Australia

South Australia is committed to providing every child with a strong start by investing $96.6 million over four years to grow and support the early childhood workforce. This investment will prepare for the universal 3-year-old preschool program set to roll out between 2026 and 2032.

Key Objectives:

• Increase Workforce Numbers: Recruit and train more qualified early childhood teachers and educators.
  Support the professional development of the current workforce.
• Ensure Quality Education: Provide access to allied health and community services professionals to enhance early childhood services.
• Support Aboriginal Workforce: Focus on growing and supporting the Aboriginal early childhood workforce.
  Leverage Aboriginal cultural knowledge for the benefit of all children.
• Collaborative Implementation: Work in partnership with professionals, sector experts, service providers, Aboriginal communities, educational institutions, peak bodies, unions, and other stakeholders.

Access the Full Strategic Plan via the download button below.

Office for Early Childhood Development

2024

This 2024 study highlights the importance of maintaining a stable early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce, essential for enabling family employment and positive child outcomes. Globally, retaining qualified early childhood educators remains a challenge. This research explores the factors influencing educators' and center directors' intentions to leave the profession, using survey responses from 713 professionals and detailed feedback from 97 participants.

Key findings include:

• One in three professionals intend to leave the sector, with over half planning to do so within five years.
• Emotional exhaustion is a significant predictor of this intention.
• For center directors, higher personal accomplishment and older age increase the likelihood of intending to leave.
• For educators, lower satisfaction with pay, benefits, and lower qualification levels are critical factors.

Qualitative data reveal that feeling undervalued, increased demands with inadequate support, and workforce issues drive the intention to leave. Addressing these factors through targeted interventions could improve workforce stability. This study is particularly relevant in Australia, where supporting the ECEC workforce is a current political focus, presenting an opportunity for meaningful changes.

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

2024

2013 National Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Census, commissioned by the Department of Education as part of a range of Australian Government initiatives designed to improve the quality of information used in developing and measuring early childhood policy and programs. This report was developed specifically to address information gaps in existing administrative data sources, with respect other ECEC workforce, participation in and provision of preschool programs and children with additional needs in child care. The data presented in this census will help policy makers better understand the challenges of providing quality child care and early learning, assess the capacity in the workforce to meet future demand and formulate strategies to support early childhood development policies.

Resisting Neoliberalism: Professionalisation of Early Childhood Education and Care focuses on the professionalization of early childhood in Australia, Chile, England, Germany, Ireland and the United States.

This paper questions how the sector manages the constraints imposed by a neoliberal political and social world and calls upon manages the constraints imposed on it in a neoliberal political and social world. It calls on professionals to take a stand in terms of what is considered best practice. The paper further argues that continued debate is needed around the boundaries of what is called the early childhood profession, considering the ways in which the education, health and welfare sectors contribute to a holistic approach balanced against the requirement for a profession to have an identified and discrete body of knowledge.

Mary Moloney, Margaret Sims, Antje Rothe, Cynthia Buettner

International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education

2019

Money, love and identity: Initial findings from the National ECEC Workforce Study shares the initial findings of a National Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce study – a three-year national study funded by the Australian Research Council. In addition to findings from the study, this report shares key takeaways from conversations during a workshop hosted by the researchers. Capturing responses from participants of this 76-delegate workshop, here you can find observations and insights into emerging themes and the implications they have for policy and practice.

This report reviews the following topics:
1. An overview of initial findings from the ECEC Workforce Study
2. Interesting and surprising findings about tensions in ECEC
3. A summary of participant responses to the study findings and other prioritized workforce topics
4. Key themes responding to the question – looking forward, in an ideal world, what is one ‘must have’ in a national ECEC Workforce Strategy?

Scope of Practice for Midwives in Australia from the Australian College of Midwives defines the roles, functions and responsibilities that:

• A registered midwife is educated and competent to carry out;
• meet legislative requirements, professional standards, and local or organizational policy;
• are accepted as contemporary midwifery practice by the profession;
• meet women’s and infant’s health needs and enhance their health outcomes;
• aim to provide evidence-informed care; and
• are collaborative through consultation and partnership with the woman and other health care professionals.

The document is underpinned by the International Confederation of Midwives International Definition of a Midwife.

The Child protection workforce strategy 2017-2020 recognizes the difficulties that can be encountered by child protection practitioners and the vital role practitioners play in working with children and families.
In recognition of the fact that a strong workforce must be supported in order to protect children, Victorian Government focused on five major priorities:

• attracting and recruiting the best people;
• building a professional identity for the workforce that recognizes child protection as a valued; profession of the highest integrity and competence;
• growing and developing our people;
• engaging and retaining our people;
• the wellbeing of our workforce – our goal is to ensure immediate and responsive mental health; support and to develop innovative approaches to the health, safety and wellbeing of our workforce.

The three-year strategy aims to deliver these outcomes.

Framework for assessing standards for practice for registered nurses, enrolled nurses and midwives provides a resource for persons assessing the standard of practice of nurses and/or midwives, as well as for nurses and/or midwives whose performance is undergoing assessment.

• The aim is to guide the assessment of competence against the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia standards for practice for registered nurses, enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners and midwives. This important measure ensures the initial and continuing competence of nurses and midwives.
• The framework comprises:
• Principles for assessing standards for practice;
• Critical issues in assessing performance; and
• Key elements in the assessment model.

The 2018 Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study focuses on the importance of quality, and how to strengthen it in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. Extensive research demonstrates that the benefits of ECEC for children are increased when the service provider and educators are highly skilled and participate in professional development (PD), and the service is of high quality. Upskilling the workforce, including in-service professional development, is considered to be a key to improving quality, and can produce substantial and practical improvements for staff and children alike.

Building on the existing body of international research, the findings of the Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study, address the need for quality improvement in ECEC by showing how a particular form of evidence-based in-service PD can produce substantial and practically meaningful improvements in both staff practices and child outcomes.

The FEEL study was conducted by the research team from Early Start, University of Wollongong, on behalf on the NSW Department of Education.

You may also find the The Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) Study's Literature Review below. The Literature Review highlights the importance of quality teaching practice in early childhood education and outlining the key elements of the best practice professional development used in the Study.

National Guidelines - Best Practice in Early Childhood Intervention presents eight recommended best practices in Early Childhood Intervention. The document also offers rationale for each of these practices in the following quality areas: 

• Family
• Inclusion
• Teamwork
• Universal Principles 

This text draws upon extensive consultation with key stakeholders in the early childhood intervention sector.