Wanting to start my own OSHC...

[meganheather]

Hi All,

I am currently a coordinator in an OSHC for a large company and I am eagerly wanting to start my own OSHC service. I have spent weeks doing research, and I am now coming up against dead ends with questions, and unfortunately I am not getting any fast answers from advisories so I thought I would ask here.

I am wanting to start an OSHC service that provides only after school care and vacation care (no before school care). The reason I am wanting to do this is I am wanting to extend the after school care hours e.g 3pm to 9pm to cater for evening working parents. I understand that I have two routes that I can go down, I can either start my own independant OSHC (not affiliated with a particular school) or start my own Family day care service and only care for school aged children.

The current questions that I have (and I am sure there will be more later) are:

1. I understand the ratio for FDC is 1 to 7 (in my state for school aged only) the problem with this (even though I know it would be the easiest route) is that I would need to rent a property specifcially for providing care (as my home is unsuitable) and with only 7 children it doesn't seem financially viable. The ratio in a traditional OSHC service is 1 to 15, each child needs a space allowance of 3.25m2, so if I was to rent a house that had at minimum 50m2 of open space would I be allowed to run an OSHC service from this property and adhere to the 1 to 15 ratio? Or is there a way to increase the ratio in FDC?

2. I believe my idea of having after school care available from 3pm to 9pm is a viable one provided I extensively research the market. What I am wondering though, is surely I can't be the first person to think of offering extended hours care, so why can't I find an OSHC service that runs past 6pm? Is this a licensing requirement? Is there legislation that prevents services from opening later? Is my idea even feasible or legal?

3. If I was able to do this, establish a service that runs from 3pm to 9pm, how does CCB work? Will parents only be eligible for CCB for the hours between 3pm and 6pm or will they also be able to claim it for the hours between 6pm and 9pm.

I have all the qualifications required to do this, I am just having trouble finding the information that I need, any advice anyone can give me, or any direction to the right information would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks so much,

Megan.

[Lorina]

Hi Megan,

You have a great business idea to run an extended hours OOSH service and I think if you were able to achieve it, it will really work in your favour.

I have searched around and I am finding it difficult to find answers to your questions however I do have some leads of information which you can follow up.

http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/oshc/pages/de ... /?reFlag=1

On the left hand side there is a range of information that you can read up on regarding establishing an OOSH.

http://networkofcommunityactivities.org ... resources/

It's for NSW however I still think you should follow a similar procedure in SA as well. You will also find more helpful info for OOSH settings.

I think the best bet is to call the Department for Education and Child Development (link above) and get some answers from there. They should be able to give you the right information and searching on the internet can go forever.

In the meantime I'm going to try and answer your questions:

1) If you can find a property located close to the school and follows the necessary space requirements per child as well as necessary facilities then you may be able to use this as an OOSH setting. However, you will need to get the venue assessed by the regulatory authorities to make sure that it is suitable.

2) The hours of operation is determined by the needs of the community. I think the only reason why you can't find after hour care is because no one is willing to offer it since it requires them to work past suitable hours. Your idea is doable and when you apply for your service provider approval, the hours of operation will be stated there.

3) I'm really not sure about this question…

Well hopefully I have given you a bit of a push in the right direction and I hope you get all your questions answered. Please do come back and share your information as I believe it will help out others.

Like I mentioned before you have a good idea and it could really take off within your community…

,
L.A

[meganheather]

Hello L.A,

Thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate you taking the time to do some research for me as well, that is very kind of you!

I did bite the bullet and call the Department of Education, they were a bit unsure of my questions as well, but I was advised to contact the regulatory authority in my state and they have promised to find the answers for me.

I am understanding more and more that this is going to be a very long and involved process, where nothing will happen quickly, but I also think it is a viable idea and I am grateful to hear that someone else does too!

I am sure I will have more questions in the future so I will keep you updated,

thanks again for your help,

Megan.

[MarkPowter]

Hello Megan,

I think this is a wonderful idea and think you should continue to follow it up! We constantly have parents requesting longer hours of care. With more and more parents working longer hours and further away from home, the traditional 6-6:30pm cutoff isn't working for many families as I am sure you are aware! I really look forward to hearing about your progress into your business venture and hope it works out for you! Such a wonderful idea

[Lorina]

Happy to help!

