universal access

Early learning: Every child deserves access now. Here’s how we can make that happen

The Final Report from the Productivity Commission (PC) into Early Childhood Education
and Care was released last week. This two-part series unpacks the Commission’s proposed road map that involves many stages over the next 12 years to achieve universal access to early learning.

This is where all children can attend three days a week, regardless of location, ethnicity,
special educational needs, family income, or parent’s work or study schedules.
Universal access is critical because research shows access to early learning improves
children’s chances of a good start to school and increases their ability to flourish into
adulthood.

The PC said the recent improvements in wages through the Fair Work Commission will assist
with the attraction and retention of educators. The Commission states these recent rises are
only one step and that future awards need to consider the 20 per cent pay difference and poorer
conditions between the school and early learning sectors, even for educators with the same
qualifications. It also recommends registration be the same to improve status for early
childhood educators.

These are all excellent recommendations, but many educators continue to leave a sector in
crisis before the recommendations are implemented.

Why is the sector in crisis?

At its heart, the early childhood education and care sector is supposed to provide
opportunities for early learning. This is one of the key components of the internationally
accepted Nurturing Care Framework by the World Health Organisation, World Bank Group, and UNICEF. This framework is designed to show how children’s health and wellbeing is best supported to ensure children reach their potential.

Figure 1: Nurturing Care Framework

In Australia, children and their families face many barriers to these opportunities, as shown in
the table below. These include affordability, high levels of privatisation, a lack of services and educators, complex funding and access to funding, extra challenges in regional, rural and remote (RRR) communities, and access to inclusion support.

In the table below, I provide information from reports, government departments, agencies,
and organisations on these eight barriers. To illustrate this, I also provide either data from
our mixed-methods online survey study involving 82 Australian educators or, where
indicated, publicly available data. In the final column, I summarise what the PC states or
recommends the Government to do.

Barriers to early learning and how to overcome them

Barriers to early learningInformationDataProductivity
Commission
(PC) responses
1. AffordabilityAustralia is second only to
Switzerland in its high
costs of early childhood
education and care fees.
“It’s very sad and hard
for me to share this
story. We have no
support and can’t afford
daycare for my 11-
month-old boy. I work
casually and I’m 8
weeks pregnant. We
have to get an abortion
because we don’t get
any support.” (The
Parenthood, p. 33).
The PC
recommends free
services for low-
income families,
with fees rising
for those with
higher incomes.
2. High levels of
privatisation
Australia has some of the
highest levels of
privatisation of early
learning services in the
world. In 2020, 49% of
providers were private for-
profit, and about a third of
these were large providers
with 25 or more services.
Early childhood
education and care
(ECEC) is big business.
The sector turns over
$14 billion annually
across 16,000 centres
providing long day care
(LDC), preschool and
out of school care. The
importance of giving
young Australians the
best start in life and
encouraging workforce
participation is
recognised in the public
funding that sustains the
sector, currently around
$11 billion per annum.
This is distributed to
providers ranging from
council-run
kindergartens to stock
market-listed early
learning chains. Among
The PC
recommends
incentives for
local parent,
community
groups and
councils to start
services.
LDC provision, where
the bulk of government
subsidies flow, private
for-profit (PFP)
providers dominate.”
(United Workers Union,
p. 3).
The PC
recommends
incentives for
local parent,
community
groups and
councils to start
services.
3. Lack of servicesDue to the market supply
model, all regional, rural,
remote, and low-income
metropolitan suburbs are
part of a ‘childcare desert’.
“Childcare shouldn’t be
a postcode lottery.
Improving the
affordability and
accessibility of
childcare is once in a
generation economic
policy.” (Former NSW
Treasurer, Matt Kean)
The PC says
Government
stewardship is
needed to ensure
universal access.
4.Lack of
educators

In 2024, vacancies for
educators reached 8000
setting a new record. This
impacts staff fatigue and
morale, the quality of
education and care,
and the amount of support
available for families.
PC says the ‘workforce is
fundamental to reform’
and calls for ‘improve
measures to support the
ECEC workforce’ from
2025.
“Management [were]
very stressed about
assessment and rating
and low staff numbers,
so took it out on the
employees”. (Educator)
Q: What does quality
ECEC mean to you?
“Having more than
enough staff to ensure
educators are consistent
for children in care and
to ensure quality care
can occur even when
educators are sick and
require a day off to
recover”. (Educator)
5. Complex
funding model
‘The ECEC system is
complex and continues
to evolve in response to
the changing needs of
children, families and
society. … a range of
current system
challenges and
opportunities have been
identified.’ (The Front
Project, p. 6)
The PC
recommends a
new national
agreement to
simplify roles
and funding.
The PC
recommends a new
national
agreement to
simplify roles
and funding.
6. Complex access to
funding
Accessing subsidies is a
complex process for parents
to navigate. Strict rules about eligibility and
long wait times for
processing claims can add
to family stress during a
cost-of-living crisis.
“I’m struggling to navigate the website to
figure out if we qualify
and if so how much. I
get that there’s a bunch
of circumstances, but
maybe someone will
know if it’s worth trying
to navigate the multiple
questions and pages
that require lots of
effort from me, to have
it say ‘no go away’ at
the end.” (Reddit
forum).
The PC roadmap includes a
recommendation
for welfare and
tax reform for
parents and
reduce the
complexity of the CCS and abolish
the activity test.
7. Choiceless
in regional,
rural and
remote
communities
While a lack of choice and
availability affects those
who live in metropolitan
areas, for those in many
regional, rural and remote
locations, there are no
services close by. This
means families are
choiceless.
“When the kids are on
the farm you can
question whether you’re
exposing them to things
you shouldn’t
necessarily expose them
to. Should they be on a
sprayer? Maybe not.
But you’ve got to do
what you’ve got to do.”
(The Parenthood. p. 91)
PC recommends
grants and low
interest loans to
encourage
services to start
in these
locations.
8. Lack of
access for
inclusion
support
Children with special
educational needs can have
difficulty accessing early
learning or finding the
level of support they need.
Many have to wait until
school to engage in
education services.
‘Children with disability
are often woefully under
supported in early
childcare settings. My
complex kid can’t
access childcare.’
( Sourcekids )
The PC
recommends
major reforms to
ensure all
children have
access to early
education.

Tomorrow:

In the second article, I explore some of the challenges facing educators and what the PC
recommends the Government does to improve the sector.

The Government will need to consider the PC’s recommendations carefully. Families are
struggling to access early learning for their children, which has enormous consequences for
their future and their ability to work. Our families and children deserve much better.

Marg Rogers is a senior lecturer in early childhood education at UNE and a postdoctoral fellow at the Manna Institute.