The number of children using Child Care Subsidy approved care fell in every state and territory in the June quarter of 2026 compared with a year earlier. At the same time, centre based day care services continued to grow nationally and average fees increased.
For Sparrow Early Learning, finding a childcare management system (CCMS) that could support their scale and ambitions was never going to be a decision made lightly. Sparrow needed a partner it could trust to operate at its scale for years to come, a structured migration plan, and support that protected educators, operational teams and, most importantly, children and families.
The Childcare Leadership Alliance (CLA) has reached a major organisational milestone, officially signing a direct Social Investment Project Contract with BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA).
Every child deserves a strong start to their learning. Victoria’s landmark universal three-year-old kindergarten reform is delivering just that. New findings from a major study at University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Education have revealed that children who receive two years of funded kindergarten compared to one year have an additional five-months of progress in language development and two to three-months of progress in memory and problem-solving skills by the time they begin school.
New data from Be You, Beyond Blue's mental health in education initiative, reveals that educators are becoming more confident in supporting everyday mental health concerns, but less confident their schools and early learning services are prepared to respond to critical incidents.
Early childhood and primary teacher, children’s author, and literacy advocate Poppy Yayakos has joined the World Literacy Foundation’s Sun Books: Global Children’s Library as an Author Patron, expanding her commitment to literacy that already reaches families throughout her community in Darwin, Australia.
The Australian Government has announced a targeted funding boost to support the sustainability of In Home Care services, helping ensure families who cannot access other approved early learning options continue to receive care.
South Australia will accelerate the rollout of three-year-old preschool, bringing forward access for more children as part of the state's broader early childhood reform agenda.
New data released in the mid-year update of the Report on Government Services (RoGS) reveals strong income and employment gains for vocational education and training (VET) graduates, alongside rising school retention and continued high participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC).
Educator-to-child ratios have long been one of the most closely watched measures of quality and safety in early childhood education and care (ECEC), but growing workforce pressure, child safety concerns and increasing complexity in children’s needs are prompting renewed discussion about whether minimum staffing requirements remain enough to support contemporary practice.
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