In NSW, children who have not been immunised due to their parent’s vaccine conscientious objection cannot be enrolled in childcare.

There has been a product safety recall from Product Safety Australia for the VTech Baby Pack & Go Travel Mobile and VTech Baby Shake and Sing Elephant Rattle

Key changes and updates to the National Regulations and Law are now in full swing. These include supporting Family Day Care to achieve better compliance and quality across the whole sector and an introduction of a national educator to child ratio of 1:15 for services providing education and care to school age children.

From the 01 Oct, a new National Regulation will be put in place that will give Educators the right to overrule parents requests for their child's sleep arrangements to reduce the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).  

Today (Thursday 7th September), it is estimated that 3000 to 4000 Early Childhood Educators throughout Australia walked off the job at 3:20 pm to protest over pay conditions, calling for an increase of 35 per cent.  It is the largest early education walk - off in Australia's history. 

On Thursday, 7th September at 3:20pm Educators around Australia will walk off the job to demand higher wages. 

As part of a $53 million Mental Health in Education program, announced by the Turnbull government, three-year-olds in childcare and students from preschool and kindergarten upwards will be taught about suicide awareness and mental health.

Early Childhood Australia CEO Sam Page said helping to develop resilient children who were aware of their emotions and mental health could have a real impact in preventing them from being at risk of suicide later on in life.

“If we teach all children how to name their emotions, how to feel sad and how to recover from that ... then we are more likely to have reduced instances of depression and that in turn will reduce the number of children trying to suicide,” Ms Page said.

While the word “suicide” won’t be used directly with three-year-olds, discussions around feelings of “not wanting to be here” or “wanting to die” could be addressed in the right context.

Health Minister Greg Hunt will announce teachers from childcare through to Year 12 will be provided additional mental health and suicide training in their university degrees or VET education.

Those already teaching will undergo additional online and face-to-face training to better improve the discussion with children around the issue.

The program will be run by Beyond Blue in partnership with Early Childhood Australia and Headspace.

It will begin early next year with two-thirds of all schools to be involved — 2000 Early Learning Services and 6000 schools — by June 2019.

Reference:
Rudd, Matilda (2017), Three Year Olds Discuss Suicide Awareness, Daily Mail Australia

From the 01 July 2017,  the Fair Work Commission has announced a 3.3% increase in minimum wages. The increase will apply to base rates of pay from the first full pay period starting on or after 01 July 2017. 

From 01 Feb 2018, a revised NQS will be introduced to help clarify how quality is rated in education and care services. 

ACECQA is very concerned that some educators with first aid certificates are not trained in medical emergencies, due to the fact that dodgy training colleges are handing out qualifications to incompetent students. 

NSW Early Childhood Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the state government would “use the full extent of the law’’ to deal with dodgy childcare qualifications.

“Services and individuals that have submitted fraudulent documentation will be investigated and can be prosecuted,’’ she said.

All staff in family daycare, and at least one carer in each long daycare centre, must be trained in first aid, anaphylaxis and asthma management.

“A situation where a student has completed one qualification and is incorrectly deemed competent, could present a serious and significant risk to children being educated and cared for,’’ ACECQA warns in a submission to the Department of Education and Training.

“A failure of graduates to properly administer first aid to children in their care in times of emergency carries a high risk to children and could have life-threatening consequences.’’

Childcare centres have also complained about qualified educators who do not possess the basic literacy skills expected of them. ACECQA criticised the poor English skills of some educators and calls for mandatory literacy tests before students graduate. 

It has been demanded by The Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) of private daycare centres to the Federal Education Department to take “bold action’’ against training colleges that fail to properly train staff.

“The very nature of the industry evolves around very young and, as such, vulnerable children who are reliant on the competency and skills of their educators,’’ it said. 

Reference: 
Bita, Natasha (2017), Kids Lives At Risk In Childcare First Aid Fail, Daily Telegraph,