Thrive By Five Endorses Call For A Guarantee For Young Children And Families
22 November 2021 – Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five Initiative welcomes the Centre for Policy Development’s report released today and its call for a decade of reforms to deliver a Guarantee for Young Children and Families.
The Starting Better report proposes a Guarantee for:
- up to three days per week of affordable, quality early childhood education and care as soon as families want it;
- two years of quality preschool for 15 hours per week, with cost no barrier for any child anywhere in Australia;
- more paid parental leave, shared between partners; and
- effective coordination of all early childhood services to provide seamless support for children from birth to primary school.
Thrive by Five CEO Jay Weatherill said the Guarantee for Young Children and Families could help ensure this generation recovered and caught up after the global pandemic, and make certain no Australian child was left behind.
“The Guarantee for Young Children and Families represents a significant opportunity to improve the lives of under-fives and give them the best possible start in life,” he said today.
“This is the first-time a comprehensive road map for reform of the early years has been prepared, featuring initial three-year and 10-year objectives together with comprehensive costings.
“There’s no doubt COVID has set back progress for too many Australian children and exacerbated existing inequalities but this new plan helps children and families build back better.
“Action is needed now if Australia is to become the best country in the world for young children and families. This will make our society happier and stronger and have flow on benefits for workplaces and the economy.
“Access to at least three days of affordable, high-quality early learning, a preschool guarantee, greater parental leave and more effective government service co-ordination is nothing less than what our children and families deserve,” Mr Weatherill said.
Centre for Policy Development’s Starting Better report is available here.
