Introduction
The preschool offer for South Australian children
As part of the South Australian Government’s early childhood reform package, children will be eligible to receive up to 15 hours per week of 3-year-old preschool. The program will be rolled out between 2026 and 2032.
By 2032, all South Australian children can benefit from taking part in 2 years of quality preschool in the years before school. This will build on and strengthen the existing universal preschool program for 4-year-olds. We know the importance of teacher-led programs, however, the new preschool model – as defined through the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care – is much more than this.
The new model enables differentiated levels of embedded supports for children and their families. Practice and leadership supports, along with funding for planning time and professional development, are included in the model.
Preschool Boost will also deliver services, programs, and supports to build a service’s capacity to respond to children’s developmental needs. Ready Set Preschool will address barriers to preschool participation through outreach funding and programs to engage and help retain children and families in areas of greatest need.
Extra support for children who need it most
All children benefit from 2 years of quality preschool, but children who need more support benefit more – and are likely to gain more – from extra hours of preschool.
Between 2026 and 2032, the government is putting in place measures so that up to 2,000 3- and 4-year-old children at risk of developmental vulnerability can access more preschool hours (up to 30 hours per week, or up to 1,200 hours per year) in each of the 2 years before school, alongside additional supports.
Some of these places will be delivered by a mix of quality government and non-government Partner Services, and others will be through Integrated Hubs.
Integrated Hubs bring preschool together with other health, wellbeing and education services so families and children can be supported to access the services they need in one place.
Partnership priorities
The role of the OECD is to help Partner Providers, and their dedicated teams, to make the biggest possible positive difference to children’s lives.
This requires Partner Providers to:
- have strong foundations through their commitment to meeting their legal, ethical, financial and operational obligations; and
- align their provider and service operations to OECD’s service delivery priorities.
Service delivery priorities
Based on the research and sector expertise, we know that a service needs to prioritise 3 things to make this big positive difference.
Services need to be:
| Warm and welcoming | A place that families, caregivers and children from all backgrounds want to be in and can be in – actively inclusive, trustworthy, and Culturally responsive.
|
|---|---|
| Committed to Quality | A place that provides a quality service under the Education and Care Services National Law (South Australia) (National Law) and National Quality Standards (NQS), including warm and responsive relationships and intentional play-based practice.
|
| Acting early, with others | A place that reliably spots and actively addresses children’s specific developmental vulnerabilities, working with other professionals (e.g. allied health) and parents/carers.
|
It is an obligation on Partner Providers to create the conditions in their Services and with their skilled workforce to deliver against these priorities and maintain that consistently.
This reinforces, extends and helps to fund obligations that providers and services have under the National Law.
Flying Start Partnership Plan
The OECD supports Partner Providers and their Services to consistently integrate best practice across the 3 service delivery priorities into everyday work with children, families and staff. In turn, there is an expectation that Partner Providers and their Services will leverage this support to strengthen practice and outcomes over time.
For some of the funding outlined in this Guide, a service-level ‘Flying Start Partnership Plan’ (Partnership Plan), which details how this funding will be used, will need to be submitted for approval by the OECD. The Partnership Plan is one plan that will cover applicable Funded Programs, and where this is relevant, it is referenced in the Funded Program Stream requirements. Planning for these programs is a partnership requirement.
The Partnership Plan is a way of anchoring the service delivery priorities for an individual Partner Service. It is structured to help Partner Services, with support from Partner Providers, to think strategically about what you want to focus on in using these specific Funded Program Streams, and how you will go about that – i.e., what your goals are, and what actions will drive those goals.
Partner Services must submit their Partnership Plan for OECD approval before 1 November to allow sufficient time to book the approved supports/programs ready for the start of preschool in January each year. The OECD's Local Teams will support Services with planning and will manage endorsement and final approval of plans.
Local Teams will meet with Services throughout the year to assess how planned supports are being implemented. A program report against the Partnership Plan will be required annually.