Early childhood & education

The following page contains edited items with links from SNAICC Online News and the SNACC e-bulletin and policy papers relating to national, state and territory initiatives in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family wellbeing services and education. SNAICC welcome your comments and feedback. Follow the links for more detail on each item.

See also related pages:

Articles and their linked below include:

The Early Years Framework (EYLF): next steps

  • Story as told by - The Office of Early Childhood, Education and Child Care – DEEWR:
    DEEWR writes: Support to help services implement the EYLF includes:
    • an Educators’ Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework has been developed and is expected to be released in mid 2010;
    • the Australian Government-funded Professional Support Coordinators program and the Indigenous Professional Support Units will provide training and mentoring for child care services; and 
    • a web-based training package and professional development materials for remote Indigenous settings are under development.

    The Educators’ Guide is in two parts:  The first part focuses on curriculum decision-making, promotes reflective practice and inquiry, and provides best practice examples and case studies.  The second part contains educators’ stories and models of their plans for the outcomes of children’s learning, with questions to provoke thinking and generate discussion in relation to the principles, practices and outcomes of the EYLF. While the Educators' Guide to the EYLF will provide all early childhood educators with guidance on growing cultural competence in working with Australian Indigenous communities, the Remote Indigenous Professional Development package is being developed to support locally engaged staff in remote Indigenous communities with a detailed interpretation of the EYLF as it applies to the Indigenous context. It will support programming, build capacity of staff and strengthen professional knowledge. The decision to develop the Remote Indigenous Professional Development package was based on advice from the EYLF national consultations and is being developed under an existing DEEWR contract by the NT Catholic Education Office in conjunction with Charles Darwin University. Read more  News item 13 May 2010

  • Story as told by - Yorganop, WA IPSU:  'Here at Yorganop IPSU in West Australia we are feeling very happy with the new Early Years Learning Framework. The EYLF has a big vision: ‘to extend and enrich children’s learning from birth to five years’ so that ‘all children have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves and for the nation.  The EYLF gives them a flexible framework for doing their job; to look at what they do, to think about what is good and what might be changed and to plan and implement new programs. It will help our services further to support current skills as well as develop new skills in understanding and working with children, families and communities.'   Read more about how Yorganop is using the EYLF in  News item 13 May 2010

SNAICC welcomes support for Budget-Based Funded services – SNAICC media release

See also - News item 13 May 2010


Steve Larkins, SNAICC Chairperson, said today, “SNAICC welcomes the federal government’s investment in early childhood education and child care. In particular, we commend the government’s renewed commitment to Budget-Based Funded early childhood services located in rural and remote Australia.

“A substantial proportion of Budget-Based Funded services are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled and stand to benefit from the government’s injection of $59.4 M in this area.”

Frank Hytten, SNAICC Chief Executive Officer, also welcomed the government’s budget boost for the early child care sector. However, he stressed that an ongoing commitment to consultation and partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled child care organizations, families and children was vital to ensuring good outcomes.

“While we welcome the government’s focus on establishing quality standards for child care across the nation, it is important that these standards are applied fairly and equitably.  Their implementation must not further disadvantage children in high areas of need, especially remote and rural areas, where it is often difficult to attract and retain staff with the required qualifications.

“The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled child care sector has a wealth of experience and knowledge the government can put to good use. This should be invested in the design, development and delivery of child care services to produce better futures and improved opportunities for our children.

“We look forward to working collaboratively with government on these issues."

 

National standards for child care and early childhood education services

11 December 2009: The Council of Australian Governments meeting (10 December 2009) agreed on new compulsory national standards for child care and early childhood education services. The new framework will initially cover long day care, family day care, outside school hours care and preschool services, but will eventually be rolled out to include all types of services.  The focus on improving the early childhood sector is vital for the future of all our children, However it will not be an improvement if these changes mean that these services’ programs, particularly the community driven, culturally appropriate programs, will suffer.

