2024 de Lissa Oration

17 October 2024

The Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion invites you to attend the

2024 de Lissa Oration

“Grappling With the World as it is: Reforming the Early Childhood System”

presented by Kim Little, Inaugural Chief Executive of the Office for Early Childhood Development in South Australia

Kim Little is the inaugural Chief Executive of the Office for Early Childhood Development. She is tasked with leading the design and implementation of landmark reforms in early childhood in South Australia, to increase the number of children starting school developmentally on track.

Through this oration, Kim will explore the opportunities and challenges that come with these reforms – and with all large-scale market-based social policy reform.

Background

The Office for Early Childhood Development was created to champion change and to help build a system that gives all South Australian children a flying start to life. The Office is committed to reducing the rate of childhood developmental vulnerability and creating better lives for young South Australians and their families.

Guided by the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care, the Office is tasked with a significant responsibility: creating and bringing together a holistic, connected system for early childhood development across South Australia. The reform will build a significant new service offer (3-year-old preschool) and connect and strengthen a range of services for children and families – essentially creating a system within a market.

The South Australian Government’s landmark investment in early childhood creates not only the opportunity but also the obligation to create change for children. The challenge and the fascination of this work is that it requires us to fully grapple with the complexity, the strengths and weaknesses of our world – as it is. Balancing this without losing sight of the pressing, urgent need to drive it towards a different, better world in service of children.

Biography

With expertise in education and social policy, Kim Little was most recently the lead Deputy Secretary for the implementation of the Victorian Government’s ambitious Education State kindergarten reforms. This included the introduction of universal 3-year-old kindergarten and successful programs to lift the quality of kindergarten-offering services. Kim has held leadership roles in the areas of early childhood, higher education and skills, with a focus on policy matters, market design and intervention. She has also worked as a philosopher at Monash University and a corporate lawyer. Kim grew up in rural Queensland and Papua New Guinea and is married to a South Australian.

The de Lissa Oration is an annual event that takes place during Children's Week, and is named in honour of Lillian de Lissa, who was a world-renowned early childhood educator and reformer whose significant work in South Australia and overseas has left a lasting legacy.