Public investment, fragmentation and quality early education and care – existing challenges and future options

Abstract

This chapter seeks to outline, critique and challenge Australia’s current approach to the provision of education and care services to children and their families. In doing so, the chapter highlights the complexities and fragmentation of the current system so that advocates and policy makers might avoid the temptation to proffer overly simplistic solutions that fail to address the ‘real world’ contexts that families must negotiate and children are left to experience. In examining Australia’s current approach to the provision of education and care services to children and their families, the chapter draws upon the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) including the Australian Background Report (Press & Hayes 2000); the OECD Country Note on Early Childhood Education and Care Policy in Australia (2001a); and the OECD Comparative Report Starting Strong: Early childhood education and care (2001b). The chapter also canvasses a range of other relevant national reports, including the recent policy paper What about the kids? Policy directions for improving the experiences of infants and young children in a changing world produced by the author for the Commissions for Children and Young People in NSW and Queensland and the National Investment for the Early Years (NIFTeY) (Press 2006), as well as trends such as the rapid corporatisation of the long day care sector.