Making preschool hours more family-friendly
The State Government will make preschool hours more family-friendly with a trial of out-of-hours care in 20 public preschools across the state. This follows the release of Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care.
The State Government yesterday announced it will adopt the very first recommendation in the report to reduce the rate of South Australian children entering school developmentally vulnerable from 23.8 per cent to 15 per cent within 20 years – well below the national average of 22 per cent.
As such, work will immediately begin on expanding Out of School Hours Care
(OSHC) in South Australia, with more than $10 million of investment into the sector.
This includes a $1.7 million trial at 20 preschool sites, specifically in regions of capacity need such as the northern, northeastern and suburbs.
Government preschools are run using a sessional model, usually offering preschool from around 9am-3pm. In contrast, most non-government preschools offer long day care, from around 7am-6pm. This makes decisions for working families more difficult due to accessibility.
Families rely on OSHC provision for their school aged children, but often OSHC services are not set up for preschool aged children and increasingly do not accept enrolments for preschool students.
Many families need care for their preschool aged children outside of regular preschool operating hours, so the trials will test how different models of a preschool OSHC could work in both school based and standalone preschool settings.
Operational models for these trials will be tested this year and rolled out in specified locations in 2024, including Adams Road Children’s Centre.
The Department for Education will seek expressions of interest from preschools who would like to take part in the trial, with particular emphasis on communities with higher levels of disadvantage in these regions:
The Royal Commission into Early Education and Care had submissions from a wide range of stakeholders who highlighted the need for government preschools to provide care options that meet the changing needs of working families.
In addition to the trial of OSHC in preschools, more than $10m has been committed to increase support for OSHC services run on public school sites and to reform how these services are governed. This responds to the findings of the Royal Commission about the difficulties school governing councils have in effectively operating high quality OSHC programs.
The Government is also committed to changing the structure of required OSHC qualifications so more staff will be available to ease workforce shortages. This is in addition to the changes made earlier this year to widen the accepted range of qualifications for OSHC educators.
We are also investing $7 million in the Education Standards Board to increase the regularity of assessment and rating of OSHC and early childhood services across South Australia. This is a critical aspect of ensuring that quality programs are offered right through the early years and our OSHC services and will form a fundamental aspect of how we achieve this ambitious early education reform.
