Frequenty Asked Questions & Important Issues
Frequently Asked Questions...
Before deciding on a service there are important questions your family need to ask to make sure the one you choose is right for you.
Phone or call into the Centre and ask for an appointment to meet the Authorised Supervisor and be shown around. Take your child with you and let them look around too.
Ask how your child’s day will be structured—look for a balance between child selected and teacher guided activity. Observe how the staff respond and support the children’s exploration and learning.
Ask how many children and how many staff. The current regulation says that the minimum staff/child ratio is 1:5 for 0-2 years, 1:8 for 2-3 years and 1:10 for 3-5 years. A higher staff to child ratio increases individual attention for your child. Ask about the number of qualified staff and their level of experience.
Ask what makes that centre special. What are its strengths, and why do the children love attending the centre?
Always be proactive and feel free to raise any questions or concerns. If your child is with you when you visit, notice what sort of interest they take in the centre and importantly, what sort of interest and attention the staff takes in your child.
Look around the centre to get a feel for the mood, see what the children are doing, how the staff are interacting with the children.
Ask about the type of feedback you’ll receive on your child’s daily activities and achievements over the year.
Will the centre meet your needs—are its opening hours appropriate, does it have vacancies, what are the fees, what do you need to supply and what will they supply?
Finally, ask if the centre is non-profit and if there are opportunities for you to have input into how the centre is run.
What’s Special about Non Profit services?
The non-profit early childhood education sector has been providing children’s services for decades. They have a wealth of experience and knowledge to provide the care, nurturing, play, experiences and education that your child needs in their early years.
It takes a community to raise a child, and that’s what non-profit services are all about.
Community based children’s services are managed by the community for the community.
In community-based centres parents can have a say in how the centre is run, the activities offered and their approach to care and programming.
100% of grants, funds and fees paid to a non-profit centre are spent directly on running the service. Any surplus is put straight back into the service to improve the care and education of the children.
In many centres parents have the right to be nominated for election onto the Management Committee, and have voting rights at the AGM to elect their choice of management. In other Community based children’s centres there are parent advisory groups set up to offer opinion and support.
Community based children’s services are linked with other services and can help you with referrals and finding other assistance or support you may need for your child or family.
A voluntary Board of Management is elected by the families to oversee community based children’s services.
Community based non-profit services work hard to respond to the needs of all their families, including those on low incomes, those with additional needs or those from a culturally and linguistically diverse background.
Non-profit centres employ qualified early childhood professionals to manage the day-to-day operation of the centre, who ensure high quality care, plan activities, buy equipment, attend to regulations and so much more.
When choosing an early childhood service …
For many parents choosing a service is difficult and stressful. You want the best for your child and it can be confusing to work out the differences between the types of centres and how to tell which one will best meet your needs.
Services come in many forms and have a variety of labels — childcare, pre-school, day care, early learning centre. Whatever the label, the childcare centre will be one of the following:
Long Day Care - provides education and care from birth to 6 years. These operate a minimum of 8 hours a day, at least 48 weeks per year.
Preschool - provides education and care for either 2-6 or 3-6 years. These operate 9am - 3pm, with some offering extended hours and are open for the 4 school terms per year.
Occasional Care—provides education and care from birth to 6 years. These operate a minimum 8 hours per day and allow for flexible care arrangements.
Mobile Preschool- provides education and care for either 2-6 or 3-6 years. These operate 9am - 3pm in various locations throughout regional areas.
Decide first what your family’s needs are, and go from there.
What to ask when choosing a service for your child
Important Issues...
Better child care at non-profit centres
By Adele Horin
Sydney Morning Herald
9th February 2006
Private for profit child-care centres produce poorer outcomes for children than non-profit centres, a visiting expert says.
Gordon Cleveland, associate professor in economics at the University of Toronto, and an authority on measuring quality child care, said yesterday that his research on hundreds of centres showed a 10 to 15 percent “quality boost; in non-profit centres in Canada over private centres.
He said the measurably higher quality was due to higher staff motivation and effort, not necessarily to different class sizes or child-staff ratios.
“This means a big difference between having good child development and average child development’, he said.
Dr Cleveland is a speaker at the National Investment for the Early Years conference being held in Sydney.
He said a cost benefit study of good quality child care in Canada had shown the benefits exceeded the costs by a margin of two to one. There were measurable child development benefits, including enhanced school performance and increased incomes to families through mothers being able to work.
Higher quality centres produced better outcomes. He said many things contributed to quality in a centre, including regulated staff ratios, levels of teacher education and the money available to the centre. His recent research showed motivation and effort also mattered.
“Non-profit produced higher quality outcomes perhaps because they have a greater orientation in their philosophy towards development of children and that feeds through to the staff’, he said.
The conference heard yesterday how the New Zealand Government would provide 20 hours of free preschool to every three to four year old by 2007, which many experts have urged the Australian state and federal governments to follow.