Communities has major focus on early years

Younger Queenslanders and their families are set to reap significant benefits under the State Budget, with an extra $7.52 million in 2007–08 in funding for the Department of Communities to provide enhanced early years services.

Communities Minister Warren Pitt said the budget also included money to establish early childhood and education services and to set up four early years centres.

“These funding allocations build on a raft of initiatives announced in last year’s State Budget and represent the ongoing implementation of the Best Start initiative, which we announced during last year’s election,” he said.

Mr Pitt said the budget’s early years initiatives would receive increased financial assistance to enhance the current services and support provided to families who have children up to eight years old.

“A total of $14.3 million will be spent fulfilling the important government commitment to establish early childhood education and care centres,” he said.

“We plan to purchase and upgrade six decommissioned off-site pre-schools and establish community-based early childhood education and care centres.

“The six new centres are in addition to four early years centres we committed to in last year’s budget.

“The early years centres will also receive a further $5 million to boost capital works to ensure high quality, welcoming centres for children and families.

“These centres will provide early childhood education and care services as well as a range of prevention and early intervention services to support families and children.

“These initiatives are part of our long-term plan to address small issues early, rather than wait until they become bigger and more expensive to rectify in later years.

“Some $5.7 million will be spent on capital grants work to assist community-based providers to establish early childhood education and care services on school sites.

“These centres will make it much easier and safer for parents, particularly if they have school-age children and under-eights to drop off or collect.”

Mr Pitt said the 2007–08 State Budget represented a broad range of initiatives and programs that would benefit individuals and communities across Queensland.

“The latest State Budget provides a total operational budget for the Department of Communities of $598 million and an investment of $92.3 million in capital works.

“This budget is about funding our vision of building stronger communities throughout Queensland by tackling a wide range of issues that affect our communities.”

Media contact: Minister Pitt’s Office 3235 4280