Federal Government funding for Universal Access guaranteed in 2020

Access 15 hours of quality early learning a week in the year before school is now shored up for Australia’s children in 2020 with the recent announcement by the Federal Government that each state and territory government has signed up to the National Partnership on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education (UANP).

A statement from the Government outlined that the UANP offer has been on the table since July 2019. 

“Preschool is the responsibility of state and territory governments, with Commonwealth funding through the UANP a contribution to increase participation rates and ensure national consistency in the number of hours available. Under UANP, the Commonwealth will provide $1,292 per child in 2020, up from $1,263 per child in 2019,” the statement read. 

Speaking about the announcement, Federal Minister for Education Dan Tehan said the Government had funded the National Partnership since 2014, representing a total investment of $2.8 billion.

An interim review of UANP found that the program had “continued to make a significant contribution to improving participation in affordable, quality, early childhood education programs for children”.

Mr Tehan expressed the Government’s desire to ensure that children from disadvantaged, Indigenous and rural and remote communities get an equal opportunity to benefit from early education, noting their funding of a Preschool Attendance Strategies Project to develop policies that will increase preschool attendance as an expression of their commitment to improving participation.