ECEC community recognised in 2019 Australia Day Honours List

The Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) community has been recognised in the 2019 Order of Australia Honours Australia Day list, with three members of the sector being awarded honours for their contribution to ECEC.

Dr Joy Goodfellow, Dr Jane Page and Mr Matthew Yannopoulos have all received recognition in the awards, which were announced 26 January 2019. The Order of Australia is the principal means of recognising outstanding members of the community at a national level. Anyone can nominate a member of the community for recognition through the Order and nominations are encouraged from all members of the Australian public.  

Dr Joy Goodfellow has been awarded the Member (AM) for “significant service to early childhood education, to children with special needs and to professional standards.”

Dr Goodfellow has been an active member of the ECEC community in a range of capacities for over 30 years, with particular focus on research. Dr Goodfellow has worked with at a range of leading universities and and also supporting not for profit early education organisations at board level.

Between 1998 and 2002 Dr Goodfellow was the Inaugural Chair of the Accreditation Decisions Review Committee of the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NACA), the body responsible for administering the Child Care Quality Assurance scheme for long day care, family day care and outside school hours care services that in 2012 was replaced by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).

Dr Goodfellow was also part of a consortium of early childhood experts selected by Julia Gillard, previously Prime Minister of Australia, chosen to develop the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) with the specific objective of improving outcomes and opportunities for children during the critical early years.

Dr Goodfellow’s contribution to the sector is not just limited to active participation in ECEC bodies and institutions, she has also published a wide range of books and articles on subjects ranging from the EYLF to best practice in early childhood education and working with vulnerable families.

Dr Jane Page of North Carlton, Victoria has been awarded the Medal of the Order (OAM) for services to children.

Dr Page is a senior lecturer in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne where she has worked in the field of early childhood for the past 18 years, focussing on the application of human rights principles in early childhood settings.

Dr Page has also been engaged with the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA), an organisation that focuses on early years pedagogical practices since 2011, primarily as a co-researcher but also as an invited member on a wide range of important projects.

More recently, Dr Page has been working with the Victorian Department of Education and Training programs as an invited member on a series of early years focussed programs and continues to contribute to the body of published literature on the early years through collaborations with the International Journal of Early Childhood and Australian Journal of Early Childhood.

Mr Matthew Yannopoulos has been awarded the public service medal (PSM) for outstanding public service through the leadership and delivery of reform to payments for Child Care  

Mr Yannopoulos, a senior government officer who has worked in a wide range of major public sector agencies across his career, has been recognised for his leadership of the design, build and  implementation of the new Child Care Subsidy system that was launched in July 2018.

The project was of particular complexity given the new IT system which was built from scratch and required collaboration across three different Government agencies namely; the Federal Departments of Education and Training, Human Services and Social Services.