My visit and inquiry into preschool education in NSW highlighted for me the enormous complexity that appears to exist in the NSW system.

I noticed that, unlike all other states and territories across Australia except for Victoria, to access a preschool program in NSW requires parents to pay. An average payment per each 3 hour session was about $35.00.

I was struck by the comment from one school principal who said that, “ as a parent in the ACT access to a preschool program cost nothing and access across the border in NSW cost a considerable amount.”

In fact, on my visit to the ACT it was mentioned that one of the issues for some preschools there was the fact that some parents living close to the NSW/ACT border actually crossed the border in order to access and afford to send their children to preschool in the ACT.

Unlike most other states and territories in Australia, preschools sit within the NSW Department of Community Services rather than the Department of Education.

Discussion with some teachers raised issues related to this such as:

• Difficulty in assessing and tracking children with additional and special needs across preschool and primary school due to different support structures and administration.
• Lack of consistent transition programs for children as they moved from preschool to the first year of school. Some children had no opportunities to experience or participate in any transition program.
• Lack of shared and planned professional development between preschool and primary school staff in stand-alone preschools.
• Difficulty for parents and families trying to understand the different preschool programs, access and affordability.

I also visited some highly innovative programs in Western Sydney where school communities are attempting to work with the preschool program. Some preschool programs were part of the school campus and these programs did provide greater continuity for children and also provided the teachers with the ability to move across and between teaching in the primary years or the preschool program.

A total of only 100 preschools are part of the Department of Education and as such, differences exist in a range of issues related to teacher's conditions and children and families access.

Providing programs that operated on whole days instead of 3 hour sessions also responded to parents who worked, or who for other reasons required access to a program that provided longer hours.

I was impressed by the level of commitment to the provision of programs for children and their families, however, these seemed to be due mostly to the goodwill and innovation at a local community level rather than through a coordinated state wide approach and commitment to free high quality preschool education.

I was left with a strong impression that whilst individual organizations and professionals were responding in innovative and responsive ways to meet the needs of children, access and equity to a preschool program was far from assured for all children living in NSW.