A DAMNING report highlighting hundreds of millions in funding “held back” from the early childhood sector by the state government has come as no surprise to local preschools.
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Last week, the Auditor-General’s report said that in the four years up to 2014/2015, the government spent $350 million less than was budgeted for early childhood education, including holding back $227 million in funds received from the federal government.
It also claimed high fees were impacting the numbers of children attending preschool, showing that in 2015 just 77 per cent of children in the year before school were enrolled in the minimum standard of 600 hours of early childhood education (15 hours per week), well short of the government benchmark of 95 per cent. The report blames poor targeting of funding.
Julia Cameron, director of Werris Creek and District Preschool, admits to be being “disheartened” by the report but says it’s come as no surprise, with the sector fighting for the past decade for a fairer deal from the state government.
“Even the attorney-general can see the importance and benefits of early childhood education,” she said.
“Rather than with-holding funding, it needs to be released in the hope that we can reduce fees and increase attendance rates.”
Ms Cameron said her facility had relatively low fees, particularly compared with larger areas, but she knew there were still families in Werris Creek that found preschool difficult to afford.
The auditor-general’s rep- ort highlighted Productivity Commission figures that found NSW childcare and preschool fees were the highest in the country, the government investing less in early childhood education than any other state at $202 per child, compared to $357 in Victoria, $598 in Tasmania and $644 in South Australia.
Ms Cameron said it was high time governments placed the same value on early childhood learning as they did on school, with overwhelming evidence that children did better in a whole host of areas if they had the opportunity for time at preschool.
Leslie Williams, minister for early childhood education, said early childhood sector spending had increased over the past three years by 14.5 per cent, and blamed federal government funding uncertainty for the unspent allocation.
“Differences between the budget and forecast are due to the timing and variations of Commonwealth National Partnership funding paid to the state,” she said in a statement.
“The auditor-general’s report confirms that reforms delivered by the NSW government have resulted in improvements – however we recognise there is still more to do.”
