The Royal Commission has released its Interim Report.
The Commission has heard from researchers, experts, providers and families about the importance of high-quality early childhood education and care.
It shows the opportunity for South Australia to build an early child development system that uses the best of today’s knowledge, and which learns and refines as we learn more in the future.
The report also recognises the vital role between early childhood services and the families and communities they serve, connecting families to supports that are far beyond early learning. There is an opportunity for government to invest in these supports to ensure there are no barriers for children to accessing their learning entitlement.
The report outlines a pathway for 15 hours a week of high-quality preschool for all South Australian children from the age of 3, rolling out from 2026.
Read the Royal Commission's Interim Report (PDF, 4.0 MB)
The Interim Report focuses on 3-year-old preschool and will inform the Final Report which will discuss the broader Terms of Reference for the Royal Commission. The Final Report is due to be released in August.
Key findings
Key findings of the report highlight that an early child development system should:
- be universal, but not necessarily be uniform
- take active steps to encourage full participation of all children in 3-year-old preschool
- cater to the different needs of communities, families and children
- enable families to make choices about what preschool setting and service best meets their needs
- support equity for children and families with some additional supports required to improve outcomes
- be designed to reach or exceed current quality benchmarks and improve learning outcomes for all children.
Modelling and costs
The report identifies possible models and estimated costs for delivering preschool to 3-year-old children, and suggests that a mixed model (government and non-government), along with investment in new facilities and commissioned places for disadvantaged children, is the best model for universal 3-year-old preschool for South Australian children.
The proposed approach will cost $162.7 million per annum, and between an estimated $101.2 to $111.2 million for capital investment to build the equivalent of 32 new early childhood education and care services to deliver universal accessibility. It will also make use of around 4,700 empty places in government preschools.
Approximately 1000 children in areas of high need would be able to access 30 hours a week of high-quality preschool in newly commissioned services, integrating a broad range of family and child supports.
The Royal Commission engaged Deloitte Access Economics to develop the modelling and scenarios (PDF, 557.3 KB) for implementing 3-year-old preschool in South Australia.
