Preschool aged children’s experiences of integrated early years services in Australia: including missing perspectives

Abstract

Internationally, there has been a concerted policy focus on the integration of early years services to support children and families by bridging the divide between early childhood care and education services and formal schooling. The move toward service integration in Australia has been widely adopted into policy at all levels as ‘best practice’ for supporting children and families. However, to date, service integration research has focused on the experiences of adults rather than the experiences of young children within these services. This study offers the first empirical analysis of four-to-five-year-old children’s experiences of transitioning to school in South Australia from a range of service integration models using a qualitative longitudinal study design. Findings suggest that service integration had little impact on children’s experiences of transition. Findings additionally suggest that further research on the impact of service integration on the experiences of both young children and their parent/caregiver(s) during the transition to school is warranted.