Increased learning support for pre-schoolers

An increase of $24.8 million for learning support services for pre-school children over the next 4 years was announced on 24 June by Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin.

This additional funding means more children can receive the learning support they need before they start school.  Intervening effectively and early for children with these needs makes a real difference to their development and learning.

The last 5 years have seen a demand increase of 21% for the Behaviour Service, 15% for the Communications Service and 15% for the Early Intervention Service.   

This latest funding is in addition to the extra $21.5 million over 4 years for Early Intervention Services provided as part of Budget 2018.  The new funding will be used to recruit additional specialists to work with children across all regions in the country.

Other changes that are underway, including the development of a Learning Support Action Plan, the roll-out of the Learning Support Delivery Model and trialling changes in practice to bring services to the child, will also improve the provision of learning support for young children.

Minister Martin also announced 35 additional Early Intervention Study Awards worth $20,000 and 28 Speech Language Therapist Scholarships worth $5,000 over the next 4 years, to build the specialist workforce.

Early intervention study awards

Speech language therapist scholarships

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