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.
Since the late eighties, Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments have made successive declarations defining their shared vision for school education in Australia.
The most recent, the Melbourne Declaration agreed by Education Council Ministers in 2008, articulated nationally consistent education goals for young Australians.
Each declaration has guided the design and delivery of education and laid the foundation for the development of school curricula and assessment.
It has been five years since the last review of the National Quality Framework (NQF) in 2014 –and it’s time to check back in and see what areas of the NQF can still be improved, including the National Law and National Regulations.
The NQF Review Team have been set the task of assessing whether the NQF is operating in a way that ensures Australian children attending education and care services are safe and supported in their educational and developmental outcomes.
ACA is well aware that the transition to the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) has been a rocky road for many Approved Providers and families.
From educating families on how to complete the activity test to navigating through technical issues, there has been a range of complications that have affected the early learning sector, and in some cases resulted in families reducing their days or leaving their early learning centre.
The transition to the CCS is now being assessed by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO).
The following case study was provided by Smileys Childcare, Freemantle, Western Australia.
It originally appeared in ACA's Belonging Early Year Journal, Volume 7 Number 3 2018
One of the initiatives we are most proud of here at Smileys which has allowed us to develop and foster relationships between educators, families and the community is the introduction of Auslan.
The decision to introduce Auslan at the service came about when a deaf family enrolled in 2016. With a lack of knowledge in this area and facing a significant communication barrier, we worked collaboratively with families, Communicare, WA Deaf Society and Deafinite Employment Agency to ensure we were able to provide a supportive and inclusive environment for all.