Closing the Gap targets: key findings and implications

Target

The target associated with Outcome 3 of the 2020 National Agreement is to increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children enrolled in Year Before Full-time Schooling (YBFS) early childhood education to 95% by 2025.

Background

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) children who attend preschool are more likely to be developmentally on track. Participation in preschool programs has shown benefits for children, parents/families and the broader society. It is also amenable to policy interventions.

High-quality play-based preschool programs provide opportunities for children to develop and practise a range of fundamental skills, such as listening to others, taking turns, sharing, making up games and stories, problem solving, and learning socially acceptable ways of dealing with conflict to help them to transition to primary school and beyond.

Children who attend a preschool program have better language, literacy, cognitive and problem-solving skills when they enter primary school than their peers who do not; these skills are linked to later academic achievement.

There is evidence that children from disadvantaged backgrounds may benefit from preschool programs, but the extent and type of benefits depend on the quality and intensity of the programs themselves.

Current status

The estimated total number of First Nations children enrolled in preschool in the state‑specific YBFS cohort increased from 14,573 in 2016 to 18,920 in 2022. This increase is likely due to a combination of 3 factors:

• an increasing number of First Nations children in the population
• an increasing likelihood of children identifying as First Nations in the data
• an increase in the likelihood of being enrolled in preschool.

According to the official estimates, the proportion of First Nations children enrolled in preschool increased from 77% in 2016 to 99% in 2022 and the target is reported to be on track to be met in 2025. However, caution must be used when interpreting these rates as there is uncertainty in both the numerator and denominator, which means that the true rates may be higher or lower than estimated.

The estimated proportion of First Nations children enrolled in preschool in the YBFS cohort increased between 2016 and 2022 for every state and territory except the Northern Territory.

The proportion of services which met or exceeded the quality standards increased from 61% in 2016 to 84% in 2022. A higher proportion of stand-alone preschools than long day care centres met or exceeded the quality standards, although the gap has narrowed since 2016.

Two of the 3 states with the lowest estimated enrolment rates are those with non‑government/mixed models of preschool delivery (New South Wales and Queensland).

Key findings

While some preschool programs are free, one of the biggest barriers to preschool enrolment is the financial cost involved. The fees are only one component – there are also associated costs, such as transport, food and clothing. Families have to balance the cost of preschool with all their other expenses, including housing.

Cross-sectional analysis showed that, compared to their counterparts, First Nations children were more likely to be enrolled in preschool if they were:

• older
• without developmental difficulties
• spoke only English at home
• from areas of least disadvantage
• from areas of lower mobility
• with a parent who had completed year 10 or above
• with a parent who had some post-school qualification, and was working.

The regression analysis in this chapter indicated that the key factors associated with First Nations preschool attendance are:

• parental education
• parental employment
• having developmental difficulties
• geographic location

The analysis highlighted the importance of parental education and employment status on First Nations preschool attendance, controlling for other factors. The findings also showed that children with developmental difficulties were less likely to attend preschool. Further, they demonstrated that preschool attendance varies between states and territories at a statistically significant level, controlling for child and family characteristics, which reinforces the importance of policy and funding arrangements in affecting this target outcome.

Strategies for improvement

Policy and program interventions can improve preschool enrolments by increasing capacity in geographic areas that have service gaps, promoting the benefits of preschool participation, cutting back costs, and improving cultural safety and engagement with families and communities.

Considering the role of parental education and employment, improving employment and educational opportunities for First Nations people is likely to improve total preschool participation rates in the long term.

The statistically significant effect of developmental difficulties on preschool enrolment highlights the need for targeted social policy to support children with developmental difficulties to improve their preschool attendance.

Preschool enrolment is essentially a service use indicator that is affected by the interaction between ‘supply’ and ‘demand’. Supply factors are, in turn, directly affected by government policy and funding arrangements experienced at local community levels, as well by the availability of a trained workforce. Children can attend preschool only if there is an available place near them. Other relevant supply factors are accessibility, cultural safety, affordability, workforce availability and suitability for an individual child and their family.

Future research in this area would benefit from data that allowed not only modelling of both supply and demand factors at the individual level but also granular spatial analyses that could rapidly identify areas with service gaps.