Broadside
in this issue: A New minister & New Department first aid MEMBERS’ SURVEY
community Child Care Co-operative (NSW)
news update APRIL 2011
Easter Bunnies
and naughty
corners
Readers may have noticed a flurry of media in relation to the draft Regulations and
National Quality Framework (NQF).
T
he general tenor of it is that ‘childcare workers who send
tantrum-throwing toddlers to “time out” risk hefty fines
under national childcare laws to come into force next year’ and
that: ‘New regulations will expose childcare centres to penalties
if children are required to take part in religious or cultural
activities, such as Christmas tree decoration or Easter egg hunts’.
Many of us will remember when the Quality Improvement
and Accreditation system was introduced and the media
insisted that ‘Christmas was banned’. This was, of course,
completely untrue—Christmas is still celebrated in services all
over NSW every year!
The draft Regulations and the National Quality Framework
present children’s services with many reforms that are great
for children and families. Read them and you won’t find
Christmas, Easter, Hannukah or Ramadan banned anywhere.
In fact, the entire media flurry was caused by the sentences
in the draft Regulations that say that the approved provider
(and the nominated supervisor and FDC educators) of all
services ‘must ensure that children being educated and cared
for by the service are not required to undertake activities that
are inappropriate, having regard to each child’s family and
cultural values, age and physical and intellectual development’.
Our efforts should be focussed upon helping families
understand that these reforms are in the interests of their
children and that yes, we do need to consider the workforce
issues, professional development for the whole sector to
support implementation of the NQF and the accurate costings
associated with changes.
We can do this by being very knowledgeable about our
regulations, frameworks and standards. Information is
available from the Department of Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations, Community Services, Community Child
Care, Children’s Services Central, Early Childhood Australia,
Community Connections Solutions Australia and so on. All of
our organisations are doing a great job to package information
for easy digestion and quick reads.
Let’s not get concerned with the minor issues that are beaten
up by the media—these are just a diversion.
news
Moved!
So, NSW children’s services are now the responsibility of
the re-named Department of Education and Communities.
They will operate under a new government with a new
minister. The implications of the move are examined below.
W
ith the announcement that children’s services are to
move to the Department of Education, Community Child
Care has been asked a lot of questions about the implications
of the move. In this article, we will attempt to answer some of
the questions and tease out some of the possible ramifications
of the move for the sector.
Why were we moved?
It was always the policy of the NSW Coalition that
preschools would move to the Department of Education if
they were successful in obtaining government. This is the
implementation of this policy.
Did all of children’s services move?
Yes. Responsibility for all existing licensed children’s services
and all children’s services that will be covered by the NQF
(including OOSH services) are now with the new department.
Did all of Community Services get moved?
No. Some people have been confused by the fact DET
simultaneously had a name change to the Department of
Education and Communities. The Communities part is from the
old Department of Communities (not Community Services).
The old Community Services (DoCS, in really old terms) is now
called the Department of Family and Community Services and
has Pru Goward as its Minister.
Didn’t the Coalition say before the election that there would
be consultation before a move?
Yes, they did and this is disappointing, but often in the flurry of
action after a new government, actions like this occur quickly.
Do our CSOs and CPOs move as well?
The actual bureaucrats that we have dealt with in Community
Services will be moving to the Department of Education—the
actual wording of the order that gives effect to this change says
‘The group of staff who, in the opinion of the Director–General
of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, are principally
involved in the administration of Chapter 12 and 12A of the
Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998
are removed from the Department of Human Services and
added to the Department of Education and Communities.’ This
probably means that everyone under the Children’s Services
Directorate will move but not Community Program Officers.
Does this mean community-based preschools will become
Department of Education preschools?
No. Community-based preschools will remain communitybased. It is just the bureaucracy that is changing.
Who is our new Minister?
Adrian Piccoli is. Mr Piccoli is the Member for Murrumbidgee,
(the area of NSW around Griffith) and the Deputy Leader of
The Nationals – NSW. He was the Shadow Minister for
Education, Skills and Youth Affairs prior to the election. He
has been an MP for the past 12 years and has two children.
