Hello everyone, good morning.

My name is Emma.

I am a Senior Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

Thank you all for joining the ECE Connect online session on the Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

We can see that the numbers are rising, so we'll just give it a couple of minutes for services to join, work through any technical issues, and then we will get started.

While we are waiting for the others to join, we would love to hear from you and learn which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander country you are on today.

It would be great if you could write your response in the question and answer or the Q&A chat section.

You'll be able to see the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen.

Great, thank you.

Let's jump to the next slide.

Today I am joining from the lands of the Burramattagal people and acknowledge all the various Aboriginal lands you are joining us from today.

I recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the ongoing custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live.

I pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories.

I also acknowledge and pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues joining us today.

We all strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child in NSW achieves their potential through education.

Before we start the session, I would like to go over a few housekeeping items.

This presentation will be recorded and published on the Department of Education website by the end of April.

The published recording will include captions and a transcript.

The microphone, camera and chat functions are disabled during the presentation.

You may ask questions via the Q&A function.

However, we ask that you engage with the presentation as most of your questions are likely to be covered in today's session.

We have a team that will be able to respond directly to as many of your questions as possible.

We are unable to answer service specific questions in the Q&A function today.

We can only answer general questions about the program. Though you're welcome to contact the department using the contact details at the end of the session.

At the end of the session, our speakers will answer some of your questions live.

The Q&A function and the Q&A portion of the session will not be recorded.

We value your input and feedback.

We'll be using Menti during the session to hear from you directly.

Menti allows live collection of information for us all to see.

You can use a mobile phone to participate and we will also put the Menti links in the Q&A function.

Following the session, an information package will be sent to participants.

This will be available separate to the session recording by the end of April.

It will be informed by the questions answered and unanswered and your engagement in the Menti activities.

Once the presentation is finished, a survey will appear.

Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts on today's session so we can continue to develop content that is beneficial to the sector's needs.

For those who've just joined, my name is Emma and I'm a Senior Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

My fellow speakers will introduce themselves throughout the session.

Today you will also hear from Virginia, Em and Ivana.

Firstly, I'd like to introduce you to Peter Harvey, the Director of Sector Programs.

Thanks, Emma and fantastic to be here.

A really beautiful acknowledgement of country there.

So thank you for that and for facilitating today's session.

As Emma mentioned, I'm Peter Harvey, I'm the Director of Sector Programs, which means a fair bit to people inside the building and probably not a lot to everyone out there in the real world.

I have the pleasure of delivering the Start Strong for Long Day Care program as well as the kind of complementary program for community preschools with all of the team that you'll see today and many more behind the scenes.

Really, I just wanted to say, one, thank you for joining us today, but two, thank you for all the work that you do with children every single day to give them the best start in life.

This is so important.

As you know, and as we know, because the research is really clear in this space, it tells us that 90% of a child brain development happens before they turn 5.

And we know children who participate in quality preschool education programs for at least 600 hours in the year before school arrive at school better equipped with the social, cognitive and emotional skills that they need to learn and to thrive.

And that's exactly what we're trying to do with our Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

And great to see how you're implementing that in quality preschool in your services.

And the Long Day Care team today have been listening to all of your feedback during 2024 and have made some significant improvements to processes and the way that we communicate so that we can better support you.

Today's session is going to cover the most common questions that we've received over the last 12 to 18 months that we think you want to know about and particularly focused around fee relief rules and spending rules as well.

We're always keen to hear more. Em mentioned for a bit of a survey at the end.

Do tell us what you found useful.

Tell us what you want to hear about in the future and we're always happy to learn.

Back to you Em. Fantastic, thank you, Peter.

In today's session, we will cover elements of the 2024 and 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

We will cover the topics that providers and services most commonly ask us about.

In Topic 1, we provide a program overview and highlight improvements we have made.

In Topic 2, we talk about fee relief funding, including spending rules and calculations, and reserved and surplus fee relief funds.

In Topic 3, we cover program funding, including spending rules and unexpended program funds.

In Topic 4, we speak of how you can prepare for the upcoming 2024 Start Strong for Long Day Care financial accountability statement process.

And in the final portion of the session, it will be a question and answer where the speakers will answer common questions posted in the Q&A function.

First, let's provide a brief overview of the 4 funding streams for the Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

Let's jump to the next slide.

Again, thank you.

The Start Strong for Long Day Care program provides funding to deliver affordable, quality preschool education to children aged 3 and above who are enrolled in an eligible long day care service in NSW.

There are 4 streams of funding.

The funding rates have increased for all funding streams in 2025.

You can see the increase in the annual rate per enrolment from 2024 in the light blue boxes to 2025 in the dark blue.

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment enable services to improve affordability for the families of eligible children by reducing the cost of early childhood education.

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment is calculated as an annual flat rate allocation of $2,174 per eligible enrolment and the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment is calculated as an annual flat rate allocation of $515 per eligible enrolment.

The annual rate varies per enrolment.

Loadings are provided for Equity Enrolments.

These are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and/or if the service is located in a geographic area with a high level of disadvantage as determined by the Australian Government.

Approved providers will receive one amount of loading per equity enrolment.

The 4YO+ Program Payment is also scaled for hours of enrolment.

Children who are enrolled for 600 hours or more per year will receive a higher rate of funding.

See Section 4 of the 2025 program guidelines for the full breakdown of funding rates and calculations.

Later in the session, in Topics 2 and 3, we will explore the fee relief and program funding spending rules in more detail.

The 3YO Program Trial Payment has been extended to December 2025.

Let's jump to the next slide again please.

Fantastic, thank you.

Funding allocation emails were sent to providers of eligible services from February 2025.

Instalment 1, which is 50% of the annual allocation, will be paid to the provider from the 28th of March 2025, though please allow 10 business days for the funds to appear in your account.

The remaining 50% will be paid in Instalment 2 from July 2025.

Now let's go over 2 common questions about your funding and payments and let's jump to the next slide.

Perfect, thank you.

How can I check what funding my service is eligible for?

Eligible funding mounts, a breakdown of loadings, and funded fee relief enrolments are all outlined in your funding allocation email.

This email was sent to the approved provider in November 2024 and again in February 2025.

To find the email in your inbox, you can search for the subject line 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care Funding Allocation or search for the sender ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au

If you cannot find your funding allocation email in your inbox, please first check your spam and junk mailboxes before emailing the department.

