Today the Productivity Commission released their final report on the future of Australia’s Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system.
The final report considers how to build an affordable, accessible, inclusive, high-quality, universal early learning system.
The report includes 56 recommendations across three volumes to achieve this.
It says every child should be able to access at least 30 hours or 3 days a week of high-quality early education and care by 2036.
The report also highlights that quality early education can improve outcomes for children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, but it’s those from disadvantaged backgrounds who are also the most likely to be missing out.
The report says one of the first things we need to do to build a bigger and a better early education system, is build a bigger ECEC workforce. That’s why last month, the Government announced a 15 per cent wage increase for ECEC workers.
This wage increase will be tied to a requirement for ECEC services to not increase their fees by more than 4.4 per cent for the next 12 months. The Government will then set a cap for the following 12 months, informed by the work of the ABS.
In addition, the Government’s Cheaper Child Care changes have cut the cost for more than one million Australian families.
The report is the result of a comprehensive inquiry, co-led by Professor Emerita Deborah Brennan AM. It was informed by a consultation process over 16 months which included 329 written submissions and 11 days of public hearings.
The Government will consider the findings and recommendations of the Productivity Commission report, alongside those of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) inquiry.
