Early Childhood Update
Issue 7 | June 2014
National Quality Framework
This newsletter includes information for children’s services operating under the National Quality Framework and services
operating under the Victorian children’s services legislation.
National Quality Framework Consultations
The Review of the National Partnership Agreement on
the National Quality Agenda for early childhood
education and care is currently being undertaken by the
Australian and state and territory governments. This
review aims to identify what is working well, areas for
improvement and any unintended consequences
resulting from the implementation of the National
Quality Framework (NQF).
The review includes a consultation process to seek input
from the education and care sector, families and
interested stakeholders.
Eight consultations were recently held across Victoria
with the opportunity to hear from the Australian
Government Department of Education and the Victorian
Department of Education and Early Childhood
Development (the Department).
Physical environment and resources
Services operating under the NQF
Standard 3.2 - The environment is inclusive, promotes
competence, independent exploration and learning
through play:
 3.2.1 Outdoor and indoor spaces are designed and
organised to engage every child in quality
experiences in both built and natural environments
 3.2.2 Resources, materials and equipment are
sufficient in number, organised in ways that ensure
appropriate and effective implementation of the
program and allow for multiple uses.
Education and Care Services National Regulations 2011

Regulation 103 – Premises, furniture and equipment
to be safe, clean and in good repair

Regulation 105 – Furniture, materials and
equipment
Services operating under the Victorian children’s
legislation Children’s Services Regulations 2009

Regulation 93 – Equipment
The physical environment and resources should:
There are also opportunities to provide feedback
towards the review of the NQF through written
submissions, providing comments and completing a
survey online by Friday, 4 July 2014.
Further information, including the process for providing
written submissions and how to complete the survey are
available at: www.woolcott.com.au/NQFReview/
 Meet the interests, ages and abilities of all children
 Be safe, clean and in good repair. It is recommended
that services have a regular cleaning maintenance
schedule.
 Be sufficient in variety and number to avoid the
likelihood of disputes and ensure that children do not
have to wait for extended periods to access materials
and equipment.
Further information and ideas about meeting these
requirements can be found on the Early Childhood
Australia Website under the National Quality Standard
Professional Learning Program at:
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/.
Annual Service fees
On 1 June, ACECQA emailed invoices to all approved
providers for their annual service fee. The fee is due to
be paid on or before 1 July 2014 and covers the financial
year period from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015.
Approved providers should access the NQA ITS portal to
update their contact details, particularly the email
address, to ensure that the invoice is received.
The approved provider who operates the service on 1
July 2014, is responsible for payment of this fee. If your
service has or will cease operating before this time, you
must submit surrender documents promptly or you will
be liable for fees. The SA07 Notification of Surrender of
Service Approval form is available from ACECQA’s
website at: www.acecqa.gov.au/service-approvals
New streamlined assessment and rating
process
In Victoria services with an assessment and rating visit
commencing after 10 June 2014 will be subject to the
new assessment and rating process. The table below
outlines the new assessment and rating activities and
timeframes the Department will follow, including
interactions with services.
Week 1

First Excellent Service Rating for Victoria!
Congratulations to the CPS Children’s Centre in
Heidelberg West for being the first education and care
service in Victoria to receive the Excellent rating from
the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality
Authority (ACECQA). The excellent rating acknowledges
services that have developed and modelled exceptional
practice that improves outcomes for children and
families. CPS Children’s Centre has demonstrated a wide
range of outstanding practices and delivers programs to
improve outcomes for children and families.
Notice of Visit


Week 3
Receipt of the Quality Improvement
Plan (QIP)

The service has a particular focus on assisting children
and families and recently partnered with two research
organisations to measure the impact of quality
education and care on children’s social and educational
outcomes.
Information about CPS Children’s centre is available at:
www.cps.org.au/Our-Services/Early-Childhood.aspx
The approved provider will
receive a letter from the
Department notifying of the four
week period (weeks 5-8) in which
the assessment and rating visit
will occur.
The Quality Improvement Plan
(QIP) is also requested to be
supplied within 3 weeks of
receiving the letter (all services).
Family day care services will be
requested to provide the register
of family day care educators for
the service within 3 weeks of
receiving the letter
The Department will send written
confirmation that the QIP and/or
register for family day care
services has been received.
At least Five
working days
prior to the
visit
Notice of Visit
 The Department will contact the
service to confirm actual date/s of
the visit.
 Family day care services will also
be advised of the sample
educators selected for
assessment.
Weeks 5-8
Assessment and Rating Visit Occurs

