The free interactive workshops are designed to support the capacity of staff working in OSHC services to comply with the children’s services legislation. They will explore the practical implications of the Children’s Services Act 1996 and the Children’s Services Regulations 2009 for OSHC, the responsibilities of OSHC staff and the connections to quality practice.

The workshops will focus on the development of programs that offer children meaningful opportunities for leisure and play based learning. Catharine Hydon, a well known specialist in this field, has been engaged by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (Department) to conduct these free workshops.

A letter was sent to all OSHC services. For more information about the workshops and how to register to attend please click on the Outside School Hours Care Interactive Workshops link on DEECD's website. Numbers at each workshop are capped at 60 people and all participants must register. All staff working in OSHC services are encouraged to attend.  Queries may also be directed to Joanne Fazzolari on 03 9651 3572 or email csrr@edumail.vic.gov.au

Outside School Hours Care is a vital part of Australia’s child care landscape, not only providing care for school aged children but also an important avenue for our children’s development.
In an Australian first, the Learning Framework will guide educators to deliver nationally consistent, high quality outside school hours care programs with an emphasis on play-based learning, physical activity and social development.

“Outside Schools Hours Care presents an important opportunity to offer a range of activities and learning opportunities that are appropriate for children of different ages,” Ms Ellis said.
 “The Learning Framework will help us to move beyond the outdated view of child care workers as mere babysitters and acknowledge the key role they play as carers and educators as well.” [source]

The Outside School Hours Care Learning Framework will build on the Early Years Learning Framework, which forms the foundation for ensuring that children in all early childhood education and care settings experience quality teaching and learning.
The Minister commended childcare providers at the conference on their commitment to the early years and dedication to continuous improvement through professional development.

Since 1999, the Victorian Government has invested more than $134.3 million in capital projects around the state, including integrated children’s centres, minor capital grants and renovation and refurbishment grants.

The Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development has recently announced the opening of the 2010-11 Children’s Capital Program - Renovation and Refurbishment grants funding round.  This funding round will offer a minimum of 35 grants of up to $200,000 to eligible, community based, not-for-profit organisations currently offering a funded kindergarten program.

The Children’s Capital Program through renovation and refurbishment grants is enhancing the existing early years’ infrastructure throughout the State. These grants will enable community based funded kindergarten services to provide additional kindergarten places to meet the increasing demand for kindergarten and maintain other early education and care programs. 

For further information on the Renovation and Refurbishment grants please visit the Children’s Capital Program website here

The forum was established to encourage people in the early childhood sector to share their views with each other and with the Australian Government about the draft Educators’ Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (the Educators’ Guide).

The development of the Educators’ Guide has taken into account feedback received from the forum. It is anticipated that the Educators’ Guide will be released in mid 2010 and will be widely distributed to early childhood services. The Educators' Guide will also be available on the Department's website together with a web-based training package.
Further information on the EYLF and its implementation will be published as it becomes available here

The Early Years Unit at the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority are producing a monthly online publication, The Early Years Exchange (the EYE) to familiarise early childhood professionals with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework.

The publication can be accessed via the website www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/earlyyears

On Monday 11 January and Tuesday 12 January 2010 a Code Red (Catastrophic) fire danger rating was declared for the Wimmera, North Country and North East Bureau of Metrology Districts. As a result of this, Early Childhood services listed on the State Government Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) Department’s Bushfire At-Risk Register in the affected regions were instructed to close.  
 
Under section 3(1) of the Child Care Benefit (Absence From Care – Permitted Circumstances) Determination 2000, the Department of Education and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) has declared a period of local emergency for the Wimmera, North Country and North East Bureau of Metrology Districts. The period of local emergency for these districts covers the period from 11  till 29 January 2010.
 
As children were prevented from attending approved child care because of the local emergency their Child Care Benefit (CCB) can be paid where the service charges the parents for the missed sessions of child care. Absences during the declared period of local emergency should be treated as additional absences under the Child Care Management System (CCMS).  There is no limit on the number of absence days for which CCB is paid.
Please note that CCB approved service providers need to meet their obligations and submit attendance reports within 14 days of the end of the week in which the emergency occurred.
 
