ACECQA Newsletter Issue 12 2014

Submissions in response to the Productivity Commission’s draft report on the inquiry into future options for childcare and early childhood learning closed last week and ACECQA took the opportunity to respond. 

 

Released in July, the Commission’s draft report highlighted the broad support for the NQF and acknowledged the improvements to quality of care following the establishment of national standards.

 

ACECQA’s submission supports maintaining the qualification requirements introduced under the NQF, particularly for educators working with the youngest children, as the research increasingly shows the positive effect higher qualifications have on the quality of services.

 

The submission also addresses the Commission’s draft findings and recommendations on the scope of the NQF, the NQS and assessment and rating, regulatory burden and opportunities for streamlining and simplifying the NQF without compromising outcomes for children. 

 

The final report is due to the Australian Government at the end of October. Read more about the Productivity Commission inquiry.

The qualification requirements for first aid, anaphylaxis and emergency asthma management vary slightly across education and care service types.

 

At centre based services, for all times that children are being educated and cared for, there must be at least one educator who:

One educator may hold one or more of the qualifications. 

 

For family day care services, each educator and educator assistant must hold all three of the listed qualifications.

 

For education and care services with premises on a school site, staff of the school site who hold the qualifications listed may meet the requirements above if they are in attendance at the school site and immediately available in an emergency.

 

Training for first aid, emergency asthma and anaphylaxis management must be updated at least every three years from the date of completion. The first aid certificate may specify additional requirements to keep it valid. For example, if your first aid certificate requires the CPR component to be completed every 12 months to keep it current, you will need to comply.

 

View ACECQA's approved qualifications list for further information. 

Looking for information and resources about the NQF? ACECQA has launched a new web page to help educators and providers in their journey to improve quality education and care. 

 

ACECQA’s National Education Leader, Rhonda Livingstone, works with regulatory authorities, peak organisations and professional support coordinators (PSCs) to provide helpful advice to educators and services about the NQS and NQF. The new web page brings this work together, providing regular updates and links.

 

Click here to view the new web page and to read the current featured article. It examines the critical stages of a child’s brain development and how early experiences directly affect children’s intellectual capacity, personality and behaviour. 

Recent sector feedback and calls to ACECQA’s enquiries line show some educators would like further information about serious incident notifications.

 

Education and care services are required to notify their state regulatory authority of any incidents that seriously compromise the health, safety or wellbeing of children. 

 

The notification needs to be provided within 24 hours of a serious incident, using either the SI01 Notification of Serious Incident form or online through the NQA ITS.

 

In some cases, services may only become aware afterwards that an incident was in fact serious. In such circumstances, the regulatory authority needs to be notified within 24 hours of the service becoming aware that the incident was serious.

 

The National Regulations also require services to confidentially store an incident, injury, trauma and illness record until the child is 25 years old. Information should be recorded as soon as possible, and within 24 hours after the incident, injury, trauma or illness. A sample Incident, injury, trauma and illness record is available for services to adapt or providers may develop their own.

 

Read ACECQA’s FAQs for further information about serious incidents, including definitions. 

The NQA ITS website will be undergoing essential maintenance later this month. The website will be unavailable from 7pm Thursday 18 September and will be back online during the weekend. Please check the website for updates.

 

For incidents, complaints or events that require notification within a 24 hour period under the National Law, please submit the information using the relevant paper based form. For all other online applications/notifications, please wait until the system is back online.

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