This policy brief explores four key issues pertaining to the future of early childhood education and care in Australia: the importance of early childhood, quality early childhood education and care, service integration, and the inclusion of children with disability and developmental delays.

The NQF Snapshot Q1 2014 is ACECQA’s fifth national report on children’s education and care services. The data included in this Snapshot is drawn from the National Quality Agenda IT System (NQA ITS) as at 31 March 2014. Snapshot highlights include:

This report presents four propositions to accelerate transformation in Australia’s schools. Summary In November 2013, the Mitchell Institute hosted a policy forum titled New approaches to persistent problems attended by approximately 100 of Australia’s leading educators, researchers, policy makers and leaders. The discussion was chaired by Mark Burford, Executive Director of the Mitchell Institute and...

This paper provides an overview of the national policy framework for the provision of universal access to early childhood education in Australia. Introduction The imperative to provide universal access to early childhood education (ECE) is supported by a significant body of research that demonstrates the benefits of ECE for later life outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged...

There were 288,052 children aged 4 or 5 years old enrolled in a preschool program in 2013, according to these results from the 2013 National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection.