Around one in 10 early learning centres in Australia don't meet national quality standards. Not-for-profit providers like Goodstart are more likely to meet or exceed quality benchmarks, prompting experts to call on governments to help parents better make an informed choice.

Brisbane

Recent data indicates that approximately one in ten early learning centres in Australia do not meet national quality standards. Not-for-profit providers, including Goodstart Early Learning, have a significantly higher rate of meeting or exceeding these benchmarks, with 99% of Goodstart's centres achieving the standard. 

Experts and advocates suggest that while Australia has a strong national quality framework for early childhood education, there is a need for better regulatory funding and more accessible information for parents. They recommend that parents consider factors such as staff experience, professional development, and the overall atmosphere of a centre when making childcare decisions. Calls have been made for governments to enhance support for families navigating these choices.

Not-for-profit childcare centres ahead on quality

For Emily Feely, the morning drop-off isn't just the start of daughter Athena's day at kindy, it's the beginning of her day at work. I've been here over 10 years now and since then I've had my son here, my twin girls and then Athena. Emily is among more than a dozen educators here at Good Start Early Learning Centre in Richlands who can proudly lay claim to helping this centre exceed the national quality standard for early childhood education. My goal is always just to make sure that children feel appreciated and respected and loved and that they've got that nurturing environment to grow up in. Australia's national quality standard allows parents to check the quality rating of the early learning centre they're considering, but experts say many families still struggle to make an informed choice. That might not be the shiniest, most brand new flash designer building and toys that indicates the highest quality. Georgie Dann is CEO of leading families advocate group The Parenthood. In Australia we've actually got a world leading national quality framework, but what we haven't got is regulators that are funded to carry out the checks as regularly as they're needed. According to the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority, around one in ten early learning centres around the country don't meet quality standards. Not-for-profit providers like Good Start are more likely to though. The latest data revealing 99% of Good Start's almost 700 centres meet or exceed the national quality standard. Good quality makes a difference to children's outcomes in the moment and it lasts them to at least the age of 16 and not beyond. Sue Robb is one of the world's leading early childhood education leaders who now serves as Good Start's Chief Children's Officer. She encourages parents to assess the quality of a centre based on a number of factors. I would say use your senses. What's the noise level like? Are you hearing that wonderful buzz of children just being involved? Then I would ask you to really think about what the children are doing. Are they really, really engaged in their learning? Have a smell at the centre, and I'm not being rude when I say that, but are you smelling really delightful smells? Is there a feeling of happiness here? Are the children really happy? Are the educators, the teachers, the staff really happy? Here at Good Start the team say happiness and high quality don't happen by accident. One of the key ingredients to quality is our educators, our teachers, professional development. We have a lot of professional development. You can ring head office and you go this is what we need and they'll send somebody out. With Australian early development census data showing one in five children start school developmentally vulnerable, advocates like Georgie Dent say more needs to be done to improve quality standards. We would love for the regulators to be able to regularly assess services and where there are issues be able to work with the service to overcome those issues. But she says parents also have a role to play. A couple of questions that I would recommend parents ask are around staff and how long they've been working there. How long has the team been in place? Ask questions about how the educators are trained, what professional development opportunities are there for them. What are you going to draw, Athena? Back at Good Start Richlands, as both a parent and educator, Emily Feely understands the importance of high quality early learning from both sides and knows firsthand the difference it makes. It feels like family. You know the families really, really well. They build that really trusting relationship with you which really helps with raising these children and supporting them with their learning journey.

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