November 30th, 2025
Latest News
The latest Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) Report was released on 13 June 2025. That census took place between 1 May 2024 and 31 July 2024, engaged 288,483 children and 16,723 teachers in 7,368 schools. The children captured in the 2024 AEDC were mostly born in 2018 and 2019.
ACA NSW has observed that the NSW Government appears to be placing increasing weight on the AEDC data than Quality Ratings for the purposes of prioritising its policies and funding decisions on the basis of children's outcomes.
It should be recognised that in the National Quality Framework (NQF), children's outcomes are largely framed as learning outcomes. For example, the NQF's Early Years Learning Framework outlines the following:
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world
Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators
Nevertheless, the following NSW "indicators" should be of concern when contrasted against the AEDC results:
the percentage of NSW services Meeting the National Quality Standards or higher is increasing;
the percentage of NSW services already Meeting the National Quality Standards or higher being downgraded is higher than the percentage of NSW services being upgraded;
the NSW Productivity Commissioner report declared that "... the cost of NSW maintaining requirements above the national standards equates to around $3,000 a year for each child attending ECEC" without any systemically superior outcomes for children;
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when determining the sites for the 100 preschools on school grounds, the NSW Department of Education's own Assessment Panel Decision Making Framework:
did not take into consideration the Quality Ratings of existing services;
did take into consideration the AEDC data;
the integrity of the Assessment and Ratings process now being by default partial assessment (ie 2-4 Quality Areas) rather than full assessment (ie all 7 Quality Areas); and
SOURCES: The Productivity Commission's Report on Government Services (RoGS),
the Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA)'s National Register & the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) data
ACA NSW attended the recent AEDC NSW Research Symposium 2025 hosted by the NSW Department of Education on 18 June 2025.
Given the AEDC has been conducted since 2009 and the NQF implemented since 2012, it was extremely disappointing that references to increasing overall quality ratings, up to 4 degree qualified early childhood teachers (compared to up to 1.5 for all other Australian states), and even English proficiency requirements that even 1/3 of native English speakers cannot achieve, all could not explain why NSW children were not systemically superior than all other Australian children at NAPLAN Year 3.
It was also extremely disappointing that no one at the symposium was able to demonstrate the promises of early childhood education and care in NSW (at least since the introduction of the National Quality Framework) as described by The Front Project, Nobel Laureate Professor James Heckman or even NSW Health's Brighter Beginnings.
We must all remember when the NSW Department of Education (in September 2022) and the then new Federal Minister for Education (in October 2022) (first) raised their concerns that 40%-45% of children were not developmentally on track upon starting school. Since 2012, the AEDC data appears to show a decline in children's outcomes.
The NSW Government needs to clearly articulate how NSW children will benefit from the delivery of early childhood education and care. Otherwise, persisting confusion will continue to negatively impact NSW services, and children's outcomes will not improve nor fulfil the promises of quality early childhood education and care.
For any further information/clarification, please contact the ACA NSW team via 1300 556 330 or nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.
PUBLISHED: 29 JUNE 2025
