National Partnerships

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National Quality Agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care National Partnership

Victoria is committed to working with the Commonwealth and other states and territories to ensure the wellbeing of children, and to deliver the vision of the Early Childhood Development Strategy that was endorsed by COAG in July 2009, that ‘by 2020 all children have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves, and for the nation.’

This National Partnership will contribute to improving outcomes for all children, especially those from disadvantaged or at-risk backgrounds.  It aims to improve the quality of early childhood education and care services (including Long Day Care, Family Day Care, Preschool, and Outside School Hours Care) through the following objectives:

  • deliver an integrated and unified national system for early childhood education and care and Outside School Hours Care (OSHC), which is jointly governed and which drives continuous improvement in the quality of services
  • improve educational and developmental outcomes for children attending early childhood education and care and OSHC services under the National Quality Agenda
  • foster a joint system of governance to allow the perspective of all jurisdictions to be taken into account in the operation of the National Quality Framework where there is shared responsibility for the regulation of quality in early childhood education and care and OSHC services
  • improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the regulation of early childhood education and care and OSHC services
  • reduce regulatory burden for early childhood education and care and OSHC care service providers
  • improve public knowledge about and access to information about the quality of early childhood education and care and OSHC care services to parents, carers and the general public to help inform their choices about the quality of education and care provided to their children
  • build a highly skilled workforce.

Clause 16, National Partnership Agreement on the National Quality Agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care

 

The National Partnership has strong links with the Indigenous Early Childhood Development National Partnership and the Early Childhood Education National Partnership.

Funding

Funding for the National Partnership is based on a shared investment approach between the Commonwealth and States and Territories.

The Victorian Government will continue to provide significant investment in the Early Childhood Education and Care sector, and will receive approximately $14 million from  FY2010/11 to FY2013/14 from the Commonwealth to support costs associated with regulation, establishment and running of the national body and transition to the new system.

 

More information

For more information about the implementation of the National Partnership, see National Quality Agenda