Governments across the country need to turn increased participation in First Nations early childhood education into better developmental outcomes, says the peak body for Indigenous children.
The latest Report on Government Services (RoGS) revealed an increase in the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children attending Child Care Subsidy-funded early childhood education and care (ECEC) — from 3.4 per cent in 2021 to 5.3 per cent in 2025.
Despite this, the latest Closing the Gap data showed the proportion of children assessed as developmentally on track has declined.
SNAICC - National Voice for our Children said the increase in ECEC participation showed reforms, such as the government's removal of the Activity Test, were working.
Chief executive officer Catherine Liddle said First Nations families had long faced barriers to accessing ECEC, but the current reforms aren't the full picture.
"We should be measuring success by whether our children are arriving at school developmentally ready, and we're simply not seeing that change happen quickly enough," she said.
The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children assessed as developmentally on track across all five domains of the Australian Early Development Census has fallen to 33.9 per cent, down from 35.2 per cent in 2018 and more than 20 percentage points below non-Indigenous children.
In remote areas, this figure drops to just 16.5 per cent.
In the Northern Territory, it is 16.9 per cent, while in the ACT it is 24.1 per cent. Nationally, only 26.5 per cent of young Indigenous males are developmentally on track across all five domains, compared with 41 per cent of females.
Ms Liddle said there was extensive evidence showing how change can occur, highlighting the success of Aboriginal community-controlled early learning services.
Aboriginal community-controlled early learning services see strong and ongoing engagement with Indigenous families because they're "culturally safe, trusted and designed around the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities," she argued.
"These services don't just provide early learning. They support children's development, strengthen culture and identity, and connect families with the services they need."
Governments have the evidence in front of them, Ms Liddle said, but investment in the First Nations early childhood sector has been lacking. Instead, she argued investment needs to reflect the urgency of improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
"The missing piece isn't more evidence, time or a new strategy — it's investment from government in culturally safe services," she said.
"The next phase of reform can't just be about getting more children through the door. It has to be about giving every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child access to the kind of early learning that sets them up to thrive at school and throughout life."