DEEWR has contacted services in these regions to advise them that a period of local emergency has been declared. However, if your service is located in the affected areas and you have not been contacted, can you please phone DEEWR on 1800 112 812 or email vic.childcare@deewr.gov.au as your contact details may be incorrect.
 
Future code Red Days

For future code red days it will be the responsibility of each service to monitor the DEECD Bushfire-At-Risk Register and the Country Fire Authority Victoria websites.  Click here for the link to the Register. Please consult your Regional DEECD office to discuss any issues you may have regarding service closures.
 
It is a business decision whether services who are closed on Code Red days charge the family their usual fee. An allowable absence can be claimed if the service is closed because of the Code Red day and reason given on CCMS as "Code Red day".
 
Please note that there is no automatic entitlement for Special Child Care Benefit (SCCB) for Code Red Days or periods of local emergency.  Only families who can demonstrate significant hardship as a result of the service closure should be considered for SCCB.
 
DEEWR will be monitoring the bushfire situation and may declare further periods of local emergency.  If this occurs, the department will contact the affected services and families will receive additional allowable absences for the determined period.
 
The Victorian DEEWR Child Care team is contactable on 1800 112 812 or email vic.childcare@deewr.gov.au.

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is holding thirty three Regional Information Sessions across Victoria between February and April 2010. The information sessions will focus on key national and state early childhood education and care reforms currently being planned and implemented, and will cover:

• National Quality Reform Agenda (including new national quality standards, licensing and accreditation)
• Update on Children’s Services Regulations
• Universal Access to 15 hours of kindergarten
• Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework
• Transition: A Positive Start to School initiative
• Support for the Early Childhood Workforce

The information sessions are for professionals from early childhood settings, primary schools, early childhood intervention services, School Nursing, Maternal and Child Health Nursing, DEECD regional offices and other interested agencies.
To RSVP for a session via DEECD's online registry - click here

The Department of Health and Ageing have released a resource titled: Get Up & Grow: Healthy Eating and Physical Activity for Early Childhood
The Guidelines provide evidence based, practical information and advice to support and promote healthy eating and physical activity in children attending early childhood settings including centre based care, family day care and preschools.

The Guidelines are linked to the new National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care currently being developed by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
A range of support resources that provide practical information and advice on early childhood healthy eating and physical activity, how to develop nutrition and physical activity policies and ways to support and encourage staff, carers and families, including director/coordinator book, a staff and carer book, a cooking for children book, a family book, six posters, fourteen brochures and four stickers are available for download and order.
To obtain further information, and to order or download the resources and guidelines click here:

* The Early Years Exchange – An online publication to support implementation of the VEYLDF

This online publication is the first in a series that will provide information to familiarise early childhood professionals with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework.  There will be monthly updates during February, March, April and May 2010 to support discussions with families, colleagues and with children. It is intended for everyone who works with children between the ages of birth and eight years. Click here to access the publication.

Two new publications are available to download from the Early Years Learning Framework Online Forum. This is an exciting opportunity for people in the early childhood sector to share their views with each other and with the Australian Government about the draft Educators’ Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework.
 
The Educators’ Guide is being developed to support implementation of the Early Years Learning Framework. The Guide will explain, interpret and expand the Framework for early childhood educators.
 
A new version of this document is now available on the online forum along with a document recording educators’ stories and models of practice – The Early Years Learning Framework in Action. DEEWR is encouraging educators to share ideas, participate in online discussions and provide feedback on the Educators’ Guide.

The Early Years Learning Framework online forum is available for registered participants. Further information on the online forum and the registration form are available here 

The first issue of the newsletter Regulations Update Children’s Services was posted to all licensed children’s services this week. This newsletter is a quarterly newsletter produced by the Regulations Implementation Branch of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development with the aim of providing regular news and information to children’s services to assist them obtain a better understanding of the requirements of the children’s services legislation.

The newsletter will soon be obtainable from the Department’s website www.education.vic.gov.au/licensedchildservices as well.

