of non-contact time for ECTs to enable planning and professional development, and that this can support retention of teaching staff.
ECTs need sufficient time to plan quality preschool programs for children, and time to engage with families and make referrals based on assessed needs. Non-contact time allows teachers to regularly plan and evaluate preschool programs.
Partner services must provide ECTs delivering the preschool program with an additional 2 hours of non-contact time per week. (Currently, this would mean a total minimum of 4 hours per week plus an additional 2 days’ paid professional development per year, over and above the current relevant industrial award.)
Evidence of all ECT non-contact periods must be clearly available, as this is an essential part of record-keeping. Other evidence may also be needed to confirm these hours, when requested by the OECD.
OECD reserves the right to increase this non-contact time in future, in response to changed industrial arrangements or market conditions, after consultation with the sector.
3. Workforce development
Access to professional development, professional networks and contemporary, evidence-based teaching and learning resources:
- significantly contribute to the quality of learning programs
- build educator knowledge of child development in the early years
- enhance the effectiveness of interactions between educators and children
- supports educator retention.
Partner services will be required to:
- demonstrate a commitment to workforce development, including through traineeships, hosting student placements or supporting educators to upskill
- ensure all ECTs and diploma-qualified educators are supported to access professional development, curriculum resources and tools. This includes those offered at no cost by OECD to support high-quality teaching and learning.
4. Professional development
The Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care outlined a vision of place-based, responsive and connected service delivery for early years education.
This should include:
- creating regular opportunities for connection between different services working with families with young children in local areas
- building a community of practice for integrated service provision across government and non-government services.
There is an expectation that all 3-year-old preschool services will engage with other early childhood services in their area (regardless of ownership type), to support building a stronger, more connected system for children and families at the local level.
Services not yet partnered to deliver 3-year-old preschool services are encouraged to participate.
There are 2 ways that partner 3-year-old preschool services can meet this expectation:
1. Actively engage with local early childhood professional networks
OECD will support existing early childhood professional networks and help establish new ones in areas where they do not exist. They will generally meet 4 times a year for 2 to 3 hours and will:
- identify local challenges and opportunities
- collaborate to develop and implement shared solutions that target local challenges and translate policy into practice
- reflect on how solutions have been implemented and impact on the practice of network members.
OECD will facilitate other types of early childhood and family services attending at least some professional network meetings.
OECD local teams will be actively engaged with issues that arise through the meetings. They will escalate to central policy and program teams, any identified issues with policy settings or suggest opportunities to offer better support to services that arise through the network.
2. Alternative proposals
3-year-old preschool services can propose an alternative way to commit to system participation and connecting with other early childhood services in their area. These proposals should be discussed with their local OECD team.
5. Quality Uplift program
Investment in lifting quality is essential to prepare the sector to provide 3-year-old preschool and realise its benefits to children.
Recommendation 30 of the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care outlined that the OECD and South Australian Education Standards Board (ESB) should work together aligned to their respective roles, to help services delivering preschool programs rated as working towards NQS to raise their quality. This process will be implemented.
Services rated as working towards the NQS:
- at the time of expressing interest in being a 3-year-old preschool service, or
- during their expression-of-interest assessment phase, or
- throughout the period of being a funded partner service
will need to agree to participate in a quality uplift program, with the type and intensity determined by the OECD.
Some partner services referred into a quality uplift program will need to complete the program before being offered a final funding agreement and starting preschool provision.
Others may be able to begin preschool operations on the proviso that they complete a quality uplift program when it can be offered to the service, within a timeframe as determined by the OECD.
This decision will consider factors such as the nature and timing of the working towards rating, and the practicalities of accessing the quality uplift program before preschool provision is due to begin.
6. Assessment for children's learning and development
Under the National Law, early childhood education and care (ECEC) services must assess and document children’s learning and development. However, historically the early childhood sector has not had access to high-quality, validated formative assessment tools to support teachers and educators to understand and support children’s learning progress.
These tools can help professionals to:
- better understand each child
- document the child’s progress
- improve intentionality of teaching
- support continuity of learning between services and schools.
The tools’ purpose is not to judge the performance of a service, teacher or child, or to affect a service’s funding. Rather, they are a support for effective teaching practice. The tools can help give insights into what works best for cohorts of children or areas of learning.
