Fairfield Links to Early Learning supports families to boost ECEC access

Fairfield Links to Early Learning (FL2EL) is a local New South Wales program supporting families facing challenges in accessing education and care. 

It aims to ensure that all children in the area, regardless of their attendance at early childhood education and care (ECEC) services, can have the same opportunities as others to make friends, try new things, and get ready for school.

The program is designed to support families who are facing difficulties when it comes to their child attending an ECEC service by connecting them to quality options in their local area, and works with families in the Campbelltown, Liverpool, Fairfield and Bankstown areas.

Support offered to each family varies, but may include: 

• Helping families to find the service that best suits them and their child.
• Helping to complete all the paperwork for enrolment including applying for Child Care Subsidy.   
• Access to translation and interpretation services.
• Answering the family’s queries or concerns and assisting the child and family to have a great start.

The FL2EL team works by visiting families in their homes so that they can understand their needs and provide the right support in a range of situations, targeting children aged between three and six years of age who are not currently accessing ECEC. 

FL2EL recognises that there may be a number of barriers to families accessing care including being unfamiliar with what’s available, dealing with language or transport barriers, or having affordability issues.

Mabinty, an asylum seeker from Sierra Leone who’s lived in Australia for five years, spoke to local news source Fairfield Champion about how the program has helped her family. 

“I was worried about my daughter’s development and behaviour,” she explained. 

“She wasn’t friendly. But since starting childcare, she’s made a lot of friends and she’s learning things, and even reading a bit. Now I’m enjoying the time I spend with her, and not stressed about dropping her off when I go to work.”

For more information about the program, see here. To access the original coverage of this story, please see here.