The Nurture Nook (Spring 2019): It is my very great pleasure to be able to contribute to this edition of The Nurture Nook, the journal of the Australian Childcare Alliance NSW. 

Firstly, I want to thank every one of you, for the incredibly important work that you do to give our youngest people the best possible start in life.  The first six years of a child’s life are a time of incredible learning, and the work that you do with the children in your care, along with their families, sets a foundation for life.

It is because of the importance of early childhood learning that I was honoured to be asked to become the Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Learning by Jodi McKay, the leader of the NSW Labor Party at the beginning of July.  Kate Washington, your previous Shadow Minister, was instrumental in developing the policies which Labor took to the March 2019 election, and I hope to continue Kate’s great work. 

A key part of my role is to listen to your concerns and aspirations for the early childhood education sector. That is why, in the short term, I will be focussing on consultation and building strong relationships with all the stakeholders in early childhood education.  In July, Kate Washington and I hosted a morning tea in Parliament House in Sydney so that I could hear from the peak groups in ECE.  I am very pleased that I was able to meet your President, Lyn Connolly, and Nicole Upford, your Vice President at that function and I am looking forward to having an ongoing working relationship with ACA, along with all stakeholders, to ensure the best for our young ones.

It is of immense concern to me that in New South Wales, we have the highest fees for early childhood education and lowest participation rates in the country. In addition to this, the NSW Government spends less on early education per child than any other state or territory. 

Yet we know that money spent on early childhood education is money very well spent – it sets a foundation for life.  

The recent research by Price Waterhouse Coopers (“PWC”) for the Front Project “A Smart Investment for a Smarter Australia : Economic analysis of universal early childhood education in the year before school in Australia” (June 2019) states that there are clear financially measurable benefits to quality early education. 

According to the economists, these benefits include increase in wages for grown children who have attended ECE, a reduction in welfare payments to those grown children, and improved employment and earnings of parents.  The PWC report says governments are better off when quality early childhood education has been provided through a reduction in children repeating a year of school, increased government receipts (also known as taxation!) from parents, lower criminal activity, lower placement in special education classes, improved longer term health issues including smoking rates and obesity, and increased government receipts from grown children who participated in quality ECE.  Employers receive the benefit of increased lifetime productivity benefits from children who have attended ECE.

The economics are clear – ECE pays off.

But importantly from a societal point of view, early childhood education is oh so important.

As Shadow Minister for Education I have heard already from the early childhood education sector that there needs to be more government focus on

• universal access for three and four year olds to preschool programs.
• increasing participation rates in NSW
• supporting the sector to provide early intervention for children with learning disabilities.
• supporting professional development for teachers and educators.

I’d like to hear more from you on how this can be done.

PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 2019