Reaching Rural and Regional Victoria | School Readiness Funding

In an Australia-wide first, the Victorian government is providing $160 million in extra support to funded kindergartens over the next four years. According to the 2015 Australian Early Development Census, one in five Victorian children start school ‘developmentally vulnerable’, the impact of which can be felt across a lifetime.

The funding can be used to support early learning services and improve developmental outcomes for children, particularly children those from disadvantaged or remote communities. It is a new and permanent part of kindergarten funding in Victoria and is allocated to services on the basis of need, so children who need extra support get it.

The Department of Education has curated a ‘menu of evidence-informed programs and supports’ that serves as a guide for what services can spend their funding on. Body Safety Australia’s Body Safety Sueperstars! program is now included on the menu, which has greatly improved accessibility for kindergartens and early learning centres in rural and regional Victoria to body safety and protective behvaiours education.

Children in remote communities are two and a half times more likely to be victims in substantiated cases of abuse compared with children in major cities, which is why Body Safety Australia’s educators so excited about this new funding scheme.

To learn more about School Readiness Funding, please visit the Department’s website.