Towards a National Agenda for Early Childhood
A Response from the Australian Early Childhood Association Inc
Introduction
The consultation paper Towards the development of a national agenda for children is a significant step in the progress toward such an agenda. AECA congratulates the Government on committing itself to this process and acknowledges the work already done as background to the development of the consultation paper.
AECA endorses the whole of government approach to the development of this agenda and the cross party support that is being given to this initiative. In a political system made up of multiple jurisdictions, with both separate and intersecting responsibilities for policies and programs that effect children, it is imperative that all levels of Government be involved and committed to the development of the agenda and the strategies what will be necessary for its implementation.
AECA also supports the recognition the approach being taken to the agenda's development gives to the agreements and partnerships between Governments and the community at large that will be necessary for its effective implementation.
AECA's submission will not go over the evidence, outlined in the consultation paper, that leads inevitably to the conclusion that as a nation we have no option but to focus attention on the earliest years of childhood. AECA is aware of, understands and supports the conclusions drawn from this evidence including:
- The significance in children's earliest years of good nutrition and of relationships and interactions with trusted, known adults for children's physical, social and emotional health and general well being;
- The relationship between poverty and negative outcomes for young children across all areas;
- The evidence that in some areas health and wellbeing are worsening for some children; and
- The markedly poorer childhood outcomes for young Indigenous children.
The consultation paper also endorses, as does AECA:
- The veracity of universal, whole of population approaches to policies and programs in raising the overall well being of young children for example. immunisation, child health checks, universal health care, infant/child health centres, child care, free compulsory education and
- The importance of targeted intervention for vulnerable groups.
AECA is concerned, though, at the focus on the year before school and school readiness.
Childhood begins in the womb and, internationally is understood to transition to middle childhood at age 8. Childhood is a time in which the young child is entitled, irrespective of the nexus between these entitlements and what children might be or do in the future to:
- Safety – physical and emotional
- Economic security
- Good health
- Joy
- Growth and success at learning, and
- Trusting, caring, sustained and supportive relationships.
This principle is one that should underwrite future work on the development of a national agenda for children.
As well as this, but secondary to the above principle, is the evidence cited in the consultation paper itself which makes it clear that the social and emotional foundations for well being, including successful school participation, are laid down in the first three year of a child's life. Intervention after that time is more costly and less effective. In conjunction with this there is evidence that high quality preschool programs for targeted groups do make a difference.
AECA would also argue that the agenda should include the early years of school. There is a great deal of evidence that these years are crucial in the development of a child's confidence in themselves as learners, in their ability to relate to others, in their ongoing successful participation in schooling. To exclude consideration of the first years of school in an agenda for early childhood would be a lost opportunity to bed down the gains made in the before school years.
The scope of AECA's submission
AECA's submission will:
- Outline an additional rationale for the development of a national agenda for children;
- Comment specifically on some of the questions raised in the consultation paper including the place of universal or targeted approaches to policy and programs resulting from such an agenda
- Comment on the implications of the research that makes clear the crucial nature of relationships between children and significant adults, and
- Suggest some framework principles to underpin a national agenda for early childhood.
Children as citizens
There is a range of rationales for the development of a national agenda for early childhood outlined in the consultation paper all of which have merit and build the impetus for the development of an agenda for early childhood. These include the significance of the early years of childhood for:
- Children's general as well as social and emotional health;
- Children's successful participation in schooling, and
- The future economic prosperity and social cohesion of the society
AECA suggests that a further reason for the development of a national agenda for children arises from the recognition of children as citizens. As citizens children have a value as human beings in the here and now, not simply for what they might become. As citizens, they have an entitlement, independent of their parent's capacity to pay and shared by all other citizens, to the resources, that is policies, programs and funds necessary to ensure:
- Their well being in the here and now experience of childhood,
- Their increasing capacity to participate as full and responsible citizens in the social, economic and political life of the society and
- That they can and will exercise their responsibility as adults for future generations of children.
Society has responsibility for the ongoing well-being and futures of all of its citizens, including children. It also has an obligation to equip current generations of children and young people to exercise the same responsibility for future generations of children. A national agenda for early childhood would therefore be a commitment to:
- The importance of the present in the lives of children,
- The future of the current generation of children and, significantly
- Future generations of children for which this generation of children will have responsibility.
The justification for a national agenda for children arising from their status as citizens suggests an approach to an agenda the gives precedence to a commitment to the value based goal of social inclusion. Citizenship like social inclusion means that all children and adults are able to participate as valued respected and contributing members of society. Social inclusion is not simply the flip side of social exclusion.
Social inclusion and the well being of children
Social Inclusion provides a way of looking at the well-being of children and families and has the potential to frame a national dialogue around the creation of a just, healthy and inclusive society. It means that all children should have the opportunity to develop their talents and capacities to the full and be active and valued members of society. A commitment to social inclusion demands that the barriers to inclusion such as disability, low income and culture be addressed. Social inclusion means that the gaps and distances between children in terms of present well-being and future life chances are minimised. Social inclusion starts from the experience of the individual and challenges society to provide a meaningful place for everyone. Under the aegis of social inclusion diversity and difference are not merely seen as challenges to be overcome; they possess their own worth as do the commonalities of peoples lives.
