Thrive by Five welcomes new preschool advisory group
1 SEP 2021 – Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five Initiative has welcomed the establishment of the Federal Government’s new Preschools Outcomes Measure Expert Advisory Group.
Thrive by Five CEO, Jay Weatherill said the Advisory Group would play an important role in shaping the future of preschool and early learning for Australian children.
“For many years now, the early childhood education sector has been advocating for permanent funding arrangements for four-year-old preschool. The Federal Government delivered on that ask in the 2021 Budget and promised a new framework to support the reform to help ensure every child has access to the benefits of high quality early learning.
“The wealth of knowledge and expertise on the new Advisory Group will support the Federal Government and the sector to develop effective measurements of preschool outcomes and help drive early learning reform.
“Thrive by Five is eager to engage with the Advisory Group and share our vision for a high quality, universally accessible and affordable early learning system, staffed by a respected and valued workforce,” said Mr Weatherill.
Thrive by Five has a Five Point Plan for early learning reform:
- Agree to a Federal-State agreement to deliver universal three-year-old preschool across the country to match the partnership agreement in place for four-year-old preschool.
- Lift the childcare subsidy to 95% for all children and set agreed fee caps.
- Make the childcare subsidy available to all children regardless of the setting and the income or work status of the parents.
- Start workforce planning for a universal system and fund appropriate pay and conditions for educators to end the problem of skill shortages, high vacancy rates and high staff turnover rates across the sector.
- To achieve these outcomes, we ask that early education and childcare become a part of the National Cabinet reform agenda to deal with complexities of the system and build a true national universal system.
