Quality Early Education for All

These models tend to commence prior to age 3 and are characterised by greater attendance hours, high childstaff
ratios, a strong learning focus with individualised curriculum approaches, connections with other services,
and strong partnerships with families (Harrison, Metcalfe, Goldfeld and Moore, 2012).
As with all initiatives to scale-up evidence-based approaches, it is crucial to pay close attention to:
• implementing the elements of models that are the core of their impact and effectiveness, while tailoring
them to local contexts and community priorities;
• building and sustaining workforce and system capacity;
• coaching, mentoring and the provision of quality and sustained professional development;
• working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to ensure cultural appropriateness; 22 and
• ensuring mechanisms are in place to track whether the approaches are effective in lifting practice standards
of educators and improving outcomes for children.
Priorities for accelerating provision of high-quality early
education
Ensuring all services currently not meeting the NQS are required and
supported to meet the standard as a matter of urgency
Ongoing commitment to the NQF to enable it to meet its potential as a
quality improvement mechanism as well as a regulatory framework
Resolving workforce issues that impact the ability of the sector to
provide high-quality education and care
Investing in higher-intensity and higher-quality programs for children
who will benefit most from them
Strategies for strengthening quality include:
• Investing in capacity-building and faster assessment and reassessment to ensure all services are Meeting the
NQS by mid-2017 at the latest.
• Increasing the pace of the Assessment and Rating process so that the NQF is better able to support
continuous quality improvement.
22 Harrison et al (2012) indicate that “designing and implementing early learning programs for Indigenous children requires a
process that goes beyond simply taking into account what has worked elsewhere. The process of implementation will need
to consider all of the aspects that make Indigenous children, families and communities unique” (p. 10). SNAICC’s work on the
implementation of the EYLF provides an extensive analysis of strategies that have been effective in engaging Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander families in ECEC services (Mason-White, 2012).
Quality Early Education for All 43