Another question we receive is I have received a payment, how can I check what the payment is for?

There are 3 places you can identify what the payment is for.

The first is check your payment advice that is sent from the department via email for each payment made.

The reference number column will indicate what funding stream the payment is for and the details column will indicate what service the payment is for.

You can check your payments in the Early Childhood Contract Management System known as ECCMS.

You can also check your instalment amounts in the funding allocation email sent to the provider.

At the end of this email, there are also step by step instructions on how to read your payment advice and how to log into ECCMS to check your payments.

The Long Day Care Funding team strive for continuous improvement in our processes and program.

Since mid 2024 we have improved the way we communicate to you.

Our email updates are clear and timely.

We heard from providers that information and calls to action can get lost within long emails.

That is why we now include the key messages at the top.

Each email update now begins with a blue box that provides an in short summary of the email and the next steps.

We also include all critical information within the email so that you don't have to navigate through hyperlinks and web pages to piece together information.

Our responses to your email inquiries are within 5 business days.

In 2024, the Long Day Care Funding team responded to over 9,000 email inquiries.

For 90% of emails, we responded within 5 business days and we're looking to lift this response rate in 2025.

The process for submitting fee relief data has been simplified to make it easier for services to report their fee relief spending and receive a 2024 fee relief top up if needed.

What we heard from providers and services in 2023 was that the fee relief data submission process was complex and a significant administrative burden.

In 2024, this process is now voluntary.

You only need to submit fee relief data if your service’s fee relief funding in 2024 was not enough to cover all eligible children.

If you receive sufficient fee relief funding, no action is required of you.

You only need to complete a single submission for the full 2024 reporting period.

A Fee Relief Data submission guide and manual template were available to support services as soon as the process opened.

The 2024 Fee Relief Data submission was open from the 31st of January 2025 to the 21st of March 2025.

Providers will receive outcomes and payments from the 31st of March 2025.

In 2025, we're looking to improve this process further based on learnings from 2023 and 2024.

For more information, More information, sorry, on the 2025 fee relief funding top up process will be available later in 2025.

The Start Strong for Long Day Care program guidelines include key updates to support services.

The service eligibility criteria is expanded to include occasional and mobile education and care services.

This means these services are eligible for all f4 funding streams.

We've improved processes to identify eligible new services in 2025.

We've updated information for transferred services to support transferring and receiving approved providers.

We've improved the flow and readability of the program guidelines and we've updated resources including regularly updated 2025 FAQs, a new 2025 Declaration and Consent form, case studies for calculating fee relief and updated ECCMS Service Provider Guide which details how to update your contact details, how to change your bank account details and much more.

If you have a question about the Start Strong for Long Day Care program, we can better support you initially via email than over the phone.

When you contact us via phone, you'll first speak to an Information and Enquiries Officer from the NSW ECEC Regulatory Authority, who can provide general information only.

They may then triage your call to a Funding Officer from the Long Day Care Funding team who can also only provide general advice over the phone.

When you contact us via email, your email is triaged according to the topic.

It is directed to the subject matter expert in the Long Day Care Funding team who can then provide general and service specific advice in their response.

Now we will move on to Topic 2 where Virginia will talk about fee relief funding.

V you're on mute just to start. We can't hear you yet.

Apologies.

Great.

There you are.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Virginia and I'm a Senior Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

I'll be providing a very brief overview of the fee relief funding streams of the Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

Under 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care program fee relief is available for families with eligible children.

The funding is designed to help families reduce their out of pocket expenses for early childhood education and care.

So who is eligible?

In 2025, the annual fee relief allocation for 4 year old plus children is $2,174 per eligible child.

In 2025, the annual fee relief allocation for 3 year old children is $515 per eligible child.

So how do you apply fee relief for eligible children?

Fee relief must be applied weekly as a direct reduction to a family session fee or gap fee after the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) has been applied.

This ensures that families experience ongoing, consistent financial support throughout the service’s operating weeks.

A key change to note is that from 2024 onwards, fee relief funds cannot be used for expenses covered under program payment spending rules.

This includes items such as salaries and wages for ECTs and educators, education and functional resources or other program related costs.

This ensures that fee relief is only used to reduce costs for families, making early childhood education more accessible and affordable.

So now let's go through a practical case study to understand how 3 year old fee relief is applied.

Imagine a child is enrolled at your service with the following details.

They were born in September 2021.

Their daily session fee is $115.

They are enrolled for 2 days per week.

They receive no Child Care Subsidy (CCS), they have no additional fees, and the service operates for 50 weeks per calendar year.

Let's go through the steps to determine eligibility and amount to be applied.

So Step 1, confirm the child's eligibility.

First, we check if the child qualifies for 3 year old fee relief in 2025.

As the child's birthday falls between the 1st of August 2021 and the 31st of July 2022, they're eligible for 3 year old fee relief.

Step 2, check for a signed fee relief declaration and consent form.

Check that a fee relief declaration and consent form has been signed requesting the service applies fee relief funds to their child's enrolment.

Step 3, calculate weekly fee relief allocation.

The total fee relief available for this child in 2025 is $515.

Since the service operates for 50 weeks, we divide the total by 50, which is $10.30 per week of 3 year old fee relief.

This means that the family is entitled to receive $10.30 per week in fee relief.

Step 4., calculate the weekly fee before fee relief.

As the child attends 2 days a week and the session fee is $115 per day, The total weekly fee is $230.

The family's total weekly fee is $230 before any fee relief is applied.

Step 5, apply the fee relief to the weekly fee.

Now we subtract the weekly fee relief $10.30 from the total weekly fee relief of $230, which is $219.70.

So after applying 3 year old fee relief, the family's remaining out of pocket cost is $219.70 per week.

In the next slides we will look at some common questions as they relate to the case study.

What if the child does not attend?

The weekly fee relief, 3 year old fee relief, does not change.

Fee relief is based on enrolment, not attendance.

What happens if a child reduces their enrolment to just one day a week?

The weekly 3 year old fee relief does not change.

The number of hours or days enrolled does not impact the weekly fee relief amount.

The reduction is applied consistently each week across the service’s operating weeks.

Importantly, providers cannot impose minimum enrolment requirements.

Families will be eligible for weekly fee relief regardless of how many days their child attends.

So our next question, what happens when the child turns 4 after the 31st of July 2025?

