Free Kindy Qld: Renewed push to extend benefits to three-year-olds

Fee relief for kindergarten should be expanded to include three-year-olds to bring Queensland into line with NSW and Victoria, childcare bodies propose.

Fee relief for kindergarten should be expanded to include three-year-olds to bring Queensland into line with NSW and Victoria, childcare bodies propose.

The state’s Free Kindy program for four-year-olds launched this year, and providers report the scheme has significantly improved families’ access to kindergarten.

The government described it as the biggest early childhood reform in more than 10 years, with a $1bn state investment to ensure free kindy access for 64,000 eligible children.

Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland president Majella Fitzsimmons pushed for more fee relief to improve access to kindergarten to be included in the upcoming State Budget.

“We’re a bit behind other states such as NSW and Victoria who have already announced fee relief for three-year-old’s for kindy,” she said.

“With Queensland’s 15 hours of free kindy this year, we have seen cases where families have been able to afford to go from two days of kindy to four days per week.

“Fee relief allows families to go back to work … but also, looking at the children’s development, we know how important early intervention and play-based learning are.”

Queensland Childcare Services general manager Laura Faalili said the idea was “crucial” for the state government “to consider implementing”.

“We’ve seen positive outcomes in NSW and Victoria with similar programs where access to kindergarten has been broadened which has provided more relief for parents and allowed more children to have equal opportunity to lifelong success,” she said.

Ms Fitzsimmons added that reforms were also needed to prevent clusters of Early Childhood Learning Centres across the state.

“What we find happening in certain areas is waitlists for services, so developers come in and say they want to build another centre. But then they build another centre and there is still a waitlist – how is there still a waitlist when there are more centres?” she said.

“Well, it is a workforce issue. If I have a centre with 74 places that requires 22 full-time equivalent staff, but I can only find 16 local staff, then I have to remove a room or two in the centre and reduce the number of children I can take.”

Ms Fitzsimmons suggested a policy requiring developers to pay the relevant government to assess the proximity of other centres, as part of the development application process.

Ms Faalili echoed these concerns.

“These clusters cannot only strain the local workforce, but also lead to lower occupancy rates for individual centres, inefficient resource allocation and access disparities,” she said.

There are calls to expand Queensland’s Free Kindy initiative. (File picture)

“Investing in workforce development programs and incentives for educators to work in underserved regions could also help alleviate staff shortages and mitigate the need for multiple centres operating below capacity.”

Both Queensland Childcare Services and Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland are also calling for a major advertising campaign to reverse the “negative connotation” that has stuck to a career in early education in recent years.

“Over the last few years, we’ve seen a shift in the way people perceive working in the education sector which has impacted the ability to fill positions, but a dedicated recruitment campaign could help reshape perceptions and attract talent to the sector,” Ms Faalili said.

“We have actually seen a great national recruitment campaign in the United Kingdom for early education staff that emphasised the range of career opportunities available as well as

pathways to attaining these jobs.”

Queensland has a Great Start to Kindy initiative, which is a targeted three-year-old program, but it is aimed toward kids experiencing vulnerability and disadvantage in sessional kindy.

A Queensland Department of Education spokeswoman said the state government recognises that issues of affordability, availability and access to early childhood education are important, and that oversupply and undersupply in some areas is a national issue.

“The government is investing $120 million over four years to improve professional recognition, attraction and retention and develop the capability of our Early Childhood

Workforce,” the spokeswoman said.

“This includes $80 million for the Queensland Early Childhood Workforce Strategy

and Action plan, as well as $40 million to attract and retain early childhood teachers in

kindergarten services in outer regional, remote and very remote communities.

“The Department’s early educators workforce campaign promotes careers in early childhood

and highlights the role that educators play in the lives of young children. The campaign will

continue to be developed and implemented in 2024 and into 2025.

“Also, as part of the Workforce Strategy, a recently announced $33 million package will provide opportunities for early childhood professionals to develop and advance their careers through targeted qualification initiatives.”

The issues of affordability and access in early childhood education are the subject of two national reviews – the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into early childhood education and care, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Childcare Inquiry.

The Productivity Commission will release its final report on June 30, 2024.