The Early Years Catalyst seeks to connect, support and amplify the work of organisations across the country so that together we can disrupt and transform the early years system to ensure that all young children and their families in Australia thrive.
Early childhood is a critical period in a child’s development that has consequences for the rest of their life. Yet, despite the strong evidence base and skilled professionals wanting to deliver better outcomes for young children and their families, our early years system is still not enabling this.
The challenge facing us is very clear – according to the latest Australian Early Development Census, one in five Australian children start school developmentally vulnerable in one or more areas. This increases to one third of children living in communities experiencing the highest levels of disadvantage and to almost one half of our First Nations children.
These figures have barely changed over the past decade.
Learn More About UsCatalysing systems change to see more Australian children thriving.
The Early Years Catalyst is an ambitious, long-term systems change initiative that emerged from the 2020 National Early Years Summit.
We are a national collaboration working with organisations to improve early childhood development outcomes for children experiencing disadvantage and vulnerability.
We seek to support the field to disrupt and transform the early years system so that it better meets the needs of all Australian children and their families - so that they can get what they need, when they need it, to have the best chance to thrive.
Contact UsOur Vision
By 2030, significantly more children in Australia will be thriving in their first 2,000 days and beyond (pregnancy to five).
Our Aim
To create systemic change across the early years field so that early childhood development outcomes for children experiencing disadvantage and vulnerability improve significantly by 2030.
Our approach spans four key areas
† Australian Early Development Census National Report 2021