Quality Early Education for All

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Conclusion: Priority Recommendations
This report highlights a broad range of challenges and opportunities facing the provision of early education in
Australia. The Mitchell Institute’s five overarching recommendations reflect the evidence about which
investments can have the greatest impact and a pragmatic approach to building on existing achievements.
Investment decisions are always difficult for governments, even more so in a tight and uncertain fiscal
environment. Initiating and sustaining systemic change is complex and challenging work. There is no easy answer
to transforming the provision of early education in Australia. These five recommendations address issues of
access, equity, quality and data and should be considered key national objectives for the next five years.
More work is needed on what implementation could look like, including funding options, governance and
accountability mechanisms, data and evaluation needs, as well as knowledge gaps and strategies needed to test,
confirm, scale and systematise new approaches.
Priority recommendations
1. Establish affordable access to preschool as a legislated entitlement, make a
permanent commitment to funding Universal Access for 4 year olds, and
commence work on extending Universal Access to 3 year olds
2. Invest in scaling up evidence-based, high-intensity programs for the most
vulnerable children, targeting the communities scoring in the bottom 10% in the
AEDC in each state and territory
3. Ensure the NQF is achieving its objectives and is appropriately resourced to do
so, and that all services are Meeting the NQS, at a minimum, by mid-2017
4. Deliver a national early childhood data strategy that establishes the information
infrastructure needed to drive policy and practice improvement into the future
5. Commence a national campaign to strengthen family and community
knowledge and beliefs about children’s early learning
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