Background

2020 and 2021 have been challenging years for our community, but have demonstrated the resilience of families adapting to the balance of work and home lifestyles. The impacts of restrictions and lockdowns have highlighted the importance of our Early Learning Centre network, who care and provide development opportunities for one of our most vulnerable cohorts.

Looking to the future, our Early Learning Services will be guided by the Early Learning Services Strategy 2021-2031 (the Strategy), which will be at the centre of what drives our decision-making and planning for the next ten years. It is a framework designed to support and enhance our early learning services and reflect the values and needs of our Georges River families.

The Strategy aims to develop a range of financially sustainable Early Learning Services for the community, and we've broken it down to identify short, medium, and long-term actions that address high quality education and care for our local community.

The Draft Strategy

In 2020, Urbis was appointed to undertake a review for Children’s Services (the Urbis Review) to ensure that Council was meeting community needs with respect to early childhood education. The findings of the Urbis Review have informed the Draft Georges River Council Early Learning Strategy 2021-2031 (the Draft Strategy). In responding to the key findings from the Urbis Review, the following action areas have been developed as part of the Draft Strategy:

	a. One Georges River Service – focuses on a unified approach to all operational service delivery;
	b. Enhanced profile – focuses on showcasing our Council services to the community and the wider industry and also focuses on advocating for the benefits of Early Education as a whole;
	c. Access and Inclusion – places an emphasis on our community’s diverse background and how we can better support the children in our services and also in the wider community by removing barriers to access; and
	d. Staff wellbeing and business processes – seeks to drive high levels of educational programming and sound business processes which drive performance and are the foundations for excellent governance, service delivery and customer experience.

The Draft Strategy also prescribes a diverse array of actions under each action area to consolidate and expand current service delivery. Following the Urbis Review, Council officers consulted with both children and staff within Early Learning Services and across Council to develop the Draft Strategy. The Draft Strategy also incorporates our commitment to executing components of the Community Strategic Plan 2018-2028 (CSP) by:

Supporting a socially and culturally  connected community (Goal 5.3)	Providing high quality, affordable and economically viable education and care cross Council’s children’s services (Action 5.3.4)

Community engagement and consultation was conducted with Early Learning Services staff, families, community members and representatives from other councils. Community engagement activities included interviews to gather insights for our Early Learning Services. These included discovering:

Staff and community perspectives	Identifying current challenges	Thinking about new opportunities

We've created the Draft Strategy to ensure Council continues to develop and deliver high quality education and care in the community, and we are inviting you to provide your feedback. To read and review the strategy, you can access the document here, or by using the link located in the Documents sidebar of this page.

How can you be involved?

You can let us know your thoughts on the Draft Georges River Council Early Learning Strategy 2021-2031 by:

• Completing our online submission form. Click here or use the links below to submit your feedback online.
• Returning a hardcopy submission.

If you are returning a hard copy submission, please quote SF21/6284 Public Submission Early Learning Strategy 2021-2031 at the beginning of your submission and return:

In person to Georges River Council Civic Centre, MacMahon Street, Hurstville	Via email: mail@georgesriver.nsw.gov.au	Via post: PO Box 205, Hurstville BC NSW 1481

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• Voice Relay number: 1300 555 727
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