The weekly 3 year old fee relief does not change.

A child receives one fixed rate of fee relief for the entire 2025 calendar year based on their birthdate.

If a child is eligible for 3 year old fee relief, they will continue to receive it for the whole year as they turn 4 after the 31st of July 2025 cut off date.

What if a child turns 4 before the 31st of July 2025?

The child is eligible for 4 year old plus fee relief from their first day of enrolment in 2025 and will continue receiving it for the entire calendar year.

For example, if the child turns 4 on the 30th of March and their first day of attendance is the 1st of January, they are entitled to be paid the 4 year old plus fee relief rate from the 1st of January.

Similarly, what if a 2 year old turns 3 before the 31st of July 2025?

The child is eligible for 3 year old fee relief from their first day of enrolment in 2025 and will receive it for the full calendar year.

For example, if the child turns 3 on the 31st of July and their first day of attendance is the 1st of January, they are entitled to be paid the 3 year old fee relief rate from the 1st of January.

This means a child's fee relief payment category is paid from the start of date of their enrolment in 2025, provided they turned 3 or 4 on or before the 31st of July 2025.

Now let's go over 2 important scenarios regarding fee relief allocation.

How do we apply fee relief for children with separated parents?

The service should work with both parents to split the single allocation of fee relief.

This should be clearly reflected in each parent's invoice insurance, ensuring transparency and accuracy in billing.

Next question. Are currently enrolled children who will be attending school in 2025 eligible for Start Strong fee relief?

Yes, as long as the child meets the eligibility criteria and the family completes a fee relief declaration and consent form for 2025, they can receive fee relief.

However, once the child leaves to attend school, any remaining fee relief funding becomes Reserved Funds, which means it cannot be used unless another eligible child takes the place.

Well, what if I don't have enough fee relief funding?

In cases where the initial fee relief payment allocation is not enough to cover the number of eligible children accessing fee relief, then 4YO+ Program Payments may be used as an interim measure to provide 4YO+ fee relief.

Similarly, 3YO Program Trial Payments funds may be used as an interim measure to provide 3YO fee relief.

This ensures that all eligible families continue to receive support while funding adjustments are managed.

It is important to note that 4YO+ fee relief program payments cannot be used to provide 4 year old, 3 year old.

Sorry, my apologies.

It is important to note 4YO+ Fee Relief Payments cannot be used to provide 3YO fee relief and vice versa.

And 3YO Program Trial Payments cannot be used to provide 4YO+ fee relief and vice versa.

Top up funding for 2024 was determined through the voluntary fear relief data submission which opened in January 2025 with outcomes and payments progressed from the 31st of March 2025.

The 2025 fee relief funding top up process is currently under review with further updates expected in late 2025.

So some more questions, can I use fee relief for one service and apply to children enrolled at another service?

No, funding is not transferrable across services.

This means that you are unable to use funding provided for one service in another service.

I have too much fee relief, can I use this on education resources and staff salaries?

No. Surplus or Reserved fee relief funds cannot be used on program payment spending rules.

Surplus or Reserved fee relief payments may need to be returned to the department.

And finally, for this section, what services should do if they have not expended all their fee relief funds?

There are 2 categories of remaining funds, Reserved fee relief funds and Surplus fee relief funds.

I'm now going to hand over to my colleague Ivana to talk about these 2 categories.

Thanks V.

Hi everyone, My name is Ivana and I'm a Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

Now let's take a closer look at the Reserved fee relief funds, what they are and how they should be managed.

Reserved fee relief funds are remaining funds when a service's current enrolments are lower than the number of funded places.

This can happen in situations such as a child leaves the service and creates a vacancy, a family chooses not to receive fee relief from the service, or an enrolment place remains vacant for an extended, typically 12 weeks or more.

In these cases, the unused fee relief funds must be retained and cannot be used until another eligible child is enrolled and nominates to receive fee relief from the service.

Additionally, services may be required to return any unallocated funds to the department as part of the program’s compliance requirement.

Next slide please.

Thank you.

To understand Reserved fee relief funds, let's walk through a case study.

In 2025, a service received 4YO+ fee relief funding for 30 enrolments, but due to changes in enrolment, some funds became Reserved fee relief funds.

We'll have a look at 3 different scenarios.

So Scenario 1 they're lower enrolments than funded.

So the service currently has 28 enrolled children eligible for 4YO+ fee relief. Funding for the 2 vacant enrolment places becomes reserved., so that's 2 * $2,174 which totals $4,384.

This funding cannot be used until the vacant enrolment places are filled.

Then we have Scenario 2. A family does not nominate to receive fee relief funding.

So one eligible child chooses to claim fee relief from a different service.

Funding for one vacant enrolment place then becomes reserved, so that is the total of $2,174.

Again, this funding cannot be used until a new eligible enrolment is added.

And then we have Scenario 3, a child leaves the service. So one eligible child leaves and the enrolment place remains vacant for the rest of the year.

The reserved amount in this case is calculated as the weekly fee relief rate, then multiplied by the remaining operating weeks in the year.

This funding also remains reserved until the place is filled.

In all these scenarios, the provider must retain these funds and may be required to return them to the department if they remain unallocated.

Now let's have a look at a common question regarding Reserved fee relief funds.

What if a vacant enrolment place is filled within 12 weeks?

If an eligible child fills the vacant enrolment place part way through an extended period of approximately 12 weeks or more, the Reserved fee relief funds for the weeks before the child's enrolment began will be considered Surplus fee relief funds.

For example, if a child enrols from week 5 onwards, the fee relief funds for the first 4 weeks when no child was enrolled become Surplus funds.

Now, let's further explore Surplus fee relief funds, what they are and how they can be used.

Surplus fee relief funds occur when a family's gap fees have been reduced to zero in a regular billing period, leaving remaining fee relief funds that cannot be applied to the child's fees.

So what can services do with these Surplus funds?

They must be used in the following order.

Firstly, they can cover additional charges for the eligible child, such as levies.

Then, they may be used to reduce fees for other eligible children at the services discretion.

This could mean prioritising families with the greatest need in line with the Section 3.3 of the Priority of Access guidelines.

Then, you may further reduce fees for children already receiving fe relief or children whose families did not nominate the service for fee relief.

However, any remaining Surplus funds must be retained and services may be required to return them to the department if they are not utilised.

To better understand how Surplus fee relief funds work, let's go through a case study.