What changes will this bring to children’s services?
This is not known as yet. Obviously, we have a new minister
who was not the shadow minister for this area. This usually
means some time needs to pass before the new minister
is totally up to speed on finer policy details. It will mean a
strengthened understanding of the education component of
early education and care service provision. It will also mean
that some changes that were about to happen to children’s
services may be delayed pending Ministerial approval.
What opportunities does it give us?
We have new advocacy avenues. There is now a situation
where there are patent anomalies in salaries for early
childhood teachers employed in preschools directly provided
by the Department of Education and Communities (the former
DET preschools) and those preschools funded by this same
Department (community-based preschools). The same goes
for funding of these services and fee levels. We now have a
situation where we have preschools directly provided by the
Department of Education and Communities (the former DET
preschools) and preschools funded by this same Department
(community-based preschools).
How can the NSW Government justify that a family
attending a preschool provided by the Department of
Education and Communities can get free preschool education
for their child, when a family whose child attends a preschool
funded by this same Department may have to pay as much as
$60 per day?
Fresh thinking. The entire National Quality Framework only
eventuated after federal responsibility for children’s services
moved from FACSIA to DEEWR. The shift may give some
possibilities for moving entrenched methods of thinking about
children’s services and their operations.
What are the possible negatives?
The Early Childhood Teacher Cost Contribution Scheme has not
yet been progressed.
The care part of early education and care may need to
be explained within the new bureaucracy. This may be
especially challenging for sections of our sector such as
occasional care and family day care.
We are only a small part of a larger department. Early
education and care may become a minnow lost in the big
stream of the Department of Education and Communities.
2 Broadside • April 2011 | Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd. (NSW)
CHILDREN'S SERVICES
First Aid and
Child Protection
Community Child Care has received
a few calls about what First Aid and
Child Protection training services
should be including to be NQF-ready.
With First Aid, current First Aid certificates will
be recognised under the NQF, even if they don’t
fulfil the NQF requirements for anaphylaxis and
asthma training until the earlier date of either 1
January 2013 or the date on which the qualification
is required to be renewed or updated.
With Child Protection, the new draft Regulations
requires that all educators must have successfully
completed training about current child protection
law and their obligations under this law. Does this
mean everyone, not just Authorised Supervisors
must do child protection training? Yes, but what
level of training this is has not yet been made clear.
As the NQS makes clear that quality services should
participate in more than minimum professional
development, Community Child Care suggests
services should consider getting all staff full Child
Protection qualifications. See the Children’s Services
Central calendar for details about Child Protection
courses available at www.cscentral.org.au/pd
Welcome
Community Child Care welcomes the appointment of
Chris Legg as CEO of KU Children’s Services. Chris has long
been a staunch supporter of the early childhood sector
and a strong advocate for preschools and affordability.
Community Child Care also welcomes the appointment
of Chris’s predecessor, Sheridan Dudley, as Chief of Staff
of new Minister, Adrian Piccoli. It can only be good for
children’s services to have someone with such a strong
depth of knowledge of our sector, holding such a key
position in the Minister’s office.
Qualifications
for children’s services professionals
Community Child Care Co-operative
offers Nationally Recognised
(Accredited) training courses for
people working in children’s services.
Community Child Care offers
Certificate III and Diploma courses in Children’s Services, in
small Business Management and in Training and Assessment
and short courses in food handling and child protection.
8922 6424 OR GO TO:
www.ccccnsw.org.au/rto
Call
Make 2011 the year you–or your staff–acquire more qualifications!
Occasional childcare services and the NQF
Many of Community Child Care
occasional care members point out
that it is hard to get information about
occasional care (OCC) and the NQF.
As all OCC services know by now, this service type is
not covered by the NQF from January 2012. All OCC will
continue to be licensed by the NSW Government and will
be covered by the Children’s Services Regulation 2004. It is
highly probable that OCC services will be one of the first
currently 'out of scope' services that will be bought into
the NQF after 2012.
