Writing an Early Years policy that actually works is harder than it sounds. Imagine the perfect policy: shaped by the people it’s meant to serve, building on generations of wisdom, and future-proofed for inevitable societal change. Is this even possible?
The Centre for Public Impact, together with Minderoo Foundation, is working to make this more of a reality. Designed with Early Years policy in mind, we’re creating a learning program for policymakers. One that will equip them to build the awareness, networks and knowledge needed to navigate the system in a way that leads to lasting impact.
We began by listening
In preparing to design this program, we spent the past three months listening to policymakers, evidence generators, lived experience advocates and senior leaders. We wanted to understand what helps and what gets in the way of incorporating diverse types of evidence into the policy-making process.
What emerged wasn’t surprising to those living it daily, but it painted a clear picture of why good intentions often struggle within the constraints of the system to create transformative outcomes:
- We heard about the tension between wanting to listen and respond to the lived experiences of children and families, while working in systems that reward speed over depth, and compliance over creativity.
- We heard about the frustration of engaging with communities facing real needs, only to then be unable to deliver the changes they require.
- We learned that many people making policy often come from remarkably similar backgrounds, creating blind spots around what might work for those in less dominant cultures, gaps that no amount of technical expertise can fill.
- We heard about working within complex timelines and agendas, and with limits on what can be shared due to sensitivity restrictions.
- We also heard how public servants sometimes feel unsure about how to exercise their agency to shape a more adaptive policy-making process, and influence the existing culture to support the kind of policy work they joined the public service to do.
If you’re working in Early Years policy across Australia and New Zealand, you will know these challenges intimately. But that’s not all we heard. We also heard ideas that show how policymakers can move beyond these barriers to write policy that is meaningfully informed by the diverse voices of children, families and communities.
It’s not (just) about skills
It quickly became clear that the absence of diverse forms of evidence and stories from communities in the policy-making process isn’t primarily because of a knowledge gap – although those do exist.
The public servants we spoke to are knowledgeable, committed, curious and passionate about making good policy. They already attend the many training courses designed to equip them with skills to evaluate data and evidence. The problem doesn’t seem to be individual capability or the opportunity to develop it.
This is why we’re not offering traditional skills-based training. Instead, we’re inviting public servants on a learning journey that we’ll embark on together as a cohort, leaning on the Centre for Public Impact’s expertise and coaching, and the practical wisdom that comes from peer learning.
The goal isn’t to change the whole system overnight. It’s actually even more exciting. Our goal is to work with public servants to collectively discover and put into action ways of navigating and engaging with the current system that will lead to more impactful Early Years policy.
The invitation
This learning program will support public servants to explore both the inner work (how you show up) and the outer work (how you engage). It will balance practical theory, contemporary examples and insights from expert guest speakers, with time to reflect on individuals’ mindsets, values, and systems public servants operate within.
Together, we’ll engage in carefully facilitated conversations about the current policy-making process, power and power literacy, ideas of rigour and different types of evidence, the policy ecosystem, and how to influence up and out.
We’ll also practice applying these ideas to real projects our public servants are working on, and come together to support each other in rehearsing new ways of working.
We’re still shaping this program, informed by conversations with people across the sector. If you’re working in Early Years policy and these challenges resonate, we want to hear from you.
Our first cohort of public servants will begin the learning program in early September 2025, with all costs covered by the Minderoo Foundation. If you would like to join this cohort, or any of the subsequent cohorts as we iterate this program over the next two years, get in touch with Keira Lowther at keira@centreforpublicimpact.org.
