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Monday, June 4, 2012


~ Sharing International Contact: ~Australia~

I recently was contacted by a woman from Australia named Yvonne. She mentioned that she has worked in the field of early childhood and now works in an adult training facility teaching adults to care for children, the cert III & Diploma in Children Services.

" In Australia there is currently massive change in the early childhood sector. 2012 sees the implementation of an updated Accreditation or quality control system National Quality Standards (NQS) that encompasses, long day care, child care facilities (LDC), family day care (FDC), outside school hours care (OSHC) and pre-schools.  Australia was the first country to introduce a quality control system linked to funding of serivces, basically if services were not up to standard they were no longer eligible to receive payment through a parent subsidy scheme for putting children in care,Child Care Benefits (CCB)
basically the only organizations that deals with early childhood & middle childhood not under the banner of the of NQS".(Walden email correspondence on June 2, 2012, Yvonne Young)

Also implemented is a National Quality Framework NQF the regulatory body that sets standard requirements for children in care, including staffing, safety, environments.


This link is for a site that has information about both the NQS & the new regulations. 


"With the new regulations there are new child/staff ratios this has caused much debate in Australia, as some sectors are saying the increase in staffing is too expensive for parents where others say the changes do not go far enough. The changes are staggered with the 1st change implemented this year. Under 2 years old the ratio of 1 adult to 4 children, the next change is due for implementation in 2016. The ratio will be 2-3 years age group taking it from up to 1 staff to 8 children to 1 - 5".

Another major change is to the training requirements of staff in services, all staff as of 2013 will need to have a minimum cert III in Children's Services or be working towards it. Presently, staff in pre-schools working at an assistant level or those in LDC/OSHC at the assistant level did not require a qualification. 

There has also been the introduction of a national framework (curriculum) for children in care Early Years Learning Framework for 0-5 and then My Time Our Place Framework  for those in OSHC. The frameworks are heavily focused on relationships and the emotional well-being of children.

Yvonne mentioned that she has been involved in the children's services industry for the last 20 years and that she is excited by the change and the focus on quality at a national level rather than state by state level. 


She offered another link: 
Here is a link to a report on the state of child care in Australia 

2 comments:

  1. Nancy,
    I am so glad that you found a professional contact to broaden your knowledge of education in other countries. Yvonne has shared some great information with you.

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  2. Nancy,
    This is a large amount of information. It is great to find all the resources available to help us and our parents with issues that we are facing towards bettering early childhood education, nutrition and health. Even with all the resources, we still have so many arising issues that continue to grow. I could not imagine the how bad things would be for our children if these resources did not exist.

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