The state government will be expanding the Best Start, Best Life program with three new initiatives to help support parents across Victoria, like those in Hume and Whittlesea.
These reforms make up part of a $9 billion state government investment over the next decade to save families money and support women to return to the workforce.
Kinder will be made free in Victoria, the government will also deliver a new year of universal pre-prep for four-year-olds and establish 50 government operated childcare centres.
This means from 2023, any family with a three or four-year-old will pay nothing for kinder.
Three and four-year-old kinder will also be free, saving families $2,500 per child every year and giving more women a choice to return to the workforce according to the government.
Over the next decade, four-year-old kinder will transition to pre-prep – increasing to a universal 30-hour a week program of play-based learning for every four-year-old child in Victoria.
Pre-prep will be delivered through kinders and long day care centres, creating a high-quality, universal program to give four-year-old kids the opportunity to socialise and learn through play.
To help address the current shortage of available childcare places, the state Labor government will establish 50 government-owned childcare centres in areas to deliver childcare, kinder and pre-prep.
Located in areas with the greatest unmet demand and informed by the ‘childcare deserts’ work from the Mitchell Institute, the first centres will open from 2025.
Where possible, the centres will be co-located with schools to avoid the double-drop off, and alongside hospitals, TAFEs and major employers to create convenient access for working parents.
Premier Daniel Andrews said: “These massive reforms are about setting our kids up for the future and investing in women – who for far too long have had to do far too much.”
“These are big changes, but they just make sense – giving our kids the very best start in life and delivering early education and care that actually works for families.”
