The Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) is a not-for-profit, member-funded organisation advocating for the future of Australia's children.
We work on behalf of long day care owners and operators to ensure families and their children have an opportunity to access affordable, high quality early learning services throughout Australia.
The following article is written by Mark Evans, from ACA Partner Child Care Centre Desktop:
Why would anyone in their right mind own and operate a small business? In particular; an early education and care service?
In the beginning the answer is easy. There is the dream of not only being involved in a vocation that you love but also the independence, ‘calling your own shots’, building something bigger than yourself, supporting families and the community - and of course providing care and education to young Australians in the early years.
You get to pave the way and put your own special touches onto what can be argued as one of the most important services available today anywhere in the world.
The following article is brought to you by ACA Partner Child Care Centre Desktop:
The COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful and continues to impact our sector. As Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services are classified as an ‘essential service’ they are required to remain open even when other businesses are mandated to close.
Ensuring ECEC services are COVID-safe remains the priority, with risk mitigation measures in place to protect staff, children and families.
Over the last 18 months ECEC providers have had to be resilient and flexible while navigating best practice to ensure everyone’s safety and their own financial continuity through this ever-changing landscape.
As we know the state governments have imposed various restrictions on local communities and regions periodically to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
Melbourne has experienced major changes to how ECEC services are delivered and the complicated risk measures that had to be implemented during a series of circuit breaker lockdowns. Now Sydney is experiencing a 2-week lockdown with stay-at-home orders causing a ripple affect across the whole nation.
Many early learning service providers may not be aware that there is an online government-approved system that allows you to quickly and easily verify current and prospective employee VET enrolments and achievements.
Background
In April 2012, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to implement a system that gives VET students access to a complete record of their enrolments and achievements from a single source.
The following article is brought to you by ACA Partner Child Care Centre Desktop:
Once upon a time your early learning service's Self-Assessment and Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) could be put together on a weekend over a glass of red. Not ideal and for the most part - not useful.
Turn the clock forward a few years and it is now an integral component of the assessment and rating process. Self-assessment provides your service with a clear picture of current practice of where you are now and provides opportunities for where you need to go for continuous improvement.