Investigating Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care
Our Members
Ms Frances Press
Ma Int. Disc. (Women's Studies) UNSW
Frances is recognised as an authority on early childhood education and care policy in Australia. She has been co-director and primary contributor to state, national and international reviews of early childhood policy, including the OECD's Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care: Australian Background Report (2000); reviews of early childhood education both in the ACT and NSW for those respective Governments (2001, 2002); the NSW Department of Community Services for its children's services regulatory review (2003); and the National Childcare Accreditation Council's review of Accreditation Standards (2007). Frances has worked as a consultant with the Centre for Community Child Health for the whole-of-government NSW Initiative for the First Three Years of Childhood (2001). In 2006 she was commissioned by the National Investment for the Early Years (NIFTeY) and the Commissions for Children and Young People in NSW and Queensland to research and write a major report on national early childhood education and care systems in Australia: What about the kids? Policy directions for improving the experiences of infants and young children in a changing world (2006). In 2006 was invited to address the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia Roundtable on Childcare. In 2007 Frances co-edited, with Jennifer Sumsion, two special childcare policy editions of the international journal Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood.
Frances is a Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery Grant funded research project A multi-modal investigation of current and proposed structures and processes determining and sustaining quality in Australian centre-based child care. She is also a Chief Investigator on an ARC Linkage Project "What is life like for babies and toddlers in childcare? Understanding the lived experience of infants through innovative mosaic methodology". In 2008 she completed a comprehensive literature review canvassing policy developments in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom for an international workshop funded by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY): Building an International Collaboration in Early Childhood Education and Care, hosted by the Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW.