A Missed Opportunity

Early Childhood Australia (ECA) brings you a brief update on Federal Budget 2018.  

As expected, funding for the Child Care Subsidy, previously announced for implementation on 2 July 2018, is the main component for early childhood education and care. ECA remains concerned about access to early learning for children whose parents fail the strict new activity test. We will continue to advocate for children to have access to at least two days per week of early learning - this requires lifting the base entitlement from 12 hours per week to 18 hours per week (it has previously been 24 hrs per week). We are also increasingly concerned about the administrative burden on services in transitioning to the new subsidy particularly for small providers who may not be adequately prepared for the transition to digital data collection such as attendance records.

And, after announcing $440 million to extend that National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Education in February, the Government missed the opportunity in this Budget to commit to ongoing funding for supporting children across Australia in getting access to 600 hours of high-quality preschool programs in the year before school.

ECA is very concerned that the Federal Education Minister is withdrawing from the National Partnership Agreement on the Quality Agenda for Early Education and Care and ignoring workforce challenges that warrant investment in a national strategy, similar to initiatives in the Health portfolio.

Lastly, the Government has ignored calls from the early childhood sector to address workforce issues including an under supply of qualified early childhood teachers and difficulties experienced by services in rural and remote areas.

For further details on these issues, and other announcements in the Federal Budget that are relevant to the well-being of young children, see our Preliminary Budget Analysis.

Click here to view ECA’s Media Release.