Report on Government Services 2021

The ECEC sector provides a range of services for children based on their age and education, care and development needs. ECEC services provide the following broad service types:

• Child care services — provide education and care services to children aged 0–12 years including the following service types: centre based day care; family day care; outside school hours care (OSHC); and other care (see sub‑section 3.2 for definitions).
• Preschool services — are services that deliver a preschool program. A ‘preschool program’ is a structured, play‑based learning program, delivered by a qualified teacher, aimed at children in the year or two before they commence full time schooling (table 3.1).

An ECEC service may offer more than one service type, such as centre based day care and OSHC (both child care services). The most common type of integrated service is a preschool program delivered within centre based day care. The range of service types offered differs across states and territories and between service providers.

ECEC services can also provide other non-education services such as maternal and child health services and family support services. The services provided differ according to community need, with more extensive services often being provided in disadvantaged communities.

The Australian, State and Territory governments have different but complementary roles in ECEC. In 2019-20, the Australian Government’s main roles and responsibilities included:

• paying the Child Care Subsidy (CCS)¹ which is generally paid directly to child care providers. The types of child care for which families receive subsidised care are in table 3.2
• providing funding to State and Territory governments to support the achievement of universal access to early childhood education, through the National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education (NP UAECE)
• providing operational and capital funding to some providers.

Table 3.2 Summary of ECEC service funding by Australian, State and Territory governments, 2019-20

	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas a	ACT b	NT c	Aus Gov
Funded child care services, for service types:
Centre based day care
OSHC
Family day care
In home care
Funded preschool services/programs, in:
Local government/community preschools
For-profit centre based day care
Not-for-profit centre based day care
Government school
Non-government school

	Government provides funding to at least one of these services
	Government does not provide funding to any of these services

Source: Australian, State and Territory governments (unpublished).

State and Territory governments’ roles and responsibilities vary across jurisdictions but mainly include:

• funding and/or providing preschool services and, in some cases, providing funding to child care services (including some that also receive Australian Government funding)
• providing funding to support the implementation of the NP UAECE
• regulating approved services under the National Quality Framework (NQF) and licensing and/or registering child care services not approved under the NQF
• implementing strategies to improve the quality of ECEC programs
• providing curriculum, information, support, advice, and training and development to ECEC providers.

Local governments also plan, fund and deliver ECEC, but due to data limitations, the only local government data included in this section are those involving Australian, State and Territory government funding and/or licensing.

1. The CCS replaced the Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate from 2 July 2018. The Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS) has been introduced to manage the payment and administration of the CCS and is the source of these data. There are some changes to reporting under the CCSS. In particular, the introduction of new categories Centre based day care (a consolidation of long day care and occasional care previously reported separately) and Outside school hours care (a consolidation of outside school hours care and vacation care previously reported separately) and no longer separately identifying Budget based funded services. Locate Footnote 1 above

Total Australian, State and Territory real government recurrent and capital expenditure on ECEC services was $10.6 billion in 2019-20, up from 2018-19 and 2017-18 (table 3A.4). Australian Government expenditure accounted for $8.5 billion (80.5 per cent) and State and Territory government expenditure $2.1 billion, with preschool services accounting for 85.4 per cent of the State and Territory government expenditure (figure 3.1).

Australian Government expenditure of $433.2 million allocated to State and Territory governments in 2019-20 through the NP UAECE (table 3A.7), is included under State and Territory government expenditure.

Services delivering ECEC

In 2020², there were 13 370 Australian Government CCS approved child care services in Australia (table 3.3). Some child care services do not receive Australian Government funding and are funded by State and Territory governments only or do not receive any government funding.

In 2019 there were 11 990 ECEC services in Australia delivering preschool programs (table 3.4). Of these services, 7727 (64.4 per cent) were delivered from centre based day care and the remainder were delivered from stand-alone preschool services or preschool services attached to a school.

Children using ECEC

In 2020³, 1 317 072 (31.7 per cent of) children aged 0–12 years attended Australian Government CCS approved child care services, an increase of 1.0 per cent from 2019 (table 3A.14).

In 2019, 539 374 children were enrolled in a preschool program, which includes children attending a 3 year old preschool program (table 3A.18)⁴. Of these children, 290 168 were enrolled in a preschool program in the year before full time schooling (YBFS) (table 3A.17). The total enrolment figure provides an estimate of service activity, whilst the state specific YBFS enrolment figure provides an estimate of the cohort for whom the year of preschool is in the year before they are anticipated to attend full time school.

2. Data for 2020 related to Australian Government CCS approved child care services are for the March quarter. Locate Footnote 2 above
3. Data for 2020 related to Australian Government CCS approved child care services are for the March quarter. Locate Footnote 3 above
4. Data reported for 3 year olds enrolled in a preschool program may be incomplete due to different reporting arrangements in each jurisdiction. Locate Footnote 4 above