Victorian Early Years Framework

“Early childhood professionals are engaged with our children’s needs, day in and day out. As early childhood professionals, advocacy is as crucial as our passion for our work” (Page, Brinkerhoff, Salomone Testa, Marshall, 2016). Early childhood teachers are guided by many policies which advocate for an inclusive high quality education and care service and the rights of a child. Early Childhood Australia along with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework and The National Quality Framework provide these policies to ensure high standards are set and achieve, that services are available and accessible and that all children’s right are respected.

Early Childhood Australia is the largest organisation in Australia who advocate

for early childhood. We know from the UN Convention on the Rights of the child that it is a child’s right to have access to an education and that any organisation which works with children, such as an early childhood education service, must have the child’s best interests at the forefront of their work (Convention on the Rights of the Child: Australian Human Rights Commission, 2017). Early Childhood Australia’s advocacy goals highlight the importance of the rights of a child and that there be ongoing growth and inclusion in early childhood education. First developed in 1988, Early Childhood Australia released the Code of Ethics for early childhood professionals. The Code of Ethics is a “set of statements about appropriate and expected behaviour of early childhood professionals” (Early Childhood Australia, 2017). These principles guide early childhood teachers and professionals to act in the best interest of the child to provide the highest quality of education and care possible. Not only do these principles relate to children but also to colleagues and families. A national campaign, Early Learning: Everyone Benefits, developed by Early Childhood Australia focuses on awareness and accessibility to early learning. It has three main goals; To have all children benefit from participating in early learning, to have political parties commit to policies, to change the national conversation on the value of early learning (Early Learning – Everyone Benefits, 2017). The campaign is aimed at educating all communities and politicians on the benefits of early learning. Per Diamond & Whitington (2015), studies into brain development have found that the quality of the environments children are exposed to early in life are essential to strengthening brain structure (Diamond A, Whitington V 2015).

The Victorian Early Years learning Framework was established in 2009, it is influenced by Being, Belonging and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia and guides early childhood teachers daily practice.

The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework underpins early childhood teachers to work in collaboration with families to support children and embrace diversity. According to Fenech M 2013, quality early childhood education improves brain development and enhances children’s future in life through social experience (Fenech M 2013). The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework aims to create quality early childhood education through the practice principles for learning and the development and learning outcomes which guide early childhood teachers. The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework acknowledges that each child learns at different paces. The learning and development outcomes support each child as an individual and are inclusive of all learning styles and approaches working collaboratively with families “…to build continuity across early years’ settings and programs for children from birth to eight years” (State of Victoria Department of Education and Training, 2017, p17). Coming back to the Un Conventions on the rights of a child we know that a child has a right to an education which develops them to their full potential (Convention on the Rights of the Child: Australian Human Rights Commission, 2017).

In the VEYLDF practice principles we see that high expectations are held for every child, “High expectations by professionals and families means being open to possibilities about children’s capabilities and avoiding being locked in to ideas about what children are capable of at a certain age or stage” (State of Victoria Department of Education and Training, 2017, P10). To provide a high quality of education we need to be aware of every single child’s differences in abilities and how to facilitate them, we know from studies undertaken by Blackmore R, Aylward E and Grace R that parents are in search of services to enrol their children where the teachers were skilled enough to scaffold the child’s individual and unique learning styles (Blackmore R, Aylwards E, Grace R 2016).
The National Quality Framework was implemented in 2012 by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority and advocates for high quality in early childhood settings.

The objectives of the National Quality Framework in early education settings are; to ensuring safety, health and wellbeing, to improve education and development outcomes, to promote improvement within the sector and to improve public knowledge and access to information. (Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority, 2013, p3) The National Quality Framework consists of a national legislative framework, a National Quality Standard, a national rating assessment, a regulatory authority in each state and the national body of the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. (Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority, 2013, p4) The National Quality Standards for Australia set “…a new benchmark for high-quality ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) by emphasising the importance of educators facilitating learning in play-based programs.” (Barber, Cohrssen & Church, 2014) The National Quality Standard is linked to the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework and Being, Belonging and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia and is comprised of seven quality areas. These areas are; Educational program and practice, children’s health and safety, physical environment, staffing arrangements, relationships with children,

collaborative partnerships with families and communities and leadership and service management. (Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority, 2017, p9) These areas are then broken down into 18 standards which contains 58 elements. These areas are what every early childhood service must abide by and achieve to be rated in the national quality rating and assessment process. A service will then be given a rating ranging from excellent, exceeds national quality standard, meets national quality standard, working towards national quality standard and significant improvement needed. Through this process it will become apparent which services are of a high quality and which services need improvement. Fenech M, 2013, brings our attention to the public availability of these ratings so that parents and families can assess which service is best for their child based on the quality rating given (Fenech M 2013). The National Quality Framework along with the National Quality Standard advocates for early childhood through assessing and rating each early childhood service against areas, standards and elements to ensure services are of the highest quality for children in their care.
Early childhood teachers are guided by; Early Childhood Australia, The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework and The National Quality Framework to ensure all children have an opportunity to be exposed to high quality early education and care. We can see through evidence that Early Childhood Australia advocates children’s rights though their Code of Ethics which highlights principles which guide early childhood professionals to act in the best interest of the child. The Victorian Early Years Learning Framework uses a set of practice principles to advocate for inclusion for all and to support a high quality early education service. The National Quality Framework has shown support for an inclusive high quality service through the assessment and rating process to rate service and make this accessible to all. Advocacy in early childhood is important and essential to uphold the rights of the child and to ensure there is an inclusive high quality of early education and care available to all Australian children.