Quality Early Education for All

Governance and Legislative Arrangements
Early childhood education and care is covered by separate governance and legislative arrangements to school
education. This has implications for planning and delivery of seamless education across the early years from birth
to eight. For example, services face multiple planning regulations when co-locating on school sites. Different
teacher registration requirements and different pay scales apply between early childhood education and schools,
meaning that teachers are generally not employed across sectors. These issues create added complexity in
providing ‘joined-up’ service delivery.
Implications for data collection and policy
The complexity in the fees, funding and delivery arrangements also affects capacity to fully understand the sector.
Given the variation in delivery arrangements in long daycare, we do not know accurately how many hours
children attend preschool. Measures for attendance vary across the country, with attendance information derived
for some providers, particularly long daycare services, based on the hours a service operates.
Opaque funding arrangements mean that policy makers and researchers alike cannot ascertain comprehensive,
accurate information on the early childhood sector. Given the pivotal importance of early learning, greater
transparency is needed.
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