The Early Years Strategy must be inclusive of all

The Early Years Strategy, recently released by the government, will shape our children’s lives and development for the next 10 years and beyond.

Its five key Principles, eight Outcomes, and four Priority Focus Areas were designed to enable the next generation to learn, grow, and thrive during those critical early years when brain development is at its peak. 

But for the Strategy to be truly successful, it must include every child, including those with disability and developmental delay. 

Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) calls on Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth and Early Childhood Minister Anne Aly to ensure this is the case.

“Children with disability are as much our future as anyone else,” said CYDA CEO Skye Kakoschke-Moore.

“They will be our next voters, employers, employees, activists, and leaders and must be supported and encouraged to develop in step with their non-disabled peers, starting in the early years.

“Inclusivity needs to be a key consideration at every stage of this Strategy’s implementation.”

CYDA submitted seven recommendations to the draft strategy in April last year.

Central to these was the need to address existing ableist structures and to realise an aspirational vision of early childhood for children with disability specifically.

Unfortunately, this is not clearly reflected in the final Strategy, with no explicit mention of children with disability in its section on evaluating its success.    

CYDA supports and stands by the Early Years Strategy’s commitment to building an Australia in which all children thrive – we do not want to see anyone forgotten.

The full Early Years Strategy, including Easy Read and Auslan versions, can be viewed here.