In 2025, a family sends their 5 year old child to a service where the daily session fee is $137.

After applying the Child Care Subsidy, the family's daily gap fee is $13, meaning they pay $26 per week for 2 days of enrolment.

The service operates for 52 weeks per year and also has additional charges such as levies.

Let's break down how fee relief is applied in this scenario.

Step 1, calculate the weekly fee relief allocation.

So the child is eligible for $2,174 in fee relief, which is spread over 52 weeks, providing $41.81 per week.

Step 2, apply fee relief to the weekly gap fee.

So the weekly gap fee in this scenario is $26 minus the $41.81 of the weekly fee relief then equals negative $15.81.

So that means the fee is reduced to 0.

And since the fee is fully covered, the $15.81 remains as Surplus funds.

Step 3, use Surplus fee relief funds. So we have the $15.81 in Surplus funds.

This is first used to cover additional charges such as levies.

Any remaining surplus funds may be used to reduce fees for children from families with the greatest need in line with Section 3.3 of the Priority of Access guidelines

Services must ensure proper use of surplus funds, keeping records and complying with funding requirements.

Now let's go over a couple common questions about surplus fee relief funds.

So the first question is, do we apply fee relief if the Additional Child Care Subsidy covers all the child's fees to4 0?

No, in this case the full weekly fee relief entitlement is considered Surplus fee relief funds since no further reduction to fees is needed. Question 2, I have retained Reserved and Surplus fee relief funds, what should I do?

Providers must report on Reserved and Surplus fee relief funds in the financial accountability statement, which is issued in May each year.

The Department will review the financial accountability to ensure compliance.

If there are unexpended funds, the Department may send a request seeking their return.

We will now move on to Topic 3, where Em will talk about program funding. Over to you Em.

Thanks Ivana.

Hi everybody, My name's Em and I am a Program officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

Together, let's explore program funding in more detail.

Services can use the program funding in a number of ways to improve the quality of the preschool program they provide and to support the capability uplift of early childhood teachers and educators.

To help your service to use its program funding in meaningful ways, Section 6 Spending Rules and Activities of the program guidelines provides examples of how a service can spend both 4YO+ Program funding and 3YO Program Trial funding.

Section 6 has a comprehensive list of suggestions to help improve your service’s quality and to meet the spending rules, but you may have additional purchases or activities that do not appear in our list of examples.

You can progress with your proposed activity if you're confident that it complies with the spending rules.

Similarly, 3YO Program Trial Payment funds may also be used as an interim measure to provide fee relief to families of eligible children aged at least 3 years old and not yet f4 years old on or before 31 July in 2025.

And again, this is where the initial 3YO Fee Relief Payment allocation does not cover the number of eligible children accessing fee relief.

Now, let's take a look at some specific questions about the spending rules.

Firstly, if I have leftover program funding from 2024, can I spend that in 2025?

No 2024 program payment funds do need to be expended during the 2024 calendar year unless otherwise agreed to by the Department.

Under the Terms and Conditions, providers may be required to return any unexpended funds to the Department.

We will discuss Unexpended funds further into the session when we have a look at financial accountabilities and reporting.

Let's take a look at another common question about the spending rules.

I received my program funding in March 2025., can I use this program payment funding for purchases that I made earlier in the year?

Yes, program payment funding may be applied to expenses incurred earlier in the 2025 calendar year.

The expense must align with Section 6 Spending Rules and Activities of the program guidelines.

The approved provider must maintain records or documents as evidence of expenditure and provide it to the Department if requested for the purposes of reporting or funding compliance reviews.

We do want to hear more about your real life examples of how program payment funding is used to promote quality uplift in your service.

We do want to celebrate your stories.

We'd love it if you could share your stories with us by emailing ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au

You might like to include photos, learning stories, feedback from families and your communities.

Examples could be used by us as showcases during our regular sector updates, emails from ECE funding and case studies for our 2026 program guidelines.

Now move on to Topic 4, where we'll welcome Ivana back to talk about financial accountability statements.

Thanks Em.

I'm very excited about all the stories and potential photos.

Let's now look forward to an upcoming program requirement, the 2024 financial accountability.

Next slide please.

Thank you.

Firstly, what is the financial accountability statement?

Providers funded under the 2024 Start Strong for Long Day Care must submit a financial accountability statement for each individual service that received funding.

The financial accountability statement is the way you tell the department how Start Strong for Long Day Care funding has been spent.

In the statement, you provide details on how the funding in each payment stream was expended, including details of any Unexpended funds.

Why are we completing a financial accountability statement?

This is a mandatory requirement under the Terms and Conditions of your funding.

The purpose of the financial accountability is to provide assurance that public funds have been expended for their intended purpose.

Where there are Unexpended funds, Reserved funds, or Surplus funds, an invoice may be raised by the department requesting repayment of those funds.

The financial accountability statement is not used to determine fee relief funding top ups.

Fee relief funding top ups are managed separately through the fee relief data submission process.

This 2024 fee relief data submission was open to providers in February 2025.

Now let's have a look at how you complete these statements.

Financial accountability statements are submitted in the Early Childhood Contract Management System or as we call it, ECCMS.

The financial accountability statement must be submitted by an ECCMS user with SP-Admin access level.

A user that who has SP-User access level or FS-User access level may enter information in draft only, but only an SP-Admin has the authority to click Submit.

When a financial accountability statement is added in ECCMS and available for you to complete, an email notification will be sent to the main email address of the provider that is listed in ECCMS.

Now let's have a look at the timing for this process as well.

The financial accountability statements for 2024 Start Strong for Long Day Care funding will be released in May 2025.

Providers will have between 4 to 6 weeks to complete.

There are resources available that can help you with this process.

Let's have a look at where you can access them.

There is a webpage called Financial Accountability - Information for Services.

This is currently being updated for 2024 and will be available prior to the release of the financial accountability.

This page provides information including frequently asked questions and important resources for services to assist with completing the financial accountability statements through ECCMS.

There is also a Financial Accountability Return Guide available each year.

This is currently also being updated for 2024 and will be available prior to the release.

This is a step by step guide that walks you through each line item in the financial accountability.

It will contain an example of a completed accountability statement with pop ups for instructions and also short instructional videos to walk you through the process.

There are also a couple email addresses you can utilise to get in contact with us about this process.

