20 Much of the media messaging around this announcement strongly positioned community pre- schools as being providers of ‘education’ as compared with long day care. As with the Australian Government’s view of the role of the CCS, this does not reflect the reality that long day care services are required under the National Quality Framework to deliver a pre-school program by a qualified early childhood teachers. The continued perception across many areas of government and the community that pre-school is ‘education’ while long day care is simply ‘child care’ is hampering an effective national policy to support universal access to pre-school in the early years. This is resulting in inconsistent funding between service types, which in turn contributes to more red tape, and higher costs for families. More should be done to increase the number of children attending a pre-school program, and SDN will continue to advocate for a policy that benefits children, rather than particular types of services. Final transition to the NDIS The transition of funding for disability services to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was officially completed on 30 June 2018. SDN now receives no direct funding from the NSW Government for the delivery of therapies to children. We remain committed to delivering therapies for children aged from birth to transition to high school that improve their wellbeing, learning and development. As well as being a registered provider under the NDIS, SDN had previously been a provider of Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) services for children up to six years of age. ECEI is a gateway for children up to six years of age with a disability or developmental delay, who can be directed to some short-term early intervention where that is identified as the most appropriate support, or referred to the NDIS. We chose not to submit a tender to continue to deliver these services as we do not feel this is the best approach for young children, and had some concerns about the terms of the tender. The impact of the transition to the NDIS will become clearer as we move into 2019, however we’re seeing an upward trend in signed NDIS Service Agreements. SDN has a solid foundation and good reputation as a leader in children’s therapy. We continue to build on the positive relationship we developed with the NDIA and the sector through our prior work as an NDIS ECEI provider and ECEI Transition Advisor.