All young children

High quality care and education services should be available and affordable for all young children as all children can benefit. In addition, some children and families need extra supports and services to overcome barriers that they face. Early identification of additional needs and early response to those needs are essential to minimise the long-term negative effects of disadvantage in early childhood.

We use the phrase ‘universal plus’ to call for a combination of:

• ‘Universal’ – universal services and supports, which are not only accessible to all young children but, through public funding, affordable to all families; and
• ‘Plus’ – additional supports for those children and families who experience disadvantage or who have additional needs.

For all young children to benefit, quality services and supports for young children and their families need to be genuinely affordable. High quality care and education services should be available free for all children, on at least a part-time basis, from the age of 2, and high quality services outside the free provision should be subsidised. High quality services should operate for 48 or more weeks of the year, and high quality, regulated after-school services should be available for children in primary schools.

Services for young children need to be inclusive, catering for the needs of children from all backgrounds and of all abilities. They need to reflect many types of diversity – social, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, family-structure and abilities – and they need to be in a position to provide additional supports when required.

Immediate actions for the Government:

• Align the school starting-age with the age for starting the Free Pre-School Year, so that all children can access the scheme, regardless of their date of birth. 
• Make no budget cuts in relation to special needs assistants, to facilitate the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream services.

In planning for the future, we urge the Government to make commitments to:

• Extend the entitlement to free provision that began with the Free Pre-School Year to a second, earlier year, to at least 48 weeks of the year, and to at least 3.5 hours per day, in line with the recommendations made by the NESF.
• Introduce a subsidy for hours outside the free provision, with a tiered fee-structure that reflects parents’ ability to pay.
• Provide for young children with additional support needs in inclusive mainstream services, when this is in the child’s best interests. Additional needs should be identified early, and supports provided in response. 
• Ensure adequate provision of high quality, subsidised and regulated after-school services.