Yes the process is going to be long and tedious but think of the benefits once you are up and running! I'm sure it will be worth it in the end!

Will you be working by yourself with the ratio of 1:15?

It's probably thinking too far ahead but since you will be closing at 9:00 pm you can probably introduce a "ready for bed" service. Those children staying later than 7, you can provide dinner for, get them in their pj's, teeth brushed and story read etc. So, when they go home they are literally "ready for bed". I'm sure parents will be happy to pay for this extra service!

Just wanted to share this idea with you,

,
L.A

[MarkPowter]

In addition to the ready for bed program, which is a WONDERFUL idea, I would recommend working with children on their homework as well. One of the biggest areas parents ask us for help with is homework and if children are being picked up late from your service, homework would be a major concern for parents and for children. Hopefully, if it is possible, you can build up a relationship with the school you are attached to (if you start an OOSH service) and through this relationship work with children on areas they may be struggling with at school as advised by the teachers. Obviously, the more you add, the harder it becomes for you and therefore you may need more than just yourself. Even a 1:15 ratio, which is what we work on, can be a handful if you get an interesting mix of children. A spare pair of hands is always useful!

[meganheather]

I love the ready for bed idea and plan to make it an option for parents. My plans so far are (and I would love some feedback)

- I have checked out all the statistical data in my state and narrowed my options down to a district that has a high number of children under 15, a high number of workers, and the majority of workers are either in health care, retail or hospitality, which is notorious for working evening hours. The district that I am looking at has a high number of schools which all have OSHC services, none of these services run past 6:30pm though, so my point of difference will be the evening hours.

- I do not plan to align myself to a particular school, I will be a stand alone OSHC service and we will collect children from nearby schools (this district has many schools very close to eachother) using a hired bus service.

- I am looking at splitting my services into 2 sessions, similar to how services split between before and after school care. Session one would be from 3pm to 6pm and session two would be from 6pm to 9pm. This also splits session fees, my fees will be reasonable and average for the area (I have researched this also) but obviously slightly hire for the second session to cover for staff working after hours (I believe they get a 25% increase in pay after 7pm).

- The afternoon sesison 3pm to 6pm will include an afternoon snack, homework and planned and free play activities including physical activities.

- The evening session will include dinner, supper and an optional ready for bed service (if parents wish to send their children with PJ's to change in to). The last part of the evening session will be dedicated to winding the children down, so stories, quiet activities etc.

- I understand the ratio is 1:15 however, I have worked in a single staff service before, and even with just 10 children it is very difficult to supervise and organise at the same time. I would have myself and an assistant on at all times, and then an additional assistant for every additional 15 children.

- The actual number of children that I can enrol will depend on the size of the property I rent, and what the department licenses me for.

This is what I have so far, I am still researching, processing and thinking, I am also waiting to hear back from my states regulatory authority in regards to if my idea is even feasible, but I haven't found anything so far to say it isn't so fingers crossed!

Thanks everyone for your support, as I said this is the start of a very long road, but I am taking my time to ensure everything is planned for.

Megan

[meganheather]

I forgot to mention also that the number of staff will depend on the number of schools we are required to pick up from. Someone will need to be on the bus for the children, so the 3pm to 6pm session may have a much lower ratio than the 6pm to 9pm session.

This is where I am most concerned though, as the schools in the area all finish at approximately the same time, so I would need to have multiple busses or people movers depending on the number of schools we need to pick up from. Obviously it wont be viable to pick up 1 child from a school, so we would need to have minimum numbers for each school.

Marketing and transport are where I am most concerned at the moment, not sure how to ensure transport runs smoothly, although I am currently doing my research in that area at the moment, It won't be possible to purchase our own transport so we will need to go through a hire company, thankfully there are many options in my area. I also don't know the best way to market the service since we wont be alligned with a particular school.

[MarkPowter]

You seem to have it all planned out and your research into the area is fantastic I can see this going very well!

