Senate Inquiry into the Quality and Safety of Australia’s Early Childhood Education and Care System

Senate Education and Employment References Committee

October 2025

Executive Summary

The early years are a critical period in a child’s development, creating the foundations for lifelong learning and wellbeing. Participation in quality early learning environments positively impacts a child’s life outcomes and supports them to realise their full potential. Evidence indicates that experiences and environments during early childhood have life-long impacts, affecting educational engagement along with health, social and wellbeing outcomes over their life course.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have cared for and educated their children on these lands for millennia, leading the way in the delivery of quality early education through innovative practices such as storytelling, cultural education and pedagogies, supporting lifelong learning, holistic child development approached, and collective education with multiple caregivers and kin. This approach to raising children not only reflects deep cultural knowledge but also aligns best practice in child development; Australia’s ECEC system would benefit immeasurably by reflecting, building on and celebrating these quality, culturally safe forms of early education.

SNAICC welcomes the Senate Inquiry into the Quality and Safety of Australia’s Childhood Education and Care System and the opportunity this Inquiry presents to improve early education and development outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and broader communities. We look forward to engaging further with the Inquiry, and in partnership with the Australian Government on all matters of safety, quality and access in early education and care.

Culture is a powerful protective factor for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and a quality ECEC system must allow our children to feel culturally safe in early education

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have an inherent right to feel culturally safe, valued, and affirmed within early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. For these children, a truly universal early years system must be underpinned by the availability and accessibility of services delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations (ACCOs). These organisations are uniquely positioned to provide culturally safe, responsive, and holistic early years services that are grounded in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being, and doing. Cultural safety within ACCO-led ECEC services is not an optional extra or a ‘nice-to-have’ – it is foundational. It is embedded across all aspects of service delivery, including curriculum design, language inclusion, environmental design, pedagogical approaches, and organisational values. These services foster a deep sense of belonging, spiritual and emotional safety, and cultural pride. They reflect and uphold Aboriginal protocols, songlines, kinship systems, and cultural responsibilities, creating environments that feel like home and affirm children’s identities from the earliest years.

Funding reform is required to fully enable ACCO integrated early years services to meet the diverse needs of their communities, children and families.

Current mainstream funding models are ill-suited to the integrated, culturally responsive service delivery model of ACCOs. These models are fragmented, administratively burdensome, and fail to reflect the true cost of delivering holistic, wraparound supports that meet the complex and diverse needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.

Without targeted funding reform, ACCOs are constrained in their ability to expand services, respond to community needs, and support children’s cultural and developmental outcomes – essential elements of safe and high-quality early childhood service provision. A dedicated, long-term, and fit-for-purpose funding model is urgently required – one that recognises the value of cultural identity in early childhood development and supports the sustainability and growth of ACCO-led services. Such reform would also address systemic challenges such as workforce shortages and service gaps in high-need communities.

Investment in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early educator workforce is an essential pillar of quality and safety in the ECEC sector

A strong, culturally capable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early years workforce is essential to delivering high-quality, culturally safe ECEC. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators play a critical role in fostering cultural identity, resilience, and learning outcomes for children. However, the sector continues to face significant workforce shortages, particularly in the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff.

To address this, there must be greater investment in culturally safe training pathways, mentoring, and workplace supports that enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to enter, remain, and thrive in the ECEC workforce. This includes embedding cultural safety in training environments and ensuring that qualifications are accessible, flexible, and community-informed.

There is a need for greater investment in quality uplift and cultural capability across the ECEC sector

There remains a significant gap in the availability of culturally responsive ECEC services across Australia. To close this gap, there must be sustained investment in building the cultural capability of the broader ECEC sector. This includes embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in curricula, supporting Aboriginal-led service models, and ensuring that all children and families experience culturally affirming, inclusive, and high-quality early learning environments.

