It’s the people – full stop. Why early learning reforms must start with educators.

Real reform in early learning has always hinged on one truth: if you get the people right, everything else follows. 

By closing services early for dedicated child-safety training, the Commonwealth is signalling a welcome shift from quick fixes to genuine stewardship of the early learning system. It shows a willingness to shape and guide the system, not just react to incidents. Crucially, it also shows an understanding of who can make the biggest difference: educators.

Because when it comes to keeping children safe and helping them flourish, it’s the people – full stop.

Every day, instability is present in services across the country. Around 30 per cent of educators are working casually, and high turnover continually disrupts the consistent, caring relationships children depend on. 

Too many children arrive at school not developmentally ready to learn, as the latest AEDC results make starkly clear.

We can regulate ratios, check working-with-children documentation, and mandate compliance logs but without stable, well-supported and professionally recognised educators, none of it is enough.

This is why creating a dedicated paid space for safer practice and professional learning matters. Closing centres early is not a burden on families; it is an investment in their children. It signals that governments understand something essential: real safety and quality come from people, not paperwork.

This announcement and the broader suite of reforms show the Commonwealth is beginning to move from crisis-response mode to genuine stewarding of a national system. The new powers allowing regulators to shut off funding for persistently non-compliant services are an important, necessary floor for safety. States and territories are moving quickly on child-safe standards, faster background checks, and in some states establishing an independent regulator.  

These steps reflect a deeper shift,  a growing recognition that the government must actively shepherd the system towards better outcomes for children, not simply fund it and hope for the best.

But stewardship requires looking beyond the minimum requirements of safety. It means intentionally strengthening the workforce that delivers quality every single day.

The Commonwealth’s 15 per cent pay increase for educators with the final 5 per cent rolling out now is already helping to ease shortages. 

But if we want a truly high-quality system, governments must not stop here. 

We need policy settings that incentivise salaries above minimums, encourage continuity of employment, reduce reliance on casual staff to stabilise relationships for children, and provide more paid planning time so educators can collaborate, upskill and maintain reflective practice that strengthens safety and quality without financial penalty. 

These are not luxuries. They are the very conditions that allow educators to build the strong, trusting relationships that research consistently shows are the foundation of children’s healthy development. 

When we treat educators as central to children’s futures not as cost centres the whole system becomes stronger, safer and more effective.

We already know what the payoff looks like. Modelling by Mandala shows that lifting the quality and performance of  the bottom 20% of ECEC services could boost GDP by $15.7 billion over 35 years. 

Quality in early learning is not a “nice to have”; it is economic policy.

To truly deliver long-term, evidence-driven reform, Australia needs a dedicated Early Childhood Commission.

This independent body would ensure every decision is guided by what is best for children. It would use data to lift quality system-wide, direct investments where they have the greatest impact and shield the sector from short-term political pressures.

We can only move beyond the next headline or the next quick fix if we commit to deliberate, steady, expert stewardship of the entire system. 

This latest move is a strong signal that governments understand what truly drives quality and safety. By prioritising educators’ skills, time and wellbeing, Australia is taking a meaningful step towards a system where every child benefits from stable, high-quality relationships and environments.

If we want the early learning system our children deserve, we must keep going — and keep our focus on the people at its heart.

Because in early childhood education, it’s the people – full stop.

Author: Dr Caroline Croser-Barlow, CEO, The Front Project.