National Information Agreement on Early Childhood Education and Care
At its 6 November meeting, MCEECDYA endorsed the National Information Agreement on Early Childhood Education and Care (NIA ECEC). This Agreement will facilitate and improve the collection, sharing and reporting of early childhood education and care information. It was developed in consultation with the Australian Government, states and territories, as well as key data agencies. The NIA ECEC is an important step in national efforts to improve the quality and reliability of early childhood education and care data. The development of the Agreement is a key element of the COAG monitoring and reporting arrangements, especially for early childhood education for all children in the year before school under the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education (NP ECE), and for Indigenous children in that age group, under the Closing the Gap agenda. A copy of the Agreement is available here.
New governance arrangements for the NIA ECEC came into effect on 15 December 2010. These new arrangements are contained in the Agreement Variation, which should be read in conjunction with the NIA ECEC.
