Aussie Childcare Network Forum

To make a very long story short - I work with a company that has two centres next door to each other, one for under 3's and one for 3-5. The under 3's side is open at 6am and the 3-5's is open at 7am, so older children go to the "baby" centre if they arrive before 7am and are then moved next door at 7am. I work the opening shift at the 3-5 centre, so I do the moving of children from the baby centre to the 3-5 centre.

Recently the baby centre has been overrun of a morning (due to lots of babies and the centre being almost entirely 1-4 ratios) so my boss has asked me and the other opener to start at 6:45 so I can bring the older children over earlier, to relieve the staff at the baby centre.

When I was discussing this with other staff, they told me that this is illegal - because our opening hours at the 3-5 centre are 7am-6pm, so we can't legally have children in the centre before 7am. They also said that should DOCS come in, the centre can be fined for this as well as myself and the other opener being personally fined as well. Is this true? I want to discuss it with my boss but I'm pretty clueless on the legality of it all, and I don't want to come off as out-of-place or questioning her decisions (especially if what she asked me to do IS legal).

Hi Megs,

Sorry been away for the past few days... Anyway, I'm pretty sure that the centre's opening times falls under the centres licensing information. In this it should state the opening and closing times of the centre. If a centre wishes to open earlier, I think they need to get the details changed on the license beforehand.

It is illegal for a centre to begin accepting children before the opening times because during this time you are not legally responsible for the children. If an incident occurs during this time well lets just say it causes huge problems for the centre and parents... How do the parents sign the older children in? Or do you sign the children in?

At previous centres, we ask the parents to stay with the children until the centre is opened and we don't open the centre doors until 5 minutes before. I remember at my last centre we extended our closing hours from 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm but I'm not too sure what happened "behind the scenes".

I have searched and searched and unfortunately the only information I can come up with so far is this:

Approved plans and other information will be required with the licence application including information about the ages of the children,
licence capacity and operating hours.

Best thing I think you should do is ring/email the NSW Department of Early Childhood Eaducation and Care and see what they say. At least you can get a direct answer:

1800 619 113 (toll free)
ececd@det.nsw.edu.au

Let me know how it goes and I'm sorry I couldn't be of further help to you,

,
L.A