That ICPA (Aust) advocate to the Minister for Education and the Commonwealth Department of Education for a separate Geographically Isolated In Home Care (IHC) Early Education Service Delivery Price Project to accurately represent the actual cost of delivering IHC in geographically isolated homes.
The Australian Government’s Early Education Service Delivery Price (SDP) project will provide a data driven understanding of the reasonable costs of quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) service delivery.
This is a key part of the Government’s commitment to ensuring Australian families can access universal, affordable ECEC no matter their background or postcode.
The findings from this project will be used to inform future funding reforms. The project will ensure the Government can understand the reasonable cost for providers to deliver quality ECEC services throughout Australia – including where costs vary by cohort or location. This will be a critical enabling piece as the Government works towards a universal ECEC system and will inform future reforms.
ICPA(Aust) are concerned that IHC data collected during this project will not be presented in the broader project due to small number of families using IHC similar to how data regarding IHC has been left out of previous research completed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) ACCC and the Productivity Commission therefore request that specific geographically isolated In Home Care data be collated in a separately funded project.
