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Royal commission hears more than half of SA kids are ‘disadvantaged’

More than half of South Australian children aged under five live in “disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances”, the state’s Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care has been told during its first day of public hearings. 

Jan 25, 2023, updated Jan 25, 2023
Royal Commissioner Julia Gillard on the opening day of the SA Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care. Photo: Matt Turner/AAP

Royal Commissioner Julia Gillard on the opening day of the SA Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care. Photo: Matt Turner/AAP

Associate Professor Victoria Whitington from the SA Child Development Council told the royal commission this morning that 2021 data showed 56.4 per cent of South Australian children aged under five lived in “disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances”, compared with 40.2 per cent nationally.

She said 27.4 per cent of South Australian children aged under five lived in “the most disadvantaged” socio-economic circumstances, compared with about 20 per cent nationally.

Whitington was the first expert witness to give evidence to the royal commission when it started public hearings this morning. 

The royal commission is being led by former prime minister Julia Gillard and is a major election commitment of the Malinauskas Government. 

It was established to examine the support available for families in the first 1000 days of a child’s life.

It will also look at how South Australia can deliver universal preschool by 2026, provide better access to out-of-school hours care and increase workforce participation through improved access to child care.

Whitington said the SA Child Development Council, which is legislated to monitor and report on how children in South Australia are faring, believed that most are “faring well”.

But she said there were also “some areas of concern where vulnerability and at risk is very strongly evident”.

“We see in 2021 data that 8.9 per cent (of South Australian children aged under five) were estimated to be living in the least disadvantaged – so the most well-off socio-economic circumstances,” she said.

“That compares nationally with 19.2 per cent (of children) in this particular age group, so there is a big gap.”

The associate professor said she was also concerned about the level of data collection in South Australia, which made it difficult for the SA Child Development Council to track how children are faring.

“There’s a couple of gaps that we’re really concerned about,” she said.

“The data for children under five years is not good – we don’t have it really.

“There are people who have got data, but it’s written in particular circumstances in particular filing cabinets or on computers or whatever and it’s not accessible.

“It’s not at a standard that can be used by the Child Development Council to report securely about the development of those children in that age group.”

Whitington gave the example of child dental care data, which she said was last collected in 2015 and was now “incredibly out of date”.

“(It) tells us not a lot because, of course, things change over time, so we do need to have data that’s recent,” she said.

“I think it’s really important for government departments and other groups who have got the capacity to collect data to use, I suppose, what the Child Development Council produces to say to themselves: ‘Are we collecting or reporting data that provide evidence of how children and young people are doing?’”

During her opening remarks to the royal commission, Gillard said the science and understanding of brain development was increasingly prompting societies to examine what could be done to provide children with the best possible start in life.

She said providing the best early education and care for society’s youngest children raises a complex set of issues. 

“We know now from neuroscience and so much more that brains develop and develop quickly in our youngest children, and that the pathways that are created in those early years are very determinative of what will happen later in life,” she said.

“Yes, it is possible to address disadvantage later in life, but all of the research tells us that it becomes harder and harder over time if a child has missed out on the opportunities in the brain development of those early years.

“That’s led the state government here to make a commitment to universal access to preschool, to early childhood education for three-year-olds, and a big part of this royal commission will be thinking through how we can bring that promise to life in the best possible way.”

– with AAP

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