The federal government has released a 10-year roadmap for the learning and growth of Australia’s youngest citizens, mapping a whole-of-Commonwealth approach with goals for children aged 0-5 years.
According to the strategy, the four priority areas for Australia’s youngest children are to value their early years; empower parents and families; support and work with communities; and strengthen accountability and coordination.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth and Early Childhood and Youth Minister Anne Aly on Tuesday unveiled the document to support better decision-making on policies and programs affecting about 1.82 million Australian children.
They announced that three action plans with practical steps to achieve the vision of the early years strategy would be made available over the next decade.
The first such action plan will be published later this year alongside an outcomes framework.
Commenting on the opportunity for bureaucrats to deliver an integrated strategy, Rishworth said the plan was a way for the government to be accountable for some of the most precious and critical stages of childhood development, wellbeing and education.
“Parents and caregivers don’t see their children through one policy or departmental lens, and neither should the government,” Rishworth said.
“In the first few years of life, more than one million neural connections are formed in our brains each second — a pace never repeated again.
Ultimately, the early years strategy aims to set up Australian children for lifelong success by giving special attention to the “critical developmental window” of a person’s life — the first five years.
The plan also contemplates the antenatal period of children, and seeks to give parents skills and information to raise healthy children who feel nurtured, safe and connected.
“The reality is parenting can be challenging and the early childhood system is complex and fragmented,” the ministers’ foreword in the strategy document read.
“Programs and services — covering health, early learning, care and social support — are delivered by Australian state, territory and local governments as well as numerous non-government providers.
“New parents and caregivers can often find the maze of information relating to the healthy raising of their new child overwhelming. They don’t care who funds what or which department is responsible for each service, they simply want the best opportunities for their children to thrive.”
With respect to improving government accountability and coordination for the early years of Australian children, the strategy document stressed the need for more joined-up work across government.
The strategy added that while government policy was not currently coordinated and collaborative, it needed to be. Stronger data, research, and evaluation would also make early years policy more robust and metrics should show how services were being delivered equitably.
Anne Aly described the first five years of a child’s life as an important developmental window to get right, in particular because 90% of a person’s brain development occurs in this period.
“We can change the trajectory of a child’s life, setting them up to thrive throughout life regardless of their background or postcode,” Aly said.
“Today’s launch is another important step towards reaching our vision of an Australia where all children are able to thrive right into adulthood — building on our ‘cheaper child care’ reforms, which have made early learning more affordable for over 1 million families right across the country.”
The evidence-based strategy was developed under the guidance of a 14-member expert advisory panel including Professor Fiona Stanley, SNAICC CEO Professor Fiona Stanley and children’s entertainer Emma Watkins.
More than 350 public submissions contributed to a discussion paper underpinning the strategy, based on the insights of a national early years summit and wide community consultation.
A whole-of-government progress report was published with the strategy this week, with five pages of bullet points listing the various investments to Australian children and carers made to date.
These included a $4.6 billion investment to increase child care subsidy rates from July 2023; $72.4 million to support the skills and training of the early childhood education and care workforce; $2.3 billion over two budgets towards achieving the outcomes of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032; and the creation of a new commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people.
The government will now go about establishing a new 20-member reference group for parents and carers to “drive the implementation” of the plan.
The group will focus on the first priority area of the strategy: valuing the early years by embedding the voices of children and their families in our policies, programs and services.
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