New campaign celebrates the local childcare centres at the heart of Australian communities 

When we talk about the early childhood education and care sector in Australia, news headlines dominate, portraying for-profit early learning services as ‘bad’ or inferior to other service types. 

There is no doubting it can be seen as a complex sector as it is made up of public, private and not-for-profit providers/owners.

What is probably less understood is that 79 per cent of government-approved early learning service providers in Australia operate just a single service. That is they have one centre, maybe 20 staff, 80 enrolments often run by husband and wife teams with a love of what they do.

They are real people with a real commitment to Australian children even though running a child care centre can be stressful as there is a lot to juggle. 

These independent, locally-owned early learning services play a vital role in Australia’s early childhood education and care sector. They support children and families, employ local educators and contribute to the social and economic fabric of the communities they operate in. 

Many have spent years, and in some cases generations - building trusted relationships with families, educators and local communities. They are deeply embedded in their neighbourhoods, connected with local schools and businesses, and understand the children, families and communities around them.

Yet too often, policy and funding frameworks treat the sector as one homogenised group without recognition of the unique complexities of the various operating models, especially for those independently operated.

The body that oversees and advocates for the sector, including these 3,000 small to medium family-run services is the Australian Childcare Alliance and in my role as President I am proud to shine a focus on them.

To recognise them, we have today launched a new campaign - Proudly Independent, Proudly Local. It is a campaign designed to change the conversation. We want policymakers, media, and families to understand what makes locally-owned providers special, and why they deserve to be seen, valued and protected.

It is built on a simple premise: local centres operate differently, think differently, and care differently. It illustrates to Australian families that the sector is diverse and that many of these services have spent generations building trust. Becoming deeply embedded in the social and economic fabric of their neighbourhoods, employing local educators, supporting local small businesses, and creating a bridge to the local primary school. 

For an independent provider, early childhood education is more than just about income – it is a vocation and chosen career choice tied to serving their community. Each service is unique in how many children they support, its pedagogy, operating hours, extracurricular activities, and how long it’s been operational, with expenses varying in rent, consumables, maintenance, and upgrades.

The greatest threat to this diversity is the tendency for policymakers and our media to oversimplify the early education sector. 

This is not only an early learning issue; it is a small business issue. The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) has consistently called for governments to properly assess how new policies, regulations and funding arrangements will affect small businesses before they are introduced. Early learning policy should be subject to the same test, recognising that an independently operated local centre does not have the same scale, resources or capacity to absorb change.

When we fail to differentiate between a local independent provider and a large multi-site provider, we inadvertently tip the scales. If we lose the independents, we lose the choice and diversity of the sector. All parts of the sector should be valued and understood because the sector's diversity is its strength giving parents the choice they need.

The Proudly Independent, Proudly Local campaign seeks to change the conversation. We are calling on policymakers to recognise that the "social return" on investment from a local, independent centre is immense. These services are more than just childcare and are community hubs. 

As COSBOA CEO Skye Cappuccio explains: “Independent early learning providers are small businesses in every sense of the word. They employ local people, invest in their communities and help families thrive, yet their role as small businesses is not always recognised. Like every Australian small business, they deserve a fair go and the opportunity to continue growing, employing local people and supporting the communities that rely on them.”

We want families to look at their local provider with fresh eyes. We want the media to tell the stories of locally independent early learning providers, and we need governments to ensure that future funding and policy frameworks are "small-business friendly", protecting the sector's diversity rather than accidental consolidation.

We should celebrate Australian small businesses. They are the strength of communities and are keen to be recognised as such.  

For more information, visit: www.proudlylocal.org.au