SNAICC's submission to the National Early Childhood Education & Care Quality Reforms consultation (RIS)

07 September 2009:  SNAICC's submission to the National Early Childhood Education & Care Quality Reforms consultation Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) was prepared in collaboration with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Training Network. While the National Quality Agenda is initially focusing on long day care, family day care, outside-school-hours care and preschools it will eventually include all service types including Indigenous specific ‘budget-based’ services including: flexible/innovative services, mobile child care services, Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Services (MACS) and crèches, including JET crèches.

Understanding the key 2009 reform agendas relevant to Australian children, young people and families

The Early Years Learning Framework, National Quality Agenda & the National Early Childhood Strategy

6 August 2009: Trying to fit together the parts of the National Early Childhood Education and Care Quality Reforms are part of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) National Quality Agenda

Because Children and Families Matter

19 November 2009: UnitingCare Australia and the Social Policy Research Centre have partnered to produce a paper that maps the core components and strengths of the key reform agendas announced in 2009 that are relevant to children, young people and families

Non-mainstream Child Care Services Program Guidelines 

21 December 2009: Untangling the funding and classifications of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander childrens services is complex. The Department of Education, Employment and Workforce Relations (DEEWR) outlines their current classifications systems regarding 'Non-mainstream Child Care Services'

AEDI – a snapshot of Australian children in their 1st school year

08 December 2009:  The Australian Government’s Australian Early Development Index National Report 2009 was released on 10 December. The information covers around 98% of all Australian five-year-old children. The data was collected by teachers, including data about 12,468 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Around 4.6% of the 261,003 children overall were classified as ‘Indigenous’ by their teachers. Smaller communities who missed out on data collection to date will be tracked next year (2010).  The information is now available on line in maps and detailed data and you can look at your own community results in many regions.

A Framework of Practice for Implementing a Kinship Care Program

21 December 2009: The final report A Framework of Practice for Implementing a Kinship Care Program was launched last Friday 14 December 2009. The study provides a framework to guide the implementation of statutory kinship services by the Benevolent Society.

New data on mother and babies health

07 December 2009: New AIHW report on Australia's mothers and babies 2007 shows that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers are more likely to be younger, to smoke during pregnancy, have lower birth weight babies, higher rates of foetal, preterm and perinatal deaths and a lower rate of surgical intervention in birth.

Report from Wave 1 of the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, Footprints in Time

02 November 2009: The study interviews 1,687 Indigenous children aged between six months and five years and their carers from across Australia.

SNAICC submission to the Family Support Program consultation

8 July 2009:  SNAICC calls for greater Commonwealth investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agencies to provide more family support services to more communities across the country. SNAICC has made this case in our recent submission to the FaHCSIA Family Support Program consultation. 

Early Years Learning Framework finalised 

2 July 2009:  Early Years Learning Framework has been endorsed by the Council of Australian Government (COAG) as part of the National Quality Agenda for early childhood education and care. SNAICC has continued to advocate the importance of ensuring the Framework builds on cultural strengths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, and supports the further development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled services

The SNAICC submission to the Healing Foundation Development Team 

23 July 2009 The Healing Foundation Development Team consultations follow  the National Apology and the federal funding arising for a Healing Foundation.  As a peak body concerned with the well being of children and families, SNAICC forwarded the linked (edited) submission to the Healing Foundation Development Team.

Early intervention and prevention are the best cure 

03 July 2009 The latest report by the federal government once again highlights the increasing disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The gap in disadvantage between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people has widened in recent years, despite government promises to make tackling Indigenous disadvantage a priority. The report, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2009, shows that there has been no improvement in 80 per cent of the 50 social, economic, health and welfare indicators used by governments to assess the state of disadvantage.

Communities For Children (CfC) funding extended 

29 June 2009 The Australian Government has announced over $100M over another three years to continue and extend Communities for Children (CfC) early intervention programs supporting children and families in 46 communities across Australia. Many of these large non-Indigenous organisations are very actively engaged in partnerships with local community organisations, however SNAICC asserts that a fixed proportion of such funding needs to be rolled over into Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community controlled organisations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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