The designated authorised officer
will conduct the assessment and
rating visit.
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New template for providing feedback on
proposed assessment and rating reports
A template has been developed by ACECQA to assist
approved providers in presenting succinct and factual
feedback about their proposed (draft) assessment and
rating report where this information may change the
way the service has been rated. The information should
demonstrate how the service ‘met’ an element or was
‘Meeting’ or ‘Exceeding’ the National Quality Standard.
Providing evidence using this template will assist the
Department to identify which Quality Area the evidence
relates to and simplify this part of the process. When
considering whether to provide feedback only factors
that existed at the time of the assessment and rating
visit will be considered.
The Providing Feedback on the Draft Assessment and
Rating Report template is available at:
www.acecqa.gov.au/assessment-and-rating-resources
Amendments to the National Regulations
From 1 June 2014 amendments to the Education and
Care Services National Regulations 2011 (National
Regulations) came into effect in all states and territories
except Western Australia. These amendments are
primarily aimed at reducing regulatory burden for
approved providers and services and include the
following:



Certified supervisor certificates - a service supervisor
certificate will be issued for each education and care
service (unless the service already has a supervisor
certificate for a prescribed class, under regulation
49). Further detail is provided below.
Qualification requirements (probationary period) - a
new educator without an approved qualification can
be counted as a certificate III qualified educator for
the purposes of educator-to-child ratios during a
three month probationary period. This change
applies only to centre-based services that educate
and care for children preschool age or under.
Taken to be an early childhood teacher (ECT) transitional arrangements allowing educators that
are actively working towards an approved ECT
qualification to be considered an ECT have been
extended from 1 January 2016 to 1 January 2018.

Quality improvement plan (QIP) - services no longer
need to send a copy of their QIP to their regulatory
authority within three months of being granted
service approval. The approved provider of a new
service must still complete a QIP within three
months, and submit it to the regulatory authority on
request (as required under regulation 31).

Safety glass requirements for family day care (FDC)
services - the National Regulations have been
aligned with the Australian Standard for safety glass,
which specifies current requirements for glazed
areas less than one metre above floor level. (This
amendment only applies to FDC residences or
venues approved by the approved provider of the
FDC service after 1 June 2014).

Fencing requirements for FDC residences or venues no longer apply where education and care is only
provided for children over preschool age.

First aid requirements - services operating on a
school site, a staff member other than an educator
can meet the first aid qualification requirements,
including anaphylaxis and asthma management, if
they are in attendance and immediately available in
case of emergency. For example, a school nurse may
be counted towards these requirements
An information sheet Amendments to the Education and
Care Services National Regulations provides full details
of these and other changes and is available at:
www.acecqa.gov.au/amendments-to-the-educationand-care-services-national-regulations.
A copy of the National Regulations is available on the
NSW Legislation Register at:
www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/search/inforce
Changes to supervisor certificate
applications
Service supervisor certificates will not be issued to a
particular person. Instead they may apply to any person
working at the service who has been identified by the
approved provider within the service as:



