Office for Early Childhood Development Bill
Labor took to the 2022 Election a commitment to establishing a Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care.
This commitment was underpinned by the now universal knowledge that the first 1000 days of a child’s life are crucial to their brain and social development. But that was coupled with acknowledging the alarming statistic that nearly a quarter of South Australian five-year-olds are starting school behind their developmental milestones – nearly the highest proportion of all states.
A Royal Commission was subsequently established, led by the Former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who has formidable experience in the field of education, and who set the standard for early childhood education in 2012.
The Royal Commission examined, amongst other things, how universal quality preschool programs for three and four year olds can be delivered in South Australia, and confirmed quality early learning programs can have a significant and lasting impact on children growing up in disadvantaged environments.
On the basis of that and the specific recommendations of the Royal Commission, the Malinauskas Government took immediate action to begin building the workforce required to deliver three-year-old preschool and expanded Out of Hours School Care, and today this Bill seeks to build on that by establishing the Office for Early Childhood Development as a steward of South Australia’s early childhood development system.
Being a mother of four children, I feel well placed to speak to the extraordinary importance of early childhood education. Anyone who has experienced a toddler knows that learning to regulate their emotions and to interact with their peers in an appropriate way are crucial to their learning experience.
I have fond, or perhaps not so fond, memories of one of my children as a toddler screaming the entire way around the supermarket and was very thankful when they finally learned that simply wasn’t a socially acceptable way of negotiating being allowed to walk – not run – if allowed out of the supermarket trolley.
And I am sure most parents and other caregivers will also have fond memories of our littlies learning the hard won lesson of sharing.
But on a more serious note, these are actually fundamentally important life lessons, that are reinforced by the experiences of play based learning and interaction with other children that occurs in a quality preschool environment.
Equally important are their language and cognitive skills and the ability to communicate and develop general knowledge, and a child’s physical health and well-being, which can be casually observed in a setting of trained early childhood educators.
These are all areas which are measured by the Australian Early Development Index, and how we know that as of 2018, South Australia was indeed the second worst state in the country in terms of the percentage of developmentally vulnerable children, meaning the approach of the Malinauskas Government was demonstrably overdue and a very welcome initiative.
This Bill provides the legislative mandate for the Office to provide statewide, strategic oversight and direction of the early childhood system, and to collaborate and engage with the many organisations and people who intersect in the early years of a child’s life.
The Office works with communities, Aboriginal leaders, local government, non-government and government providers in health, human services and child protection, and government and non-government ECEC providers to support children to thrive.
The Office will work with the range of providers to mobilise long day care, early learning centres, and government services in every community to deliver a new offer of universal 3-year-old preschool.
I specifically want to thank the providers of Early Childhood education in my electorate. I have had the great pleasure of meeting with many of our local preschool and childcare operators and I can say without exception they are committed professionals, dedicated to the growth and wellbeing of the littlest members of our community.
They are keen to step up and provide a service to all three year olds, and to work with the government to ensure that early childhood care and education is provided in a way that works for families, that allows parents, often mums, to get back into the workforce, and in so doing, ensures parents and care givers can have complete confidence that they are giving their three and four year olds the very best start to a successful life.
I want to acknowledge that delivering early childhood education is hard work, and the people who work in this sector are everyday heroes without whom society would come to a grinding halt.
I also want to acknowledge and thank both the Minister for Education and the Premier for their dedication to change the status quo and their devotion to children and young people in this state.
And I want to acknowledge the work of the staff of the Office for Early Childhood Development who are committed to reducing the rate of childhood developmental vulnerability, to create better lives for all young South Australians and their families.
This is an example of the kinds of reforms that only Labor governments are able to deliver, and this Malinauskas Labor Government understands that our future will be defined by how we treat our children, by the care they receive and the quality of their education, and we will not let South Australian children down.