Karin Ishimine

Accounting for Quality in Australian Childcare: A Dilemma for Policymakers.

This paper examines Australian policy on quality for early childhood education and care (ECEC). It investigates the existing national quality assurance system, Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) and its application in childcare centres. However, Australia’s recently elected federal government has shown enormous interest in improving quality in ECEC with implications for policy change. While international research emphasises the importance of process quality Australian policy and practice has focused on structural quality. Further, ambiguity exists in defining quality in ECEC exacerbated by a dearth of Australian research. Five limitations of the current structural‐based QIAS were identified based on international and national research. The paper argues for an urgent need to address the limitations of policy on quality childcare which should be driven by evidence‐based process quality.

Quality and Early Childhood Education and Care: A Policy Initiative for the 21st Century

The expectation of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is that higher quality inputs will produce higher quality outcomes for children. There are many ways that outcomes may be expressed and measured, though current procedures emphasize threshold quality. However, threshold quality is essentially an entry-level concept — once the entry requirements are met, quality is assumed to have been attained and subsequently sustained. A more sophisticated, comprehensive procedure is needed. For more than a decade ECEC policy in Australia has been generally weak, fragmented and dominated by matters related to quantity (market issues) rather than quality (pedagogical issues), despite the rhetoric. What should be measured to identify quality in ECEC settings? What should a quality directed ECEC policy emphasize? This paper addresses significant issues in determining and measuring quality for a comprehensive ECEC policy and the links to a rating system in Australia.

Quality of Australian childcare and children's social skills

This study investigated the relationships and interactions between childcare quality (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Revised edition [ECERS‐R]/Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Extension [ECERS‐E]) and childrens social skills (SSRS) in different sociodemographic areas within one Australian city. Multiple regression analysis revealed that some subscales of ECERS‐R and ECERS‐E (language–reasoning, programme structure, space and furnishings, parents and staff, literacy, mathematics, science and environment) predicted the level of childrens social skills and the frequency of problem behaviour, with positive and negative effects. Interestingly, although total scores for ECERS‐R and ECERS‐E were not significant predictors of social skills scores, interaction between total ECERS‐R and ECERS‐E scores was a significant predictor. With some qualifications the study provides evidence that both the childcare centres neighbourhood and the quality of childcare provision are related to childrens social skills. The interaction between social/emotional and academic aspects of quality suggests that we need to consider synergistic dimensions in quality in order to optimally enhance social skills in children.

Family Day Care and the National Quality Framework: Issues in Improving Quality of Service

Family child care, or family day care (FDC), as it is known in Australia, is an important early childhood education and care (ECEC) option, as it offers unique services compared with other ECEC services such as greater flexibility, wider children’s age range (0–12 years old) and differential operation procedures. In Australia, however, a new National Quality Framework (NQF) is in the process of being implemented in Australia. This will affect all ECEC services, including FDCs, through the application of National Quality Standards (NQS). How will FDCs respond to the major changes ensuing from introducing the NQF and NQS? We argue that there are several factors impacting on the quality of provision by FDCs over the longer term. These include workforce qualifications, carer-child interactions, systemic implementation processes and measures of quality. This paper will discuss the impact of NQF and NQS on FDC and will address issues where no specific quality improvement strategy is applied.

Quality of childcare and its impact on children’s social skills in disadvantaged areas of Australia

The Pathways to Prevention Project involves a university-community organisationschools partnership designed to bring together a range of programs to reduce the strength of the association between social disadvantage and poor developmental outcomes for children growing up in one of the most disadvantaged urban areas in Queensland. Beginning from an understanding that development is tied to the social contexts in which it occurs, one strategy that became an immediate driving force for program activity was to provide an accessible and sensitive family support service to strengthen family function and promote positive child-rearing conditions. The Family Independence Program (FIP) is focused on the goal of family empowerment and supporting families through adversity. Correlation analysis confirmed that level of family adversity was related to children’s developmental competence (language, behaviour and prosocial skills) and that this relationship was most likely mediated by parent efficacy. Preliminary analyses of the effect of FIP involvement indicate its positive impact on parents’ sense of efficacy and sense of being supported in the parenting role. It is concluded that supporting families in dealing with adversity is a key to promoting positive outcomes for children. Furthermore, it is argued that a comprehensive approach is required wherein family oriented programs such as Pathways to Prevention form part of a wider societal movement to reduce the social and economic stressors that impact on family function.