I 100% agree with you having a minimum of two staff members as it makes it a lot easier and also covers you in case of emergencies. I like the idea of splitting the session up as some parents may not use the 6-9 session and it would be silly for them to pay a higher fee if they do not utilise it.

As for the marketing of the service, I would start by speaking to schools and even the other local centres trying to strike up a bit of a deal. You do not run before school care and they do not run late hours - I see an EASY trade here. I know in my area, we work with the other local centres to do the best for children and their families. I don't think a service would mind giving up a family or two to both help a new service and also potentially gain more clients (Especially in the morning which is usually quiet).

As for the transport, you would be best to talk to the schools you aim to pick up from. I know at my local school, the students have bus lines and the teachers walk them to the bus stop when their bus arrives. You could easily have the schools set up another line for the ASC kids and ask a teacher to walk them down when the bus arrives. The biggest problem would be tracking down children who forgot they had ASC. This way you could keep a single staff member on the bus rather than 1 at each school to collect.

[Lorina]

You have definitely thought about your business venture and have it "planned" so to speak.

With marketing I think you should contact the schools and get them to advertise in their newsletter. If you're unable maybe do some fliers and if there are any community events coming up you can possibly give them out there, local newspapers to advertise with. Have an open day where parents and children can come and meet you and the centre, start a site, Facebook page, get onto the schools website etc. There are many ways to go about it… I wouldn't worry so much about marketing because you're offering after hours care, your services speak for themselves and so do parents! Once a few parents know word of mouth will take care of the rest!

I agree with Mark about the bus. There is always a teacher on "bus duty" and the children could just wait there for your bus to pick them up. There are quite a few OOSH centres that only use one bus to pick up children from different schools within the area… so I'm sure you can arrange something.

I really hope this works out for you because you seem so determine and you actually know what you want to do! It's so exciting!

Thinking out loud here but if children come only from 6pm - 9pm you would still have to program for them, do observations on them and plan activities based on their interests and skills, to meet the requirements of the NQF?

,
L.A

[catchmeifucan]

Neat idea!

There should be more after hour LDC centres as well. When looking for a job I checked out an LDC opened 24 HRS in the city (Sydney). At night they do dinner, bath and bed kids etc. Staff working through the night into the morning get double wages from what I remember and all staff work in different shifts. I think that's why it isn't so popular because it could be expensive maybe for the owners??

[TETRAS230]

hi MissMegze or forum experts, not sure if you'll see this as your initial post was over 2 years ago.

I've been thinking about doing something similar for an inner west Sydney area, how are you going with your OSHC? Any tips, learnings or thoughts of starting up a new OSHC that you can share with a newbie whose very new to the child care / OOSH industry?

thanks!

[Lorina]

hi MissMegze or forum experts, not sure if you'll see this as your initial post was over 2 years ago.

I've been thinking about doing something similar for an inner west Sydney area, how are you going with your OSHC? Any tips, learnings or thoughts of starting up a new OSHC that you can share with a newbie whose very new to the child care / OOSH industry?

thanks!

Hi There!

Have you had any experience working with children? Have you got any qualification in relation to childcare or OSHC? If yes, it's a good start, if not it's still possible however it may be a little more difficult since everything will be completely new to you! You could do a Diploma qualification to get you familiar with the regulations, overall requirements, policies and procedures, national quality framework etc. that you will need to be thorough with if you were to starting up an OOSH. Also, if you were to work in your OSHC service as per regulations if you are having less than 30 children only one educator is required to either hold or be working towards a Diploma qualification... So, if you would like to work in your setting it may be beneficial for you to gain a qualification...

Here is some more info:

Staff Qualifications For An OSHC

Hope this helps!

,
Lorina

[Lorina]

hi MissMegze or forum experts, not sure if you'll see this as your initial post was over 2 years ago.

I've been thinking about doing something similar for an inner west Sydney area, how are you going with your OSHC? Any tips, learnings or thoughts of starting up a new OSHC that you can share with a newbie whose very new to the child care / OOSH industry?

thanks!

I also found the following which may be a good read on how to open your OSHC:

Establishing An OOSH
Info On OSHC

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any further questions!

,
Lorina