National Quality Framework
On 7 December 2009, the Council of Australian Governments agreed to a new National Quality Framework for early childhood education and care and school age. The new framework will be implemented progressively from 1 July 2010.  From 1 January 2012, this jointly-governed, unified national framework will apply to long day care, family day care, outside school hours care and preschools.

Information about the National Quality Framework is available here  

Universal Access to Early Childhood Education – 15 hours of kindergarten on-line survey

By now you should have received the Universal Access to Early Childhood Education - 15 hours of kindergarten survey sent out by the Department Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD).  It can be completed on line or in hard copy, and should take 10 – 15 minutes.  If you have not received a survey or have any questions about the survey or the Universal Access project call
1800 332 620 or email 15hours@edumail.vic.gov.au.

What is Universal Access to Early Childhood Education all about?  Click here to read the DEECD Frequently Asked Questions fact sheet.

On 7 December 2009 the Australian Government, in partnership with state and territory governments, agreed to a number of improvements to early childhood education and care through the introduction of a National Quality Framework.
 
This reform will deliver a higher standard of care for children, and clearer and more comprehensive information for parents.

This new National Quality Framework will be phased in from 1 July 2010 and will ensure national consistency in early childhood education and child care services including outside school hours care.

The new framework will include requirements for:

lower staff-to-child ratios under the National Quality Standard
new qualifications requirements for all early childhood education workers under the National Quality Standard
a transparent quality ratings system, which will allow parents to easily compare the quality on offer at different child care services

The new framework was developed collaboratively between all governments and the community and will ensure all providers operate under clear and nationally consistent standards for care and early education.

The National Quality Framework incorporates feedback received on the Regulation Impact Statement, which was released by COAG in July 2009. About 1700 people attended public consultation sessions, 340 made written submissions and about 3000 people responded to an online survey.

Detailed information is available including resource sheets detailing;

• information for families
• information for services
• the new rating system
• staffing requirements

Please visit here for more information including timeframes for compliance. 

Children’s Services Award 2010 & Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2010

The Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) has released  its decision on the final form of the  child care modern award on Friday the 4th of December 2009. Implementation of new wages, classifications, penalty rates and loadings transition from 1 July 2010.  The award can be viewed here

Pre-school teachers are  included in the Education Services (Teachers) Award 2010, not the Children’s Services Award.   The variation to the award to include pre-school teachers can be viewed here

The AIRC decision can be viewed here

The Victorian Framework describes five Learning and Development Outcomes for children from birth to eight years, linking the learning outcomes from the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) Levels 1 and 2. The outcomes provide a shared language for all early childhood professionals and families to use when planning for children’s learning and development. The Hon Minister Maxine Morand MP, Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development launched the new Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework on 27 November at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The Victorian Framework describes five Learning and Development Outcomes for children from birth to eight years, linking the learning outcomes from the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) Levels 1 and 2. The outcomes provide a shared language for all early childhood professionals and families to use when planning for children’s learning and development.

More information on the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework can be found here

Universal Access to early childhood education is an Australian Government commitment to provide access to a quality early childhood education program for all children by 2013.  The key areas of the program are that each child will access a kindergarten program;

• for 15 hours a week, 40 weeks of the year before they start school  
• taught by a four-year university qualified early childhood teacher 
• delivered in a range of settings including child care, in order to meet the needs of working parents.

The Victorian government has allocated $3.1 million to support detailed planning for universal access to 15 hours of kindergarten in all municipalities.  Councils will work with key stakeholders to develop a foundation plan for all children and early childhood services in each local government area to facilitate the universal access to a 15 hour kindergarten program.  A universal access Capacity Assessment Report will be required by February 2010 and a more detailed plan by April 2010.
All children’s services, including those who currently do not operate a funded kindergarten program are encouraged to contribute information to their local government during the planning phase.