Data collected as part of the initiative must align with Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDS) principles

All data collected through early years initiatives must align with the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDS). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples must have control over the creation, collection, access, analysis, interpretation, stewardship, and dissemination of data relating to their communities. Upholding IDS principles is essential to ensuring that data is used ethically, transparently, and in ways that support self-determination and community-led decision-making.

Below we articulate a set of recommendations, progressing existing priorities, gaps and opportunities, which if properly implemented, will improve the quality and safety of the early years sector for Aboriginal children and their families and move Australia closer to achieving the targets outlined in the National Agreement and Closing the Gap.

Recommendations

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have a right to quality, safe ECEC services which give them the best possible start in life

1. The Australian government, in partnership with the states and territories, commits to developing and fully implementing a dedicated supply-side, needs-based, reliable and sustainable funding model for early years ACCOs, drawing on the foundational development of the model completed through the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership.
2. The Australian Government adequately funds comprehensive sector scaffolding and backbone support to ensure ACCOs have the necessary supports for business, practice, policy and workforce development.
3. The Australian Government Department of Education commits 20% of unallocated funds in the Building Early Education Fund to build and establish new ACCO integrated early years services. This allocation is designed to reflect a ‘meaningful proportion’ of new investment aligned to clause 55 of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap based on population, need, addressing inequities, and prioritising Closing the Gap outcomes.

A strong, skilled, supported and fairly – paid Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce is integral to a high-quality, safe ECEC system for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

4. The Australian Government increases the ECEC Worker Retention Payment to 25% of pre-WRP wage levels, and works in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations and peak bodies to design and implement a fit-for-purpose funding option for ACCOs to access the increase.
5. The Australian Government commits to development and full implementation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Years Workforce Strategy which aims to achieve full workforce parity in remuneration and employment.
6. The Australian Government partners with the ACCO ECEC sector to fund at least 500 fully subsidized tertiary educations pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early educators within the ACCO ECEC sector, with qualifications designed to meet the specific cultural and educational needs of each community.
7. The Australian Government funds the ACCO ECEC Workforce Innovation Fundas a targeted strategy to overcome barriers to entry to, and completion, of study for prospective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators, including those in regional, remote and very remote communities. The fund should enable and support the delivery of:
   1. Build on foundational work done by SNAICC in development of the Workforce Innovation Fund style guide,
   2. ACCO ECEC workforce development initiatives, with initiatives that can be adapted, scaled or transferred regionally or nationally prioritised,
   3. Partnerships between ACCOs and tertiary education providers that build sustainable local workforce pathways and supports for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early
   4. Community-led solutions to address chronic workforce shortages that provide much needed local career pathways for prospective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people looking to enter the ECEC workforce.
   5. Independent impact evaluation to develop the ‘workforce development practice’ evidence base.

Regulatory responses on their own will not produce a high-quality and safe ECEC system

8. The Australian Government commits to an independent review of the National Quality Framework in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations and their peaks, with the objective of fully recognise and improving quality and cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across the ECEC system.
9. The Australian Government commits to developing a national cultural safety framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families for the ECEC sector, in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled organisations and peak Development framework should be ACCO-led to determine what is required for non-Indigenous services to meet culturally safe standards, and which centre Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing.
10. The Australian Government implements a National ECEC Commission to act as a system steward and oversee reform and provide national leadership. The development and design of the Commission should be done in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak bodies to ensure it meets the unique needs of ACCO ECEC services.

Importantly, this process should not displace current models of shared decision-making between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and government including for example the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership (the ECCDPP).

The data practices of the ECEC system must uphold Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s right to data sovereignty

11. The Australian Government works with the forthcoming Data Policy Partnership and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Supports to embed Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership in determining and implementing socio-economic measures that engage with early education and unique wellbeing indicators for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, particularly connection to culture, Country and kin.
12. The Australian Government establishes an Independent Indigenous Data Agency, to respond to recommendations to improve the implementation of Priority Reform Four (improve data and information sharing).