SA bid to lead childcare reform

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The South Australian Government will nominate itself to lead the nation in childcare reform when education ministers meet in Melbourne today.

SA Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith says she supports Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's calls for one stop shop children's centres, but says South Australia is already in the process of developing 20 of them.

She says the State Government recognises the need to combine childcare, health and parenting services on primary school grounds and has invested $30 million to do it.

Dr Lomax-Smith says she wants to help other states to follow South Australia's example.

"Our one stop shops, our children's centres not only have childcare, kindy and school on the same grounds but most importantly have nurses, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, councillors and family support," she said.

"This is one of our initiatives we've been developing is children's centres and we'll be taking the lead in helping other states form this agenda.

"This is an important meeting for us because we know that children's development occurs mainly before they go to school."