For help with completing the financial accountability statement, please email us at ECEAudit.funding@det.nsw.edu.au

And for help with the Start Strong for Long Day Care spending rules and fee relief funding top ups, please email us at ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au

There are certain things you can do in preparation for the release of the 2024 financial accountability statements in ECCMS.

Firstly, you can prepare by extracting your funding and expenditure reports from your software system and/or you can contact your accountant for help with this process.

There are of course also the resources available that we mentioned in the previous slide, such as the FAQs and the guide, which you can read through for guidance.

Another important item on your To Do List in ECCMS is completing all your outstanding financial accountability statements from the previous years.

If you have not done so already. Reminder here that this is a mandatory requirement.

The department will review that 2023 Start Strong for long Day Care financial accountability statements and contact any services that may need to return Unexpended funds.

Another useful thing to do in preparation is to check that your SP-Admin has access to ECCMS. If they're experiencing login issues, please contact ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au for help.

Next, you can check the Main Details tab under your Service Provider menu and make sure your contact details are up to date.

Another thing you can do in ECCMS is under the Funding Specification menu after clicking on the Start Strong for Long Day Care service row, you can check the funding you have received if you navigate to the Payments tab.

Alternatively, you would be able to find this information in any past Payment Advice emails as well.

We heard from you and wanted to address a common question we receive about financial accountability statements.

What is a manual financial accountability statement?

A manual financial accountability statement differs from the financial accountability process in ECCMS as it is only available for services in exceptional circumstances such as transferred or ceased services.

This manual statement is a PDF document sent by the department via email and is a way to report on how funding was expanded outside of the ECCMS process.

The providers who received this PDF document must complete it and submit it via return email.

Now back to Emma. Thank you.

Thank you, Ivana.

In 2025, we look forward to continuing our partnership with you.

We are continuing our commitment to provide clear and timely updates, to respond to your emails within 5 business days, improve processes and update FAQs with commonly asked questions.

Together, we can make a positive difference for young children by uplifting the quality of preschool programs and supporting the growth and development of early childhood teachers and educators.

As a reminder, here are some resources and key contacts for you after the session.

Just on the next slide, we have those available for you.

Our recording will now end here and the presentation will be sent to you by the end of April.

Now let's have a look and talk through some of your questions.

These questions along with the frequently asked questions will be sent out to you in an information package by the end of April.

The team have identified common themes in the questions you have asked in the Q&A function and we have 3 questions that we will answer live now.

We will answer here in a general capacity, but please contact us by email if you require more specific information.

If we could jump to the next slide. The first question that we commonly have seen in the Q&A function is, can a family change which service they nominate to receive fee relief from and what is the process for a family changing this nominated service?

Yes, a family can change their nominated service at any time.

At each service their child is enrolled, the parent, carer, or guardian must complete a new declaration and consent form to confirm their change in nominated service.

Service providers are required to retain all completed declaration and consent forms for compliance purposes.

More about this is in our 2025 Frequently Asked Questions page.

I'll hand over to V, who will be able to answer another question for us.

Thanks, Em, I really appreciate it.

You'll note that we're using quite shortened names for each other. That's part of the fact that our teams worked together for a long time. So I'm also known as V, which is why they're saying V.

So one of the questions is, and it's a really good question as well, if you know a child is eligible but the parents have not returned the form, are you able to backdate the payments once you receive the consent form. Tt's at the discretion of the service whether to backdate fee relief by applying a credit to the family's account.

If a service has sufficient fee relief funding, it is strongly encouraged to backdate funding to the beginning of the child's enrolment in 2025 by applying a credit to the family's account.

However, services should record why a family was delayed in completing a fee relief declaration and consent form.

And services are really best place to find out the why that this is not happening.

So yes, it is at the discretion of the service, but we really do actively encourage you to provide backdated fee relief if you have sufficient fee relief funds.

Em before you answer the next question, I've just had an added question that I've been asked to respond to as well.

We're getting quite a lot of questions regarding when will the webinar be shared.

It'll be shared at the end of April 2025.

Now over to Em to answer the last question.

Thank you, V.

Final question for today.

How long do we have to hold onto funds that need to be returned to the department?

You need to hold on to these funds until notified by the department.

These funds are identified in the annual financial accountability statement processed that's released in May each year.

We will shortly be issuing return of fund letters for the 2023 year.

The 2024 financial accountabilities will be released in May 2025 and you can find more information about this in Section 17 of the program guidelines.

Well, thank you all for participating in today's session.

Your questions and contributions help us to make the program more successful.

As a reminder, the presentation and information package will be sent out to participants by the end of April 2025.

On the screen, you'll see a QR code to a Microsoft Forms survey.

Please do take a few minutes to share your thoughts on today's session.

Your input helps us to continue creating and developing content that's beneficial to the sector's needs.

We will close the presentation here.

We hope you have a fantastic rest of the day.

Thank you all very much for joining.

[End of transcript]

It's lovely to have you all here.

I want to welcome everyone who's attending today's session.

As you can see from this slide, we are focusing in on the Australian Early Development Census, on that data and really taking a look at what it means in practise for early childhood education and care and school services across NSW.

Really lovely to have you all here.

Welcome from me and the team.

We've got them working behind the scenes and we'll have a number of really great presenters.

Today I wanted to introduce myself.

I'm Sarah Hurcombe

I'm the Executive Director for Public Early Childhood Education and Care here in the Department of New South Wales, Department of Education, and the responsibilities for undertaking that ADC in NSW sits within my team.

I'll introduce some of the key members of that team shortly and today we're really going to go through the real value of that data.

But how do we apply it to shaping practise on the ground?

Before we get in, I just wanted to let you know the session will be recorded so that we it can be shared with people who weren't able to attend today and it will run for an hour, so we'll be finishing at 11:00 as we'd kick off.

I would like to acknowledge that wherever we are today, we are joining from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands.

I'm joining you from beautiful Burramattagal Country, which is part of the Dharug Nation here in Parramatta.

And I want to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which I'm joining you from today, that the lands that I live on in Bidjigal lands in South Sydney.

But also to pay my respects to the traditional custodians of the lands that you are all joining us from across NSW.

I'd also like to pay my respects to any Aboriginal colleagues joining us on this call today.

Well, we'd like to kick off before I go into the housekeeping with a really lovely video from some of our students at Camdenville Public School Preschool and to hear their short acknowledgement of country.