Whether the source of exclusion is poverty, racism, fear of differences or a lack of political power, for instance for children and aged persons, the consequences are the same:
- A lack of recognition or acceptance or value
- Lack of visibility (children are often invisible)
- Voicelessness
- Economic vulnerability – income is not destiny but it is a major predictor of poor outcomes/exclusion for children and their families
- Diminished life experiences and capacity to participate in civil society
- Limited life prospects
- Social exclusion provides a major threat to social cohesion.
A commitment to social inclusion leads to:
- Public policy recognition of common worth through universal programs such as health care including child health checks, immunisation;
- Policies and programs, such as new parent support including prenatal programs, high quality early childhood programs etc, that nurture the social and emotional health of young children as well as their talents, skills, capacities;
- Work and family policies that acknowledge through inclusion the needs of children and provide real choices for families and
- Policies that provide for involvement, engagement and the reduction of social distance between children eg integrated settings, community and other services, which encourage family participation and build capacity.
- An approach to policy, program development and implementation which is insistent in its commitment to hear the voices of children and in regard to infants the voices of those with the expertise to speak for them.
- A commitment to the rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness of programs and policies.
Equally a commitment to social inclusion affirms the need for targeted programs for vulnerable groups, programs that aim to reduce the distance between the everyday lives and life outcomes for vulnerable and other children. Targeted programs, whether they are mainstream or discrete, acknowledge that children and families who are vulnerable, for whatever reason, will need additional support and resources if their childhoods are to be healthy and to be rich in relationships and interactions that support their social and emotional health, general well being and development.
Universal programs provide the framework of commitment to all children within which to sit the targeted programs necessary to achieve the social inclusion of all children.
Early childhood programs and early intervention what they mean
The significance of early life experience, pre and post natal, to a child's health, growth and development is now uncontested. Early childhood services and programs generally as well as early intervention programs have a mandate. The question is now what does this mean?
From the perspective of children as citizens and a commitment to social inclusion early childhood programs including intervention programs for vulnerable children would:
- Be such that the conditions including the relationships and interactions central to a child's healthy growth and development are guaranteed
- Be insistent in their commitment to hear the voices of children and, in regard to infants, the voices of those with the expertise to speak for them.
- From the perspective of early intervention, focus on those periods in a child's life when there is most to be gained or lost in terms of health and general well being;
- Be considered, in relation to the evidence, as to whether intervention programs are best provided within the context of the family or outside of it in cases of child abuse for example. In all such decisions ideology should be subservient to the best interests of the child;
- Focus on those individuals, families, carers, teachers and other professionals whose interactions and relationships with children will provide the foundation for their overall health and well being, their social and emotional growth and development including the development of resilience;
- Focus on the everyday conditions of the lives of families that impede their ability to provide well for their children, including the relationship between work and family. Three key linkages from work to child well-being are income, time and stress.
- Focus on those professionals and services who are seen as a source of support for children and families and provide direct support to them;
- Build capacity in families, communities and services generally to meet the needs of their children and in particular to do this in circumstances where children are vulnerable;
- Be cognisant of the potential tension between building real capacity within a community, delivering a service and keeping that service viable or in profit;
- Take an approach to sustainability that builds on and resources existing relationships and support systems and builds capacity by leveraging the confidence and connections that already exist in the community rather than necessarily positing the creation of new programs and resources. This does not in anyway preclude the necessity for additional financial resources and some new programs to achieve the desired goals of a national agenda for early childhood.
These criteria provide a framework for the development of an overall early childhood strategy. At the same time they raise serious concerns about the current environment in which many of the nations youngest citizens spend substantial parts of their lives. Services of all kinds, family support, intervention services, children's services in particular childcare are under-resourced. Childcare in particular is at crisis point in relation to the ability to attract and keep staff, qualified or unqualified. Given the undisputed link between the qualities and qualifications of staff and good outcomes for children this is a major concern.
Delivering on a national early childhood agenda's promise for children.
An Agenda implies agreement about purpose and outcome and a commitment to strategies that will give effect to it. Given that responsibility for children is dispersed across and between all levels of Government and the community how can an agenda deliver on its promise for children.
A series of agreements and frameworks need to be negotiated and reported against. These include:
- Agreement about the goals for an agenda for young children;
- Agreed indicators of progress. Some of these will be relatively easy to reach agreement on such a reduction in the number of low birth weight babies, immunisation levels etc. Others will be harder to negotiate such as how we will know that children are learning – Calls for standardised testing ignore the concerns about the inadequacy of such measures. And yet as society we need to know this if we are not to short change children. Because it is hard does not make it impossible. Here, as well as elsewhere, ideology must be subservient to the best interests of children.
- Agreement should be negotiated about a framework of principles to underpin strategic approaches to the implementation of an Agenda. Some of these are set out in this contribution;
- A whole of government/s reporting framework will be necessary, as will be
- A regular, biennial, national report on the state of the nations children. This report will map progress towards the goals set, identify areas where progress in lagging and identify issues and concerns that have arisen about any aspect of the Agenda.
This is a seminal task and so it is likely to need ongoing review and modification if it is to deliver on its promise for children and the Australian people.
Conclusion
Again AECA applauds the Government and all involved in the development and drafting of the consultation paper. It has signalled a sea change in the nations recognition of children.
AECA recognises this as the first of steps in the process toward the finalisation of an Agenda of which children will be the beneficiaries.
Congratulations.
Note:
This submission drew on the work of the Laidlaw Foundation on Social Inclusion. www.laidlawfdn.org
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