~ 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
Nancy,
ReplyDeleteI 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.
Nancy,
ReplyDeleteThis 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.