responsible for the day to day management of
the service, or
exercising
supervisory
and
leadership
responsibilities for part of the service, or
a family day care co-ordinator.
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Under this new arrangement, a person working in one of
the above roles may automatically be a certified
supervisor as they will be covered under the service
supervisor certificate. This means they will not need to
apply to the Department for an individual supervisor
certificate.
An information sheet Changes to supervisor certificate
application requirements provides more information
about this change and is available at:
www.acecqa.gov.au/supervisor-certificate-approvals
Important changes for Family Day Care
service providers
The Australian Government Department of Education
has recently written to all family day care services in
receipt of Community Support Programme (CSP) funding
to formally notify them that their current CSP funding
agreement will be terminated effective June 2015.
The Australian Government is giving current Family Day
Care providers in receipt of this funding 12 months
notice of the change to allow time for services to make
adjustments to their business models if required.
Further information about the application process,
including the new eligibility criteria for receiving funding
under the CSP program from 1 July 2015, is outlined in
the factsheet Changes to the Community Support
Programme for Family Day Care Service Operators
available at: www.docs.education.gov.au/node/35795
Electronic submission of documents
The Department will move towards electronic
lodgement of all notifications and applications as of 1
July 2014, therefore you are encouraged to register now
to use the National IT System. By completing online you
will have evidence of the lodged application or
notification including reference numbers if making
contact with the enquiry line on 1300 307 415.
New resources
The following fact sheets have recently been
added to the Regulation and Quality Assessment
website:
 Transporting children (updated)
 Outside school hours care (updated)
 Natural Environments
www.education.vic.gov.au/childhood/providers/regulation/
Pages/nqffactsheets.aspx
Victorian Children’s Services*
*Including Associated Services
Minimum staff for standard services
The proprietor of a children’s service (other than a
school holidays care service) must ensure that at least 2
staff members are on duty whenever children are being
cared for or educated by the service (regulation 50).
Being ‘on duty’ does not necessarily mean that a staff
member is caring for or educating the children at all
times. For a staff member to be considered ‘on duty’
they are required to remain on the premises and must
be able to support the staff member caring for or
educating children and intervene if necessary.
Effective communication mechanisms and policies must
be in place.
Further information about staffing
requirements can be in the Staff Members and Staff
Requirements
fact
sheet
at:
www.education.vic.gov.au/childhood/providers/regulati
on/Pages/vcsfactsheets.aspx
Notifications of Transfer of Service Approval can be
lodged by the receiving provider. The Receiving Provider
is required to upload the consent to transfer from the
transferring provider found online. Notifications of
Transfer are lodged through your provider record, you
will need to know the service approval number (SE) to
initiate the transfer record.
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Teaching staff member requirements
From 1 January 2014, services licensed under the
Victorian Regulations are required to meet specified
minimum teaching staff requirements (regulation 129).
The new teaching staff requirements apply to:
 standard services that are licenced or, in the case of
an approved associated children’s service, approved
to care for and educate children, or
 an integrated service that includes a standard
service component that is licensed to care for and
educate children.
How this applies to a service depends on the number of
children the service is licensed/approved to care for or
educate:
 25 or more children - a teaching staff member must
be caring for or educating children at the standard
service or each standard service component for at
least the lesser of the following:


50% of the time the service is open to care
for or educate children; or

20 hours per week (regulation 52(1)).
Fewer than 25 children - the service or each
standard service component must have access to a
teaching staff member working with the service for
at least 20% of the time the service provides
education or care (regulation 52A).
A teaching staff member is working with the service if
they are carrying out activities for the service, including
caring for and educating children and planning
programs, and they may be doing so by means of
information communication technology (regulation
52a(5(b)).
Further information the teaching staff member
requirements can be found in the Transitional Provisions
2014
fact
sheet
at:
www.education.vic.gov.au/childhood/providers/regulati
on/Pages/vcsfactsheets.aspx
Exemptions from the
member requirements
teaching
staff
If, after exploring all possible options, the service is
unable to comply with the teaching staff member
requirements the licensee may apply for an exemption
under section 6 of the Children’s Services Act 1996.
An application for an exemption may be considered
where the licensee can demonstrate extenuating
circumstances or a genuine difficulty in meeting the
requirements and may include where a staff member at
the service is enrolled in and studying for an approved
early childhood teaching qualification. The service’s
compliance history is taken into consideration when
assessing the application.
For further information about applying for an exemption
or obtain a copy of the application form, please email
csrr@edumail.vic.gov,au.
Physical environment and resources
Services operating under the Victorian children’s
services legislation
Children’s Services
Equipment
Regulations
2009,
Regulation
93
The physical environment and resources should:
 Meet the interests, ages and abilities of all children.
 Be safe, clean and in good repair. It is recommended
that services have a regular cleaning and
maintenance schedule.
 Be sufficient in variety and number to avoid the
likelihood of disputes and ensure that children do
not have to wait for extended periods to access
materials and equipment.
 Be arranged to minimise overcrowding and offer
opportunities for group and solitary play.
 Include a mix of manufactured and natural
resources.
Further information and ideas about meeting these
requirements can be found on the Early Childhood
Australia website under the NQS Professional Learning
Program at www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/
Keeping in touch
Visit our website: www.education.vic.gov.au
Phone us on: 1300 307 415
Email us at:
licensed.childrens.services@edumail.vic.gov.au
Department of Education & Early Childhood
Development, GPO Box 4367, MELBOURNE 3001
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