Celebrating Progress: Making the Starting Better Guarantee a reality for families

Overview

ON THIS PAGE

In 2021, early childhood development practitioners, advocates, policymakers and experts came together to launch a visionary proposal. The Starting Better Guarantee was a national goal to make Australia the best place to be a child and raise a family. 

It proposed an entitlement for all children and families to a set of high-quality, affordable and connected services in the early years on which they can rely, with additional targeted support for those who need it most. 

Starting Better envisioned that it would take at least a decade of sustained effort to deliver the Guarantee in full. Reform is hard work, and momentum ebbs and flows. But halfway in, there has already been significant progress towards achieving this vision. 

Celebrating Progress: Making the Starting Better Guarantee a reality for families shows the substantial collective wins achieved so far, and looks at what must be prioritised over the coming years to realise the Guarantee in full.

Download Celebrating Progress

Celebrating Progress: Making the Starting Better Guarantee a reality for families shows the progress achieved so far against the 10-year Starting Better Guarantee for young children and families.

Download as PDF

How far have we come?

Significant progress has been made towards the Starting Better vision across every element of the Guarantee. This accomplishment is a testament to the many years of dedication, collaboration and hard work of so many across the ECD sector, philanthropy, government and academia.

What are the priorities for the coming years?

Building on the progress made over the first five years of the Guarantee, there are clear reform opportunities to prioritise over the next 1-2 years:

  • Continuing to expand paid parental leave towards one full year’s entitlement.
  • Putting in place the architecture for an equitable, safe and high-quality universal early childhood education and care system. This includes agreeing on clearer roles, responsibilities and governance arrangements across levels of government, prioritising provision planning and building high-quality supply, and implementing funding reform to improve quality and equity.
  • Agreeing on consistent outcomes for an equitable, progressively universal child and family health system in every jurisdiction. This should include endorsed national guidelines that inform developmental monitoring, and a national data collection and evaluation mechanism.
  • Ensuring that all reforms embed a person and place centred approach, prioritising place-based initiatives that provide wrap around care and connect parents with the support they need.

Why does this matter?

Raising children is the most important thing we do—not just as families, but as a society. The evidence is clear that a child’s earliest experiences establish foundations for life.

A high-quality, affordable and connected system of early childhood supports will build a generation of national prosperity. It will lift educational outcomes, tackle entrenched disadvantage, improve gender equality, boost productivity, and grow our national economic competitiveness.

But that won’t be the only prize. Worth far more will be the experience of living in an Australia that is the best place in the world to be a child and raise a family.

By taking stock of how far we’ve come, we can harness momentum towards the full realisation of the Guarantee, and ensure that every young child has what they need to thrive.

ON THIS PAGE

Related work

See More
See More
Search