A Strategic Assessment of the Children's Services Industry

STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT OF THE CHILDREN’S SERVICES INDUSTRYred tape for service providers’. Most recently, in July 2008, COAG made an in principlecommitment to a National Partnership to address the needs of Indigenous children in theirearly years, to be funded jointly over six years for $547.2 million.State, Territory and local governments have undertaken exciting new initiatives that provideexamples of planning for the early years and integrated service provision. A selection of casestudies is provided in Appendix I. The case studies describe integrated hubs for children andfamilies which have been implemented in the Australian Capital Territory, NorthernTerritory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. The nature of integration isvaried, in some cases it includes early years education and care; in others it also includeshealth and/or family support services. In one instance, there was a focus on integrating achild care centre with the primary school where it was located. A number of these projectshave focused on particular groups. Most notably, projects specifically targeting Indigenouschildren and their communities are operating in the Northern Territory and Queensland.Specific training programmes for Indigenous staff have begun in Western Australia andQueensland. Rural communities have also been the focus of new integrated services inQueensland and South Australia. The case studies detail new approaches to planningunderway in New South Wales and Victoria, which has also encouraged local governmentearly years planning.2.1 Economic, social and political significance of the early yearsIn the last decade, early childhood education and care (ECEC) has experienced ‘a surge ofpolicy attention’ from governments around the world (OECD, 2001: 7). The findings of earlychildhood researchers have been widely disseminated, with the theories and policyprescriptions of economists, developmental scientists, psychologists and early childhoodeducators widely (though not always accurately) discussed in parliaments and popular media.Increasingly, governments and national and international organisations have recognised theimportance of children’s early years in a wide range of policy arenas: from a child’sindividual development to population strategies and from labour force participation to povertyalleviation.The OECD Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care considered ECECprovisions in twenty countries and produced two major comparative reports, Starting Strong Iand Starting Strong II. The policy recommendations of Starting Strong I included:• A systemic and integrated approach to policy development and implementation• A strong and equal partnership with the education system• A universal approach to access, with particular attention to children in need of specialsupport• Substantial public investment in services and the infrastructure• A participatory approach to quality improvement and assurance• Appropriate training and working conditions for staff in all forms of provision• Systemic attention to monitoring and data collection• A stable framework and long term agenda for research and evaluation (OECD 2001).Building on these recommendations, Starting Strong II addressed system-wide supports,especially ‘the social context of early childhood development’. It focused on children’swellbeing and agency, family and community involvement and the promotion of ‘ECECsystems that support broad learning, participation and democracy. This might be regarded asa counterweight to a perceived trend to frame and evaluate early childhood systems; primarilythrough their potential to enable children to reach narrowly defined often academic outcomes2