The last few years have seen early childhood benefit from some necessary but generous funding from both state and federal governments. The lack of commitment from government for the continuation of two of those packages is creating serious concern.
The first one is the kindergarten funding provided under the Universal Access Agreement available for children in the year prior to commencing formal schooling. The Spoke, Early Childhood Australia "the Turnbull government is suggesting it is backing away from the agreement altogether, with Federal Minister for Education, Simon Birmingham indicating that the federal government's share of funding has only been a "top-up" contribution to lift kindergarten participation levels over the short term".
The second one is the LDCPDP (long day care professional development programme) which was the single biggest investment allocated to long day care operators, for the professional development of educators. The government committed $200 million over three years, with funding being able to be spent up until 30 June 2017. The average allocation, per centre, over a three year period, is around $48,000. For operators with multiple centres, who applied, this totalled a very large sum of money. If utilised correctly, addressing the professional development needs of individual educators it has been well worth the investment.
The government appears to be in no hurry to discuss further funding or extensions to funding. Sadly it appears that 2017 may see an end to the funding for both of these programmes.
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