Can early childhood education and care outcomes be improved in NSW?

Despite (sensationalised) media reports of NSW taking over the full responsibility of early childhood education and care from the Federal Government, the NSW Premier's National Press Club address on 8 December 2021 effectively challenged everyone with the obvious question: "should we continue with how it works now, or can outcomes for children and parents be improved in NSW?"

Premier Perrottet is effectively continuing what he started when he was the NSW Treasurer who (through his NSW Productivity Commissioner's Green Paper and White Paper) confirmed that NSW regulations on qualification requirement were higher than all other Australian states.

And on the eve of the 10 year anniversary of the introduction of the National Quality Framework on 1 January 2012, there remains the persistent absence of:

• reporting the corresponding Australian evidence of superior outcomes emanating from NSW children (compared to other states' children) as a result of higher qualifications requirement; and
• the reasonable justification for higher operational costs at the expense of affordability to families.

Then Treasurer Perrottet had vowed on 22 June 2021 that "There are 60 recommendations, and we did not commission them to gather dust on a shelf. Every 6 months I will give an update to parliament on how we are progressing."

Coincidentally, the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW received an invitation from the new NSW Treasurer (the Hon Matt Kean MP) on 7 December 2021 to debrief him on all the challenges facing children, families and early childhood education and care services.

For any further information/clarification, members can contact the ACA NSW team via 1300 556 330 or nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.  

PUBLISHED: 9 DECEMBER 2021