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:
*Outer Northern Adelaide and Gawler
*Outer Southern Adelaide
*SA’s major regional centres including Mount Gambier, Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Whyalla, and Port Lincoln
*Outer regional SA communities including Fleurieu Peninsula, Mid-North, Flinders Ranges / Mount Remarkable, Yorke and Eyre Peninsula
*Metropolitan Adelaide, in areas of disadvantage.
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.
As put by Blair Boyer
By supporting families through wrap-around care and three-year-old preschool we are lifting the quality of education, having targeted supports more readily available and accessible and increasing workforce participation.
These outcomes will be significant for decades to come.
We know that for lots of working families, the 9am to 3pm preschool timetable simply isn’t manageable and prohibits families from workforce participation.
We are committed to finding innovative ways to make our fantastic public preschools accessible to an even broader range of South Australian families. These trials will help us to find the most effective and beneficial model for preschool out of hours care.
I’m really proud of the Malinauskas Labor Government’s commitment to improving all aspects of early childhood education and care and these trials will provide us with important information to determine a broader rollout.
