National Early Childhood Development Strategy – Investing in the Early Years


On 2 July 2009, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed the National Early Childhood Development Strategy – Investing in the Early Years.

In jointly developing the Strategy, the Australian, state and territory governments have signalled their intention to take a leadership role in early childhood development now and into the future.

The Strategy will help all levels of government to build a more effective and better coordinated national early childhood development system to support the diverse needs of Australian children and their families. It covers children from before birth to eight years and aims to improve the health, safety, early learning and wellbeing of all children and better support disadvantaged children to reduce inequalities.

The Strategy provides the road map for action and for engaging effective partnerships across and between governments, with the non-government sector, and with families around the needs of young children.

The Strategy proposes six priority areas for reform to be further developed for COAG in 2010, recognising the different starting points of states and territories and as resources allow:

  • Strengthen universal maternal, child and family health services
  • Support for vulnerable children
  • Engaging parents and the community in understanding the importance of early childhood development
  • Improve early childhood infrastructure
  • Strengthen the workforce across early childhood development and family support services, and
  • Build better information and a solid evidence base.

The Strategy represents the start of an ongoing process of engagement with families, the early childhood sector and other stakeholders about achieving a shared vision for Australia’s children. This process will continue in the short term through more detailed consultations on the development of specific reforms in priority areas by 2010, and over the longer term to 2020 to develop new actions and reshape reform directions as conditions change and new priorities emerge.

For further information and to view the National Early Childhood Development Strategy please visit http://www.deewr.gov.au/earlychildhood.

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