Question about ratio and supervision

[Jess2019]

Hi All,

I just have a question about supervision. I have been working in a centre for 6 months now. The centre caters for 2-6 years olds and is a mixed-age centre. Every afternoon when I work, the children and staff are mostly outdoors. There are 2-3s in the centre almost everyday. Sometimes there are 3 or 4, sometimes even more. I am trying to explain to my boss that because all the children are in the same space, the ratio of the youngest child must be followed. Like today, there were probably 20 preschool aged (3-6) children and 3 toddlers (2-3). I told my boss that there should be 5 staff in total outside/outdoors everytime everyone is all together like this. She keeps insisting that there should only be four. Every Friday, it gets even trickier as the room leader keeps or lets 2 people go indoors to clean up when I keep reminding that this is wrong as we are breaching the ratio. I am thinking that only one person at a time should be inside to clean and if that person is inside, the director needs to be outside to maintain the ratio. Am I right about this?

I hope to hear from you guys soon

[Lorina]

Hi Jess,

Welcome to the forum!

Centre Based Ratio Requirements

Minimum educator to child ratios in centre-based services (regulation 123) are calculated across the whole service, not by individual rooms. To be clear:

The number of educators required is calculated based on all children in attendance at the service regardless of grouping or room configuration.

In a mixed age group of children, an educator who is caring for one age range of children can also be counted against another age range of children, as long as the ratio for each age range is maintained and adequate supervision is maintained at all times.

The first step is to determine the number of educators needed for the youngest age range of children in the group. Once that ratio is met, an educator can also supervise children in another age range, provided the youngest age range is still maintained.

Maintaining the ratio for each age range of children in the mixed age group does not mean the educator to child ratio for the youngest age range must be applied to all children in an older age range.

By applying minimum educator to child ratios across the entire service, centre-based services can flexibly arrange educators in a way that effectively responds to the needs of all children.

For more information, please read the following: Educator to Child Ratios

Hope this helps!

,
Lorina

[Jess2019]

Thanks for welcoming me and your response Lorina!

This is a real scenario from one of my shifts. I just need an advice for this. If there are 19 preschool-aged outdoors and 5 toddlers. How many educators should be outside supervising them? I think 5 but the director thinks 3 is enough. There were three other staff on the premises. Two was indoors doing cleaning and one was the director doing administrative job.

[Jess2019]

They are all grouped together (the toddlers and preschoolers) outdoors for a significant amount of time.

[Jess2019]

Or in order for three to be enough, I think one educator can bring the 5 toddlers in another space/room and the other two staff can supervise the 19 preschoolers outside, right? . I think we are not maintaining the ratio and proper supervision by letting all be grouped outside with only three educators, right? Isn't that a breach of the ratio law?

[Lisamarie142]

Can a person studying cert 3 be left in room by them self

[AMH]

Thanks for welcoming me and your response Lorina!

This is a real scenario from one of my shifts. I just need an advice for this. If there are 19 preschool-aged outdoors and 5 toddlers. How many educators should be outside supervising them? I think 5 but the director thinks 3 is enough. There were three other staff on the premises. Two was indoors doing cleaning and one was the director doing administrative job.

Your director is right. The legal ratio as outlined in legislation is 1:10 for the preschool age group and 1:5 for the toddlers. You've got 2 educators for the 19 pre-schoolers as is requried and 1 educator for the 5 toddlers. Not to mention the other people in the building. Although they might be inside and not directly working with the children, they're still within the building and available i.e. not on a break, and can be called out to help if needed.

[Jess2019]

Thanks AMH!