So thank you, Mary, for kicking us off.

We are Camdenville Preschool.

Respect to the Gadigal people.

For thousands of years, we say thank you to the elders for sharing this life on which we learn and play.

Thank you to the elders.

Thank you.

We promise to look after it, the Bush, the animals and the people to thank you Mary, and really nice to know that that we are starting that message early amongst our early learners across NSW.

So as we kick off today, just wanted to remind you all you've come to the session that is looking at the Australian Early Development Census, the ADC.

So you're, if you're on the in the wrong spot, jump off now or just enjoy the ride.

It will be a one hour session.

Just a couple of housekeeping before we get into the meat of the session.

We will make sure slides and recordings are available to you after the session, so we'll send an email out with that if you've registered for the session.

Please note that your video and microphone are locked today, but there is a chat function.

So if you've got questions as we go through, please add it into the Q&A so you can see at the top of your screen, there's a little button that says Q&A with a question mark.

That's the place we really encourage you to put those questions as we go through and the team will answer them.

If there's questions already in there that you really want to give a thumbs up to, that'll raise it to the top and we'll make sure that we prioritise those ones.

If there's some common questions across the group, your Q&A button may be at the bottom of the screen.

So just check on your version of Teams and where it is.

Remember that microphone, video and chat functions are disabled during this webinar, but we'll prioritise the questions with the most votes and get back to you if we don't get to all of them.

We'll provide an FAQ piece after the session where we'll share the video and we also encourage you to reach out to us and we'll pop the email address that you can contact the NSW ADC team at afterwards.

So team will pop that into the chat so you can see that.

For those who'd like live transcripts, please have a look on your screen.

It should be at the bottom of your screen to turn on live transcripts.

You can then move the box out of the space so you can watch that and that'll enable anyone that needs to follow along with that transcript as well.

Don't forget, if you've got problems with the Internet, the best way that we know how to fix that is often to turn off and on, leave the session, come back and join again.

So please do that ahead.

So now I'd love to share to introduce our presenters for today.

We'll have two main presenters.

First, I'd love to introduce Mary Taiwo.

She's the AEDC NSW State Coordinator.

And so across every jurisdiction in NSW, we have someone like Mary.

Mary is our wonderful coordinator in New South Wales.

She works really closely with the Commonwealth department to ensure that the data collection runs smoothly each three years.

But also she she's, she's a real expert in our data and can really talk to what the data is indicating and showing.

So we're really lucky to have her here.

Our second presenter will be Shelley Wiffen and she's one of our early years coordinators in our early learners team here in the department.

So she manages the team that there's a lot of lot of work around professional learning and development across our public EC services.

She supports our schools as community centres and she helps support the Australian Ed, Australian Early Development Census, roll out data collection and then the sharing of information as well.

And Shelley's going to really bring to life some of the practical ways that services across NSW are using the AEDC data to enhance their practise and to, to consider what they might want to continue to do or adapt moving forward.

I think I'll hand over now to Mary to kick us off and get into the data.

But I hope you enjoy the session and I'll see you at the end to wrap up.

Over to you, Mary.

Thanks, Sarah and I will just share my screen back.

So thanks for the introduction, Sarah and hi everyone.

It's good to have you in the session today.

As Sarah has said, we're going to talk about the Australian Early Development Census, so I'll just go right in to highlight what we hope that you're going to achieve through this session.

We hope that at the end of this session you'll be able to have the knowledge and understanding to engage with the AEDC data and also understand the value of the data for you in your context of practise.

We hope that we'll be able to share some of the professional learning that we have already provided and some of the events information on events that might come up later in the year to support your ongoing engagement with the AEDC data.

So what is the AEDC?

The AEDC is called in full term is Australian Early Development Centres and in short to I'll refer to it as the AEDC all through this presentation just to make it easier.

It's a nationwide data collection that occurs once in every three years and the collection focuses on five main early childhood development domains.

As you can see on the screen right here, you can see that the fiscal health and well being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills.

So these are very school based skills and then communication skills and general knowledge.

So these five domains give a comprehensive overview of what has where the child is at when they start school, when they transition into school, but also gives us an idea of what has happened in the first five years of a child's life, which is where you all have the influence in as you interact with children before they transition into school.

If you want to learn more about the AEDC domains, we have the domain guides that are available on our AEDC web page.

Some of that that link will go into the chat on the page where you can download the domain guides.

But what to be aware of is with the AEDC, each domain has a bit of what we call sub domain indicators.

They are here.

So these are the various factors that contribute to give us an idea of where the child is in each of the developmental domains.

So the data collection process.

So what happens in the AEDC?

It happens in the first year of full time schooling, once in three years.

And the intention of the AEDC is to give us an overview, a broad overview and a snapshot every three years of how children are growing and developing all across Australia.

So the last collection took place in term 2/20/24, but we've had previous collections since 2009.

So the 2024 data collection has given us a 6th collection circle.

It happens across all schools and public, Catholic and independent schools.

So regardless of the schools where the children from your services transition into, they would they have the opportunity to participate in the ADC data collection.

So each teacher, each kindergarten teacher completes the data collection for the students in their classroom and they answer about 100 questions for each child.

So it takes about 20 minutes.

I think the advantage that we have with the AEDC is Australian government does pay for teacher relief time, so the kindergarten teacher has the opportunity to step out of the class, sit and actually reflect on each child while they complete the AEDC.

We do have casual teachers that schools organised to cover up for the time and the instrument.

There's been a lot of consultation and validation.

So the AEDC instrument is valid for children, Aboriginal and touristy and other children.

And I think there's a link that will be provided if you want to read more about some of the back end research and consultation that's happened with the ADC collection instrument.

So just to give a snapshot of the participation rate, we've had similar participation rate in all the data collection circles, but in 2024 we had 90,700 children in kindergarten participate in the data collection and that's about 94.5% of children.

So that's it.

It gives you the confidence, or it gives us the confidence actually, that the AEDC actually captured the needs of children all across NSW but also across the country, which every state has similar level of participation and all sectors are involved, all the schools.

So we had 2301 schools, primary schools across Austria, I'm sorry, across NSW participate in that data collection.

And the 5000, about 5439 kindergarten teachers engage with the collection.

So teachers who took time to reflect on their students because they're all given the opportunity to do that.

So it's a collective information, not just from one or a few teachers, but a lot of teachers are involved and they do take the time to reflect on their students.

