August 2021 Digest 1 Looking Ahead Australian Children and Young People’s Knowledge Acceleration Hub Sector adaptation and innovation shaped by COVID-19 and the latest evidence on COVID-19 and its impacts on children and young people A collaboration between ARACY and UNICEF Australia Introduction The Australian Children and Young People’s Knowledge Acceleration Hub is an initiative created by ARACY and UNICEF Australia to ensure that the impacts of COVID-19 on children in Australia are fully understood and communicated to decision makers at all levels. To do this, we will draw upon data from Australia and international comparators, the latest research and analysis of COVID-19 and its impacts on children and families, and related research with applicable lessons for the known and anticipated impacts of COVID-19 and their potential mitigation. Our Approach to Wellbeing The Australian Children and Young People’s Knowledge Acceleration Hub uses both ARACY’s The Nest child wellbeing framework and UNICEF’s Children’s Goals. The Nest looks at wellbeing as a series of six connected and interdependent domains. A child needs to be doing well in all six domains to thrive. Deprivation in one domain is likely to affect wellbeing in other domains. UNICEF’s Children’s Goals are derived from the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child and align with the domains of The Nest. Please visit the ARACY website for more information on The Nest and its uses in conceptualising child wellbeing, and the Australian Children and Young People’s Knowledge Acceleration Hub online library for summary content and future digests. Find out more about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child here: https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention 2 Looking Ahead Issue 12: August 2021 This 12th release covers information and analysis released from July through to August 2021. Throughout the pandemic in 2020 we have released new digests regularly, bringing together the latest research and information to inform policy, practice, and decision-making. We are delighted to again partner with UNICEF Australia to continue producing this digest throughout 2021. We will highlight the data sources available that assess the impact of COVID-19 on the wellbeing of children and young people in Australia, and report on headline indicators. Each digest will take a more in-depth focus on particular issues. Key Issues Key issues addressed in this issue include: The changing picture for children and young people’s health as the Delta variant spreads in Australia and internationally • Vaccination priorities and focus in response to the increased spread of Delta among children and young people • How to most effectively inform and motivate young people and First Nations Australians to get vaccinated, including questions of supply and access If you would like to jump to information on a specific wellbeing domain, click one of the squares. This report was prepared by Lauren Renshaw and Sadhana Seriamlu (ARACY). 3 Looking Ahead Affordable broadband is needed to help kids thrive in online schooling David Spriggs is the Chair of the Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance (ADIA) and the CEO of Infoxchange. The ADIA is a shared initiative with over 500 business, government, academic and community organisations working together to accelerate action on digital inclusion. With the highly contagious Delta strain of COVID-19 on our shores and vaccines not yet widely available, it is becoming apparent Australia is facing several months of lockdowns. The restrictions are seeing more and more children learning from home, fully reliant on devices and a stable internet connection to participate in school. For some families it’s not difficult to charge a few iPads and log on to their home Wi-Fi. But for many Australians, the pivot to online schooling can be daunting and sometimes impossible. According to the Australian Digital Inclusion Index, more than 2.5 million Australians remain offline, not having the devices or internet connections they need to participate in a digital society. Affordability plays a significant role in digital exclusion, with low-income households having a lower digital inclusion score. Also, mobile-only users have a lower score and are paying more per gigabyte than a fixed connection. Offline Australians, regardless of age, are being left behind in the age of COVID-19. Checking into venues via QR codes, applying for disaster payments and registering for vital Government services that have moved online, all require digital connection and know-how, which is further exacerbating the gap between online and offline citizens. When it comes to schooling, we are seeing troubling data around the digital divide. The June 2020 South Australian Council of Social Service and Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) report found that nearly 50% of low-income families had difficulty paying for home internet. Other research backs these findings. The Queensland Auditor General released a report, saying, “Through the department’s survey, students and parents or caregivers reported that not all students have access to the internet at home. The percentage of students without internet access increases for low-income households.” The report shows 10% of students in the lowest socioeconomic quintile did not have access to the internet at home and 14% of students in the same cohort did not have access to a device. Schools and organisations have worked hard over the last 18 months to ensure digitally excluded students can still participate in school. For example, the Queensland Department of Education in 2020 gave out 5,200 devices to schools, and NSW has distributed 20,000 devices and 13,000 dongles to students since the beginning of the pandemic. Optus and The Smith Family also have an initiative to help digitally excluded students access the internet through free prepaid sim cards with data. Even with support from schools and other organisations, the stories of students unable to attend school because they don’t have the device or internet required are numerous and heart breaking. In May, the Federal Government released the Digital Economy Strategy, which maps the Government’s pathway to become a “leading digital economy and society by 2030.” But the Government missed a vital opportunity to make digital inclusion the cornerstone of the Strategy. 4 Looking Ahead In encouraging news, since its release, the Government has identified areas to strengthen in the Strategy including by increasing the focus on digital inclusion, which was a welcomed announcement. The Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance (ADIA) believes in order to make Australia a leading digital economy, we must ensure all Australians are able to participate. In October 2020, the ADIA released a position paper outlining what should be done to increase digital inclusion in Australia. We called for a National Digital Inclusion Roadmap to address the issues of accessibility, ability and affordability. In the paper, the ADIA urged the Federal Government to take action to ensure permanent internet affordability measures. ACCAN has the No Australian Left Offline initiative that calls for an affordable broadband option for low-income households, which the ADIA supports. Without affordable internet access, the digital divide will continue to widen, and children and adults alike will be left behind as our society digitises. If COVID-19 has a silver lining, it’s that it brought digital inclusion to the forefront of policy makers’ minds. When work, school, society and the economy were pushed online simultaneously, it made the digital divide clearer than it ever has been before. However, if Australia - at a time when we are frequently in and out of lockdowns - does not ensure our children have the devices and internet needed to thrive in school from home, then our priorities are misplaced. School kids across Australia are living through this pandemic with the rest of the world, and we need to ensure that no child is left behind. The 500+ business, government, academic and community member organisations of the Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance (ADIA) conduct a variety of research and practical programs aimed at reducing the digital divide and enabling greater social and economic participation for everyone in Australia. ADIA is supported by Infoxchange, Google and Telstra. Australia Post was also a founding partner. Find out more at: www.digitalinclusion.org.au 5 Every child thrives Material Basics and survives This wellbeing domain represents children having their basic needs met. This includes a roof over their heads, sufficient family access to income and access to basic goods such as food, clothes, toys and technology. Given the economic crisis that is following the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to assess how these multiple crises have impacted children and young people. Australian data sources Much of the existing data on the availability of material basics for children and young people are extrapolated from that collected at the population level. However, there is an increasing amount of data collected on the short and potential long-term economic impacts of COVID-19 specifically on young people and young adults, and surveys collected among these groups on their perspectives and experiences over the last year. There is no data collected specifically on young children’s access to material basics as impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. • 2021 Intergenerational Report1 • Anglicare rental affordability snapshot