Ros SPENCE (Yuroke) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Early Childhood Education. The action I seek is that the Minister provide me with an update as to how kindergartens in the Yuroke electorate have benefited during this term of government from the Andrews Labor government’s minor kinder grants program. As the minister knows, there is a large and growing number of young families in the Yuroke electorate, making access to quality early childhood education a top priority for local residents. The minor kinder grants program is one of the Labor government’s initiatives to provide early childhood services with the support they need to ensure every child gets a great start in life, and I look forward to sharing this information from the minister with Yuroke residents.

Response: 

I am informed as follows:

The Andrews Labor Government recognises the importance of early childhood education in giving our children the best start in life. This is why we’ve invested a record $123.6 million to build, upgrade and improve early years infrastructure across the State, funding an additional 8,250 three and four year old kindergarten places since November 2014. This funding includes $43 million as part of the 2018-19 State Budget, representing the single largest state investment in early years infrastructure in Victoria’s history.

The Children’s Facilities Capital Program (CFCP) consists of both Major and Minor Grant rounds each year.

Investment through the CFCP has seen a number of kindergartens in your area receive funding in recent years. These include:

• $1.6 million in 2015-16 for the new Aitken Hill Community Centre, currently under construction. This Centre is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019 and will provide two preschool rooms, two maternal child health consulting rooms, three specialist rooms for other allied child health and wellbeing service provision, as well as flexible multipurpose community meeting, functions rooms and a playground.
• $1.6 million in 2017-18 for the new Greenvale West Integrated Children’s Centre, to build a flexible, multipurpose space for children, families and the local community. This Centre is scheduled for completion at the end of 2019.

These projects respond to growing demand for places, raise the quality of learning environments and improve access to services for children from vulnerable and/or disadvantaged families.

I also recently announced the successful grant recipients of the 2018-19 CFCP Minor Grants and I am pleased to advise you that the following kindergartens were successful in your electorate:

• Goodstart Early Learning Craigieburn Central – $1500 for an IT grant
• Attwood Child Care Centre and Kindergarten – $1500 for an IT grant

The Andrews Labor Government has also committed $2.5 million from the Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution fund (GAIC) to provide three relocatable kindergartens for Hume in Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park and Kalkallo. These temporary and innovative initiative is providing high quality learning environments and addressing immediate demand for kindergarten places in your electorate.

I thank you for your continued advocacy for your local early childhood services and commitment to providing high quality early years education for children across your electorate.

Jenny Mikakos MP
Minister for Early Childhood Education