1

OECD PresentationECEC Quality ProjectMs Vicki Rundle

Australian Government

December 2009

2

Improving Quality and Accessibility of Early Childhood Education and Care Services

Workforce Data

Early Childhood InitiativesEarly Childhood Development Strategy

National standards

rating systemEarly Years

Learning Framework Streamlined regulation

Home interaction programIncreased

CCTRIntegrated

servicesBetter

information For parents

AEDINational

PerformanceInformation

Framework & Data

Agreement

University placesHECS

remission No TAFE fees

National strategy

Quality InfrastructureSupport for Parents & Funding

260 early learning

& care centres

Early Childhood Education

Universal Access to

Early Childhood education

Early learning programs for

remote Indigenous

children

Indigenous Early

Childhood Development

Indigenous Early

Childhood Development

National Partnership &

children & family

centres

3

Australia’s quality reform agendaThe reforms agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments

comprise:

• strong national quality standards for early childhood education and care;

• a quality rating system to drive continuous improvement and provide

parents with relevant information about the quality of learning and care;

• a new national body;

• streamlining or integrating licensing and accreditation arrangements; and

• a national Early Years Learning Framework.

4

New Project: Q1 Analytical questions

Drawing on Australia’s recent experiences:

• the current questions would capture the essence of our reforms:

o The first three analytical questions seem to be critical to answer before we

get to the other two

o Although all five are relevant

Some additional thoughts:

o there is no single path to quality

o the importance of context: critical to know where countries are starting from

and the geo-political environment in which early childhood services are

delivered

5

Q 2 - What is Australia doing?Against the 7 policy areas, Australia is taking action to:

Take a systemic and integrated approach to policy development /

implementation

Provide autonomy, funding and support to services

Provide substantial public investment in services and infrastructure

Place systematic attention to monitoring and data collection

Improve working conditions and professional education for staff

Develop broad guidelines and curricular standards with stakeholders

Encourage family and community involvement in early childhood services

6

Q 3 : Policy tool box & packages The tool box:

• a good idea

• however, definitions and indicators can be useful, but they are often very

country (or even dataset) specific and can be hard to replicate elsewhere

• Our new indicators will be based on the new policy framework and seven

dimensions or areas of quality

Policy packages:

• should be about identifying a range of options – to suit changing

political/financial/policy climates over time : no one road to quality

• based on evidence: what works and what can be implemented

7

Q 4 - Country Specific Profile• May be useful, for eg, benchmarking with “like”

countries but would appreciate a discussion today

Q 5 – Policy Forums• Good idea

• Build consensus with stakeholders

• External/international flavor is beneficial

• International forums – be creative, travel is a constraint

8

Questions for brainstormingWriting survey questions is something of an art.

Our approach is instead to offer some of the answers are seeking or we could possibly provide:

• Governance / coordination: we would want to talk about:o the new working relationship between our Commonwealth and state

governments; and o the need to balance providing support and autonomy for services with being

confident about the level of quality services provide.

• Funding: we would want to talk about funding mechanisms including creating incentives to improve quality and enhancing access for those most in need and/or cash transfers/subsidies for parents vis a vis investing in service delivery systems

• Monitoring and data: we would want to talk about existing efforts, future plans, and the constraints of working across a number of separate bureaucracies and jurisdictions.

9

Questions for brainstorming, • Professionalising the EC workforce generally including creating career paths

and a workforce mix that is affordable and enhances quality

• Teachers: we would want to talk about existing efforts to improve recruitment, retention and working conditions.

• Organisation, curriculum and pedagogy: we would want to talk abouto our new Early Years Learning Framework; and o how we have engaged families and the broader community in early

childhood services, what’s worked well and what has been less successful.

10

Thank you and Merry Xmas