More Time to Thrive: The Preschool Plus research program

In 2023, following the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), a number of recommendations were made to the South Australian Government, to guide reform of the ECEC sector. As a result, the state has committed to a 20-year goal of reducing school-age developmental vulnerability in SA children from 23.8% to 15%, as measured by the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). Central to supporting the achievement of this goal, is the establishment of a state-wide, universal three and four-year-old preschool program, alongside a targeted approach to provide extra support for children at risk of developmental vulnerability.

“One in 4 children start school behind, and children from disadvantaged backgrounds continue to experience more than twice the level of developmental vulnerability - with 1 in 3 disadvantaged children vs 1 in 7 who are not disadvantaged, classified as developmentally vulnerable when they start school.” - Associate Professor Rhiannon Pilkington

What is Preschool Plus?

Extra support for children who need it most | Office for Early Childhood Development

The Government of South Australia is offering 30 hours of preschool a week for 3- and 4-year-olds who need extra support. This is called Preschool Plus. Preschool Plus will be delivered by a mix of quality government and non-government Flying Start Partner Services, including through Integrated Hubs. Integrated hubs bring preschool together with other health, wellbeing and education offerings so families and children can be supported to access the services they need in one place. With additional hours of preschool at the core, Integrated hubs will be established across the state in areas where there are high levels of developmental vulnerability.

More Time to Thrive partnerships

Under the leadership of Professor John Lynch and Associate Professor Rhiannon Pilkington, the BetterStart Group and Thriving Families SA are collaborating with Professor Sally Brinkman of Education Futures at the University of South Australia to undertake a five-year evaluation of the Preschool Plus program, examining its implementation and impacts on parents, children, and service providers. This research collaboration is partnering with the Eureka Benevolent Foundation, the Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children, and the Government of South Australia, representing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rigorously assess whether more preschool hours from age 3 can transform children’s developmental outcomes and close the equity gap before school entry. 

How we are supporting impact

Evaluating a reform initiative of this scale and complexity is both exciting and challenging. The incorporation of Integrated Hubs adds another layer of complexity to the evaluation. 

The More Time to Thrive project will seize the opportunity to maximise the knowledge gains for funding, academic, policy and practice audiences.  

Unlike typical evaluations, real time learnings will inform how the Preschool Plus program is delivered to give children the best opportunity to thrive. To do this, we will undertake research and develop rapid evidence-to-impact feedback cycles to help Preschool Plus to:  

1. Reach the right populations. We must ensure this roll-out is reaching those who need it the most as a key platform in a progressive universalist approach to addressing childhood disadvantage.
    
2. Retain children at high levels of attendance. Supporting children who need it the most will not achieve impact if we cannot support attendance through retention of children and families. 
    
3. Meet family needs. Family experiences matter. We will be checking in with families to see what is working for them, and what they find most beneficial.
    
4. Support the ECEC workforce. The early childhood education and care workforce is critical to the success of the ECEC reforms, including Preschool Plus. We will be engaging the ECEC workforce to understand what is working for them, and how things can be improved.
    
5. Deliver high quality preschool. Without quality we will not achieve impact.  We will work to understand what high quality Preschool Plus looks like, and how it supports better outcomes for children.  
    
6. Positively impact child outcomes over the short and longer-term. In the absence of a Randomised Control Trial, we will generate the highest-quality evidence of the effectiveness of Preschool Plus on developmental vulnerability and school attendance in the first year of school, and self-reported child wellbeing and academic achievement at age 8. This quasi-experimental approach is only made possible through leveraging prior investments in the existing whole-population BEBOLD-PLIDA platform. 

Interested in learning more or receiving project updates?

We welcome your interest in the More Time to Thrive Project. Contact thrivingfamilies@adelaide.edu.au to stay informed as the study progresses.