So just to give an idea of the type of questions asked, I know we said has about 100 questions and I'm sure you recognise some of those questions are something that you probably reflect on with the children that you engage with.

So for example, in the physical health and well being, think questions like is a child independent in toileting habits?

You expect that once a child has transitioned into school, they should be independent so that they can actually engage with learning effectively and they're independent enough to ask for permission when they need to go to the bathroom.

So questions like that just help the teacher to respond yes, no, or if they're not sure.

Something else I'll mention is that the data collection happens in term 2 on the assumption that the teacher has had the opportunity to interact with the child over the first term.

So they have a knowledge.

So it's not a one of observation, but observation over a period of time.

And they have a good understanding of who the child is and what the context of the child is.

So for example, I'll go to emotional maturity.

Does a child try to help someone when they are hot?

Also, language and cognitive skill, is a child interested in reading or are they interested in games?

So this just gives an idea.

So you have an understanding of the data that we're going to talk about some of the questions that have fed into each of the domains.

So the relevance of the AEDC for US1, it is a comprehensive measure that looks at all the five key domains that we saw earlier.

But then it also gives us an idea of the child's context.

Broadly.

Some of the questions, for example, in the fiscal health and well being is, is the child coming to school hungry and they're tired when they come to school.

So some of that gives us a bit of context of what what's happening around the child.

It helps to understand what their needs are and also what they're strength because if the child is on track on everything then we know or how we can actually support them to further improve on their strength.

It also gives an idea of the programmes that have happened.

So the collection is once in three years as I've said.

So it just gives an idea that OK, in the past three years have we made progress?

What policies, what programmes have we implemented and is that making a difference in for your context?

We'll get to talk about that is when you look at your community profile.

It's good to see, OK, the children are community, what's happening, what has changed in the community and are we making progress or not?

One advantage that the AEDC also gives, it gives a trend over time.

Like I said, we've had six data collection circles and if you look at the screen there, you can see that with each of the dot points is a collection that happened and you can see it.

Are we making progress?

So the green line is students who are on track or are we not?

Has there been an increase or not?

And also the percentage of children who are vulnerable.

I'm pointing on my screen here.

It just gives a good snapshot over time what we're making what progress we're making.

The AEDC is also influenced by a lot of factors, a lot of which I know the early childhood factors positively is predicted by attendance to preschool and also playgroup attendance have a good positive influence on AEDC outcomes for children.

But there are also factors that impact negatively that I'm sure you're all aware of.

But one of the ones we also know is that if the child has had any contact with child protection services, even if it's just a phone call, it's already an indicator that most likely the child might be vulnerable on one or more domain by the time they transition into school.

So there are factors or things you can consider when you're looking at your data in terms of after transitioning to school.

The data collection happens in school.

But then in thinking about the long term picture, the AEDC is a good, has a good predictive value.

It tells us a bit of, OK, what are the future indicators?

If we have more children who are on track when they are transitioning to school, then it means that they're actually ready to engage with learning as we expect them to engage with learning.

Or also on the other side, it also gives the school and information on how they can actually support the children while they've transitioned to school.

So what can we do to support the children?

If then we have more children who are vulnerable or we have more children who are at risk, how can we support them?

And a lot of research has gone through from the Kids Research Institute and Aero to actually help us understand more that the AEDC is a good indicator of NAPLAN, NAPLAN outcomes in year 3 and Year 5, especially with the language and cognitive skills, it gives a good indication of what the child's outcome might be going forward.

So if, but when we talk to schools for example, we say if the, if there are areas that you think the AEDC data is showing some decline, then probably that's what you need to focus and improve on because it is an indicator of the child's lead it in the future too.

There are other research like the work of the NSW Child Development Study Group and they have actually tracked the first cohort from 2009.

A few of them have been trapped over the years to see their progress.

So if you're interested in reading more on that, we'll provide the links in the chat.

So the best way to engage with the AEDC is actually to compare it with other information that you already have.

We do know that you already have a lot of data from your ongoing assessment and engagement with the children.

So we recommend that don't look at the AEDC in isolation.

You already have information from your local council or maybe ABS census that all the understanding of what are the demographics within your community, what's the settlement being like.

So the AEDC is not to be interpreted in isolation, but in the context of other information that you have.

What access do people have to early childhood services?

Other factors that we want, we recommend for you to look at is think beyond the obvious.

So it might be that you might see a decline in language and cognitive skills, but thinking beyond the obvious of like, oh, maybe we need to add more literacy and numeracy activity.

It might not be that as the main factor that is influencing what's happening for the children.

I know some local councils that I have worked with, for example, it's a very multicultural community.

So even though they're language and cognitive skills outcome is showing a bit of a decline actually what's happening is that the children probably need a bit more support in terms of maybe literacy, in terms of their reading, just so they have more confidence to engage with English because they have another language that they're already very confident in.

So sometimes it might not just be that the obvious factor is just looking beyond the obvious, looking at the social environment.

What else is happening?

Do we now have more unit buildings coming up in the community where previously there was none?

And what else can be associated with that and how can we address that?

So working beyond what we can just do within the early childhood services and linking with other people might be a helpful way to engage with the ADC data.

So in that sense also is thinking about who you might want to partner with when you engage.

Maybe you want to talk to schools that you already have those relationships with or schools that you're aware that a lot of the children from your service transition into.

So maybe the families there might be a way to engage with families to encourage reading at home or maybe just the kind of activities that they engage with children while they're at home.

Community groups and partners, agencies and also working with other early childhood services.

The report that we'll talk about a bit later is that it's a community report.

So it might not just be your service, it might be the same need that might be we need to address as a community and the services within the.

We're talking to parents group and community group.

So there are lots of options and just a few suggestions on people you can partner with.

You already have a lot of partners, so depending on the needs that you see in your committee, you decide who is the best person that we need to discuss this data with.

So this is just a or I said a tool, a simple tool that we're giving to something you can reflect on.

The ADC data collection happens once in three years.

Like we said earlier on, however you can, you don't need to wait till three years to see the progress that has happened.

You can start by engaging with the data, OK, what are the needs?

What do we want to do?

We plan an action and then maybe implement for a short period of time and see, OK, what's the impact?

Is it making a difference?

Can we improve on anything?

So just that ongoing planning circle that you already aware of and you engage with.