Under the Preschool Reform Agreement (PRA), states and territories have agreed to trial formative assessment tools (known as the ‘preschool outcomes measure’). Subject to the outcome of this process, and the continuation of existing Australian Government funding arrangements for preschool programs, the OECD reserves the right at any time to request or expect funded partner services to participate in using such a tool, for the purposes outlined above.
Before any such decision, the OECD will consult with the sector and consider feasibility and capacity requirements.
Transition statements
It is a partnership expectation that all services will actively support the transition of their children to school, whether through:
- transition statements
- transition days
- discussions between ECTs and reception teachers
- and/or or in other ways.
The OECD is developing a Preschool Toolkit, which will be available to all services to support the provision of high-quality preschool teaching and learning. The toolkit will advise on supporting transitions and continuity of learning for children.
The OECD will also consult with the sector and experts on developing an easy-to-use standard approach to transition statements for all services, building on existing practices. This may be phased in as a requirement for services that are not currently providing transition statements.
A transition statement between preschool and school plays a critical role in ensuring a smooth and positive start for children entering school. It enables:
- continuity of learning: a snapshot of a child’s strengths, interests, and learning preferences
- personalised support: through understanding each child’s unique needs and abilities, teachers can tailor their teaching strategies to better support individual students
- collaboration between educators: sharing information about a child’s development and learning experiences helps create a cohesive educational experience
- parental involvement: parents are encouraged to contribute to the transition statement, providing insights into their child’s personality and preferences
- early identification of needs: a transition statement can highlight any additional support a child might need to maximise their learning and development.
Overall, the transition statement is a valuable tool that helps ensure children have a positive and successful start to their school life, promoting better learning and wellbeing outcomes.
7. Aboriginal inclusion
Partner services must provide a welcoming and culturally safe preschool program for Aboriginal children and families.
Partner services must have initiatives in place that demonstrate their commitment to supporting cultural safety of the children, families, and staff in their services. It should be reflective of their size and community.
This commitment must be visible to community on the service’s website and onsite. It could include actions such as:
- developing a Reconciliation Action Plan, or alternative commitments relative to the size of the service
- active engagement with local Aboriginal Elders and community
- policies and practices promoting diversity and anti-racism
- employing Aboriginal teachers, educators and support staff
- special community days or events
- visible indicators to welcome Aboriginal children and families, such as displaying Aboriginal flags, artwork by an Aboriginal artist etc.
- engagement with local Aboriginal community to advise and support on Aboriginal language priorities
- celebrating culturally significant days such as NAIDOC, Reconciliation Week and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day.
Partner services will also need to commit to all staff attending cultural safety training delivered by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation. This will be progressively rolled out across all services, funded by OECD. Prior training may be recognised, dependent on timeframe and alignment with the scope of training available for partner services.
8. Inclusion
All partner services must ensure their environments are genuinely inclusive, where every child is seen as a capable learner and a valued participant.
Inclusion, in this context, is not about fitting the child into the existing structure, but about adapting the care and education environment to meet the unique needs of every child, allowing them to fully engage and succeed.
To fulfil this commitment, partner services must have appropriate policies, processes, and guides in place that support inclusion. These measures should ensure that regardless of their learning styles, cultural background, language, abilities or family circumstances all children can:
- access services
- participate meaningfully
- have positive experiences.
The requirement to prioritise inclusion is not only a fundamental principle of quality education but also a legal obligation under frameworks such as the National Quality Framework and the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.
Partnering with the OECD means embracing these responsibilities, ensuring that inclusion is at the heart of every service. Partner services will receive Preschool Boost funding (see Additional funding) for access to additional resources and support to build the service’s capacity to better meet children’s diverse developmental needs.
Partner services must apply the OECD priority of access policy enrolments to all vacancies across 3- and 4-year-old preschool programs. For more information see Managing enrolments.
Partner services must not un-enrol preschool children from their service based on their inclusion needs.
9. Data and transparency
Data
Partner services must provide data to the OECD on application and for the duration of preschool program service provision.
The OECD will collect data for system and service monitoring, in relation to integrity and quality. Data may be used for evaluation purposes, however any additional data requirements for evaluation will be part of evaluation design.
Families should be aware that their information (including the name of their child, birth date, and membership of key cohorts) will be shared with the OECD.
Transparency
Partner services must communicate clearly to families that the South Australian Government is providing funding to cover the additional costs associated with provision of a preschool program.
Services should not increase fees for families enrolling in a preschool program, as state funding covers the additional costs associated with its provision.