MyChild

Programs for Indigenous Families

The importance of the early years for Indigenous children

Indigenous children in Australia are a particularly vulnerable group. The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children in some key life areas have widened in recent years. This means Indigenous children have lower life expectancy at birth, lower birth weights, higher rates of death and injury, lower rates of school readiness and exposure to higher levels of violence than non-Indigenous children.

Although these gaps are very concerning, there is evidence that investing in the early childhood of disadvantaged children can make significant, long-term improvements. The Australian Government's investment in early childhood education and child care will give Indigenous children the chance to start learning early and be ready for school. Doing well at school gives a child many more opportunities in life. Government funding will also focus on improving health for Indigenous mothers and babies as well as providing support to Indigenous parents and families to help their children grow and develop.

Children and Family Centres

Under the Indigenous Early Childhood Development National Partnership Agreement, 38 Children and Family Centres will be established across Australia by June 2014. The Children and Family Centres are concentrated in areas where there is demonstrated need for these services, high disadvantage and a high proportion of Indigenous children under five years of age. These centres will provide a range of services, including child care and early learning for children and support for parents and families. They will be located in urban, regional and remote areas that are disadvantaged and have a high Indigenous population and will make it easier for children and their families to get to the services they need.

Early learning and child care for Indigenous children

The Australian Government directly funds child care services in some regional, remote and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. These services are referred to as Non Mainstream Services.

Non Mainstream Services are funded to address the following issues:

• the failure of the market to deliver mainstream child care (for example, in regional and remote areas); and
• the need for culturally competent services, in particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focussed child care services (across all geographic areas, from metropolitan to remote).

The common objectives of all Non Mainstream Services are to provide:

• quality child care that enhances the cultural, physical, social, emotional, language and learning development of all children;
• flexible early childhood education and child care services that meet the needs of all families in the community; and
• developmentally and culturally appropriate play and learning experiences which fosters individual children's strengths, abilities and interests.

Non Mainstream Services are generally not approved for the purposes of administering Child Care Benefit (CCB) so families using these services are not eligible to claim CCB or the Child Care Rebate (CCR). The cost to families in using these services, however, is usually minimal as the Australian Government meets the majority of the costs involved in providing these services through operational funding grants.

Who is eligible to use Non Mainstream Services?

While the majority of Non Mainstream Services are designed to meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, services are open to all children in the relevant community and are required to be tailored to the needs of the whole community.

What services are available?

The Australian Government supports the following child care services in regional and remote areas:

• Flexible services, which offer a range of child care services including Long Day Care, Outside School Hours Care, Occasional Care, Mobile Multi-Purpose Services, On-Farm Care, Multi-Sited Child Care, and Over Night Care.
• Multifunctional Aboriginal Children's Services, which meet the cultural, social and development needs of Indigenous children and their families.
• Mobile children's services, that visit remote areas and provide occasional care, school holiday care, playgroups, story telling, games and toy library services.
• Indigenous early learning services such as playgroups, crèches and nutrition programs.
• Family Day Care which provides care and learning and development activities in a carer's home.
• In Home Care which provides care and learning and development activities in a child's own home. In Home Care is available for families without access to a child care service or where child care services cannot meet their needs.

How can I get more information?

For further information on child care services in regional, remote and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities:

• visit mychild.gov.au
• call 13 36 84, identify the state or territory office that you wish to speak to and ask for 'Child Care Support'

Helping child care services include Indigenous children

The Australian Government is committed to providing an affordable, accessible and high-quality, early learning and child care system to all Australian children. Many studies show that high-quality education and care can stimulate a child's development and help overcome disadvantage.

Children from Indigenous families are encouraged to be part of the early childhood learning and care experience in Australia. Support is available to child care centres to ensure they include children from Indigenous families. Programs, like the Inclusion and Professional Support Program, offer specialist support to help child care centres to successfully include an Indigenous child (or indeed a child from any culturally and linguistically diverse background) into care.

Professional Support Coordinators and Inclusion Support Agencies throughout Australia work with child care centres to ensure they provide quality child care that is culturally safe, appropriate and meets the needs of Indigenous children. These organisations provide resources, training, support and advice to child care professionals about all aspects of child care service, including children's development, programming and financial management.

Indigenous pre-schools

The Australian Government, in collaboration with states and territories under the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), will ensure that, by 2013, all children have access to a quality, early childhood education program for 15 hours per week, 40 weeks per year in the year before formal schooling. This program will be delivered by degree-qualified early childhood teachers in a range of settings, including pre-school and child care. This commitment is for all Indigenous children, with a specific COAG target to ensure that all Indigenous four year olds living in remote areas have access to a program in the year before formal schooling.

For more information on pre-schools, contact your state or territory government or local council.

Supplementary Recurrent Assistance

Supplementary Recurrent Assistance is funding provided under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 (IETA Act) and helps education providers (including pre-schools) accelerate educational outcomes for Indigenous Australians beyond those which could reasonably be expected from their own funding or mainstream funding sources. Efforts by providers to improve Indigenous outcomes must focus on eight priority areas for Indigenous education.

For more information, please visit the Supplementary Recurrent Assistance website.

Pre-school Profile

Pre-school Profile is a tool to help pre-school staff assess the literacy and numeracy skills of children before they start formal school. The profile is also used to measure children's progress through their pre-school years. Pre-school Profile identifies the knowledge a child brings to school and it can be used with other measures of social development, health and wellbeing to improve their educational outcomes.

You can download a copy of this resource online or ask your child's pre-school for more information.

Supported Playgroups

Supported Playgroups are initiated and facilitated by a paid coordinator and are available to Indigenous families.

Playgroups give children under school age the chance to socialise and interact with other children and adults. Parents are usually involved in the children's activities.

Playgroups are different from child care because you stay with your child rather than leave them in someone else's care.

They also provide a good opportunity for parents to talk and share common experiences and can be held at family homes, community centres or community halls.

Visit Playgroup Australia's website or call 1800 171 882 for more information.