What about services where OCC is just part of what
they offer? The new NQF National Law allows that
where a service runs an 'in scope' service at the same
premises such as a LDC, the OCC will be covered by the
approval under the national law. The OCC will be called an
associated service and although it would still need to abide
by the NSW Children's Services Regulation, its approval
process would be under the national law.
Why were OCC services not part of the NQF from the
beginning? The official answer to this is that they moved
with the service types that were the largest. What’s
Community Child Care's take on this? With a plethora
of OCC models around Australia, it was just too hard to
assess. Is this a good or a bad thing? At least by the time
OCC services comes into the NQF, all the teething problems
will have been solved.
3 Broadside • April 2011 | Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd. (NSW)
Broadside • Editor Lisa Bryant • Production ARMEDIA • ISSN 0819-9728
©2011 Published by Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd. (NSW) • CEO Leanne Gibbs
Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd. (NSW) is a non-profit, non-government organisation set up to lobby for and
provide information on children’s services in New South Wales. It is funded by the NSW Department of Community
Services. Community Child Care gratefully acknowledges the support of Microsoft Corporation in providing
Community Child Care with free software under their Community Assistance Initiative. Registered Australia Post
Publication No. 255003/04732. Photocopying is permitted in part – however, acknowledgement must be given.
ABN 81 174 903 921
Building 21, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville NSW 2204 T: (02) 8922 6444 FreeCall: 1800 157 818 F: (02) 8922 6445 E: [email protected] W: www.ccccnsw.org.au
Members’ survey
Vale
Meredith Griggs OAM
Meredith Griggs, former CEO of KU
Children’s Services passed away recently.
Meredith was an influential and outstanding early childhood
educator who was a significant leader for early childhood
in NSW. Meredith initiated access to in-service training
for all early childhood staff while working with the then
Department of Youth and Community Services. During her
time as CEO at KU, Meredith, together with Tonia Godhard,
built a very strong early childhood team at KU and developed
a strong administrative structure, expanding KU’s preschool
provision. Meredith was also actively involved in the
AECA (now ECA) in NSW and nationally. Meredith will be
remembered as a visionary early childhood educator who
made a significant contribution to the early childhood field.
It’s the student support
that sets ECTARC above
all the rest.
An ECTARC Training Officer is available at all times
during business hours, 8:30am to 5:00pm Monday to
Friday, to take your call. Studying via correspondence
does not mean you are on your own. The ECTARC
team is there to support you every step of the way.
For information on all ECTARC programs
please visit www.ectarc.com.au or call
02 4223 1111 to speak to an ECTARC
Training Officer.
Community Child Care would like to
say a big thank you to all members
who completed our online survey.
We had a great response rate to the survey and we will
circulate full responses soon. We know how annoying it
is when you complete a survey and never hear what the
responses were! Results to date show that essentially,
what Community Child Care is doing is what our
members want us to do and our plans for resourcing our
membership around the National Quality Framework are
pretty much on track.
Interesting results (at the time we go to press) include:
◆The most important reasons for people joining
Community Child Care were: Information,
Publications, Resources, Training and Advocacy, in
that order.
◆87% of members say that the most important reason
for staying a member is the need to keep informed.
◆80% of services regard membership of Community
Child Care as highly valuable and 17% as valuable.
◆Members rate Rattler, Broadside, Shortside and
analysis of government policy relating to children’s
services and advice on this as the most important
membership benefits they receive.
◆Everybody would like more training sessions and
more training sessions in their area!
◆87% of members use our website.
◆95% of services think our training is high quality
and relevant.
◆80% of members get most of their information
about the NQF from Community Child Care.
◆98% of members think Community Child Care is a
strong and effective advocate for children’s services.
Risk assessment proforma
You know how you
need to do a risk
assessment for all
your excursions under
the changes to the
Regulation that came
were introduced in
January? Community
Child Care has
developed a simple
and easy proforma for
services to use. You can
download it from the Children’s Services Central website at:
www.cscentral.org.au/news/nqf/nqf-resources.html
4 Broadside • April 2011 | Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd. (NSW)