Public Economics Forum: Early Years Education and Care for Children Facing Extreme Adversity
How can policy respond to new evidence on an early years intervention which is changing the life trajectories of extremely disadvantaged children?
Children who experience extreme adversity in their early years are launched on a lifetime trajectory of compromised opportunities and disadvantage. The Early Years Education Program (EYEP), is an Australian centre-based model of education and care which aims to remedy this problem and ultimately ensure that at-risk and vulnerable children realise their full potential and arrive at school developmentally and educationally equal to their peers. The EYEP program has been evaluated over the past decade in Melbourne with a randomised controlled trial (RCT) that is being conducted by a multi-disciplinary research team.
Join us at the Public Economics Forum to hear from the leading researchers in the field of early years education and care, and who are undertaking the trial of EYEP, about:
- The challenges for current childcare policy to prevent and remedy impacts from extreme family stress and social adversity in early childhood
- The key features and design of the Early Years Education Program
- New research findings on the impact of EYEP on children and their primary caregivers
- What the findings mean for the design of policy to change the life trajectories of extremely disadvantaged children and address other complex issues
Expert panel of Speakers
- Dr Anne Kennedy, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne
- Associate Professor Brigid Jordan, Royal Children's Hospital, University of Melbourne, and Murdoch Children's Research Institute
- Dr Yi-Ping Tseng, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, University of Melbourne
- Professor Jeff Borland, Economics Department, University of Melbourne
Speakers Biographies
Dr Anne Kennedy, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.
Anne Kennedy has extensive experience in early childhood education as an academic, researcher, advocate, writer, teacher, trainer and consultant. Anne is an honorary fellow of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne and was a member of the Charles Sturt University writing team that developed the national Early Years Learning Framework in 2009. Dr Kennedy’s work has a focus on supporting early childhood professionals in leading and developing curriculum and programs designed to improve outcomes for children, families and communities, with a special focus on working with families and children experiencing significant risk and disadvantage.
Associate Professor Brigid Jordan, Royal Children's Hospital, University of Melbourne, and Murdoch Children's Research Institute.
Brigid Jordan is the Associate Professor of Paediatric Social Work at the Royal Children’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne and leads the infant mental health research team at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She has had a key role in developing the clinical field of infant mental health in Australia, is a Past President of the National Australian Association for Infant Mental Health and has served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the World Association for Infant Mental Health.
The focus of her research is the relationship between early life stress – because of serious illness and hospital experience or significant family stress and social disadvantage – and the health and mental health of infants and their families. This research has a strong emphasis on clinical and translational outcomes for paediatric social work and infant mental health practice.
Dr Yi-Ping Tseng, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, University of Melbourne.
Yi-Ping Tseng is a Senior Research Fellow at Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, University of Melbourne. Dr Tseng has a longstanding research interest in issues related to economic and social disadvantage. Her work in this field focuses on understanding the behaviour of extremely disadvantaged populations and evaluating programs and policies to assist with breaking the cycle of disadvantage. She has a depth of experience in conducting evaluations of government policies using administrative data (e.g. Work for the Dole and Job Seeker Diary) and is currently involved in the evaluations of the Try, Test and Learn fund and the NSW Future Directions for Social Housing. Dr Tseng is also experienced in conducting randomised controlled trials (RCT) to evaluate innovative programs for homeless people, youth with mental illness, and children facing extreme family stress. She is passionate about understanding the mechanisms, effectiveness and financial viability of social intervention programs, in order to provide vital evidence to help shape effective policies.
Professor Jeff Borland, Economics Department, University of Melbourne
Jeff Borland is Truby Williams Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne. His main research interests are analysis of the operation of labour markets in Australia, program and policy evaluation and design, and Australian economic history. Jeff is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and in 2010 he was the Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard University. Jeff is currently President of the Victorian branch of the Economic Society of Australia. You can read his monthly ‘Snapshot’ on the Australian labour market at: https://sites.google.com/site/borlandjum/labour-market-snapshots