Submission to Senate Inquiry into the Quality and Safety of Australia’s Early Childhood Education and Care System
SVA’s submission to the Senate Inquiry into the safety and quality of early childhood education and care focuses on practical solutions drawn from our expertise in the early years.
Our submission to the Senate Education and Employment References Committee draws on SVA’s expertise in the early years space and builds on our work through Nurture Together and Restacking the Odds.
The Australian Government Inquiry, due to report in early 2026, was called to explore systemic issues impacting the quality and safety in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and is intended complement safety-focussed priority responses identified by National Cabinet in August 2025. This Inquiry presents an important opportunity to highlight key issues and solutions that SVA has expertise in, including ECEC governance, regulation, fair markets and funding models, and workforce support.
In our submission, we responded and made recommendations under three key themes:
- Embed equitable access to quality ECEC through system design, including: ensuring responses are informed by patterns of quality, safety and inequities, and addressing gaps in needs-based funding for and support for integrated ECEC models such as Hubs and in markets with higher early childhood disadvantage.
- Strengthen system governance to improve performance, transparency and quality, including: establishing national governance arrangements such as a Commission, strengthening government’s role in market stewardship, and adopting a coordinated data strategy between services, states, territories, and the Federal Government.
- Support services and create conditions for quality through the National Quality Standards, such as ensuring regulators are funded adequately to monitor and support quality improvement in the ECEC sector, and embedding nutrition as a component of high quality ECEC (in line with our submission to the National Food Security Strategy)