Further information from the Commonwealth Governments National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education click here

Further information on the Victorian Governments approach click here

For all regional staff, schools, principals, business managers, licensed children’s services operators, kindergarten cluster managers, Family Day Care Schemes and Local Government

Main Points

• The 2009/2010 bushfire season is underway and much of Victoria – and Australia – is already experiencing high fire risk days.
• Schools, school bus routes, off-site activities, after hours care and children’s services identified as being at high-risk of fire and included on the Department’s Bushfire At-Risk Register will be closed on days when the Fire Danger Rating is declared by fire authorities as being Code Red (as per National Framework for Fire Warnings).
• On Code Red days, closure advice will be provided by the respective DEECD regional office. The DEECD website will also list all potential and actual closures of schools and children’s services. 
• On days declared as being Extreme risk, schools and children’s services should monitor CFA and DSE websites and media services for updates and keep in contact with their respective Regional Office.
• Regardless of fire risk rating, schools and children’s services should always be prepared to enact their Emergency management Plans in the event of a fire or other emergency.
• When organising off-site activities during the bushfire season, all schools must continue to assess the likely threat of fire. Off-site activities in areas affected by a predicted Code Red day should be cancelled or recalled.

Actions Required

• On Code Red fire danger days, schools and children’s services identified as being at high-risk of fire and included on the Department’s Bushfire At-Risk Register are to prepare for closure.
• On Extreme fire danger days, schools and children’s services are to monitor media services CFA and DSE websites and media services for updates and keep in contact with their respective Regional Office.
• Schools are to continue to assess the likely threat of fire when organising off-site activities.

Additional Information

• DEECD Bushfire At-Risk Register and the list of potential and actual closures of schools and children’s services: www.education.vic.gov.au/bushfires
• Country Fire Authority: www.cfa.vic.gov.au 
• Department of Sustainability and Environment: www.dse.vic.gov.au

NCAC will implement the following changes to the Accreditation process from 1 November 2009:

• Services will be informed of their Validation Visit date. 
• Validation Surveys for families will not be sent to services to distribute as part of the Accreditation process.

For more information visit the NCAC website - www.ncac.gov.au.  

For all schools and principals, regional and central office staff

The safety of children and staff is our paramount consideration. Schools (government and non-government), kindergartens and child care facilities determined by the Department to be at high-risk of fire danger have been placed on a Bushfire At-Risk Register and will be pre-emptively closed on days when a Code Red fire danger warning is issued. Inclusion on the register is generally based on the facility having met more than one of the following risk criteria:

• Location within the 52 high risk townships, or other medium risk townships, as determined by the CFA and DSE
• The results of the DEECD Bushfire and Emergency Management Self- Assessment Tool
• Identification by DEECD Regional Offices and other key stakeholders including the Catholic Education Office of Victoria, the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria, the Municipal Association of Victoria, fire and emergency services, as being at potential risk due to location, geography, access or other risk factors.
• Whether the facility was damaged and/or closed during the 2008/09 Victorian bushfire season.

All schools and licensed children’s services (both government and non-government) included on the register have been formally advised. The register is available from www.education.vic.gov.au/bushfires

There are a number of schools that require further investigation. The Department will conduct this investigation over the coming weeks and, if necessary, will advise of further schools to be considered for inclusion in the register.

Emergency Management Plans

To assist all schools with their emergency management preparedness, a revised version of the Schools Emergency Management Manual has been issued. To download this, please go to www.education.vic.gov.au/bushfires. All schools are to use the manual to review their existing emergency management plan or to develop a new plan. You should ensure that your emergency management plans cover out of hours care and any other activities on your site. If you have queries relating to your inclusion or omission from the register, please call 1800 059 866 or email bushfires@edumail.vic.gov.au.

Actions Required

• That you note and review the contents of the Bushfire At-Risk Register
• That you review and update as necessary, your Emergency Management Plan by accessing the Department’s revised Emergency Management Manual, available from www.education.vic.gov.au/bushfires 
• That schools remind parents and carers to ensure their family fire safety plans include alternative care arrangements for their children in the event of closures     

Further information

A Bushfire Resource Kit is being sent to you and will assist you with engaging parents, staff and local communities in discussions about emergency and bushfire preparedness. More information on closure procedures can be found at www.education.vic.gov.au/bushfires