I know some services have used it as part of in terms of thinking for their quality improvement plan what they can do.

So just that ongoing reflection instead of waiting for three years to see the next progress, we really encourage ongoing engagement with the data and seeing how you can make the change and plan the next step going round accessing your report.

So the AEDC data is available at different levels.

So the one that will be relevant for you as an early childhood service or if you work within the committee is a committee profile that is available.

So the 2021 version is already all available.

The 2024 version, the data collection occurred last year and hopefully in the next, in a few weeks or in the coming months with the 2024 committee profile will be available.

It does take a lot of time because it's a national project and data is released all at once for every community across the country.

So it takes time, but you can go on the AEDC Data Explorer, the link is going to be provided in the chat for you and just type in the name of your community and you'll be able to download the data and the state, The state and the national report is also available on the AEDC National web page.

And again, the report you'll find there now only reflects the 2021 data.

The 2024 data will be available soon.

Another point to note is that each school that participates in the AEDC data collection and has up to six students that completed the instrument and their entry were all completed and valid.

The school receives a report.

So if there are schools that you already have ongoing relationship with, like schools that you know a lot of the children in your service transition into, then it might be worth asking them about their AEDC data.

Did they participate?

And they can share that with you directly?

So the school owns that data.

The data at the school level has information for the students enrolled in that school, but the data at the community level is almost like a local council level has information for the children that live in that community.

So if for example, let's say a child lives in Parramatta, but then they attend the school in Blacktown for whatever reason, not that it happens that way, but if they attend in Blacktown, their AEDC report will be reported at the school level, will be reported within their school in Blacktown.

However, for the community level report, their information will reported back as part of the children that live in Parramatta.

So it gives you confidence that the AEDC data actually at the committee level is for the children that actually leave and access services, any services within the community.

So just a bit of a display on where you can access and download the AEDC data.

Once you get to the Data Explorer, for example, you type in the name of your council here or your area committee and then it comes up with the option for you to download APDF document.

Or you can just look at the graphs if you just want to have a quick overview.

The advantage of the PDF is it gives you the opportunity to compare across the years.

So you type the name of your council and download it.

As I've said you if you have schools to work with school level data is only available within the school is not publicly available because if it's information for students in that school.

So maybe have a conversation with the school principal or whoever you engage with on transition to school to ask them about their school profile if they've completed the ADC.

So just to give a bit of an explanation around how you can look and engage all the data.

So basically the AEDC reports on the data in the in terms of the percentage of children who are on track.

So children who are on track on either of the five domains, which is the green line.

So you can see the different collection years and how they're making.

This is for the emotional maturity and this is social competence.

So when you look at your committee profile, you're going to see something like this.

Exactly.

It's consistent across all the communities and nationally too.

So everyone is seeing the same report.

And you can also compare committees, if you want to the yellow line here or the amber line is actually children who are at risk.

So the children are not yet on track, but they're not actually vulnerable.

So it might be children who actually need a little bit of support and intervention and they might go on track.

I also say to people that the children, the children who are at risk actually like your quick impact group because either way, they could either go down to be vulnerable or you could actually support them so they can join those who are on track.

So if you're thinking that, OK, too many needs in our committee, we want to focus on something, maybe I'll just say think about the children who might be at risk to start with and then you can go on later on to and the group.

So the red line is for those who are vulnerable, the percentage of children who are no role.

So it just gives an indication and this is a visual representation.

It's also an easy way to engage because not everybody is a data nerd and wants to understand everything.

We're just having the lines gives you an idea of is it going up or down?

Part of the community report also to give you more context as you interpret your data is saying demographic information is provided as you can see on the screen here.

So we have information about children, the community, the total number of children included in each profile and the number of schools contributing.

So it gives you an idea like, OK, the number of schools within our community and sometimes, yeah, generally it gives an idea here in the different years, some schools, some years they don't have kindergarten enrolment, so therefore they don't participate in the data collection.

But then some years or it might be like we have more new schools, for example, in this community profile, also the number of teachers that contributed to the data collection in that community.

So it gives you a good indication and the average age of the children in the cohort.

So all of those factors, especially the average age of children, are taken into account when the data has been analysed.

We also have a breakdown of the number of children, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children born in another country, children with English as second language.

So some of that information also gives you context to interpret your data through, which for example, between 2021 and now we probably had less children families migrating from other countries into Australia than would have had before.

So that's something to think about when you get to see your Twin 24 data.

So this is another example here.

So basically when you get see the community profile, it gives you a bit of context to interpret it.

So what you can see here is that this is the national result.

For example, communication skills and general knowledge for this domain.

You can see where the percentage of children on track here, this is NSW, the percentage of children on track in NSW and then your community.

So the aim of this is just to put it in context for you, is this committee.

So for example, this example here is showing that this committee has percentage of children who are on track, but if you compare them to the national or the state average, it's probably below.

So that gives you an understanding of the, is this a problem that is localised to this community or is this something that children all across the state are kind of needing to, we need to respond to across the state.

And for us from the department's perspective, it gives us an idea that whatever needs are, are there within a particular community or are they at the state level and what's the best way to respond?

So one of the key indicators for the ADC also is looking at the percentage of children who are on track at the state level, but also the percentage who are vulnerable on one or more or two or more domains.

So those who are vulnerable on one.

So at least they have one domain that they are vulnerable in.

Sometimes it might be as high as have been vulnerable across all the five domains, but it just gives us, it's a planning tool for your community too.

It also gives you an idea like, OK, is this problem just with a setting or a small number or is this something that is widespread?

The other indicator is the percentage of children who are vulnerable on two or more domains.

And in this instance, it's saying that, OK, the child is not just going to go in one domain, but there might be more.

So it gives an indication like is this a widespread level of vulnerability or is this just on one issue?

It might just be like in a community, let's say for example, it might be emotional maturity in that community.

Then you might see that the number of children who are going to go on one domain might be more.

But then when it comes to two or more domain is really less.

But then if the two or more domains is showing a high number, then it means that OK, probably there's more to be done in that committee.

What I also emphasise is looking at the numbers.

So for example, you can see that it says how many children are on track.

So 74% means 1418 students and then how many students are vulnerable or at risk.

So it's important to look at the numbers because for example, 10% of 50 is different from 10% of 500 or 10% of 1000.

So again, you're just understanding the scale of it.

So after looking at the graphs, probably just have a look at the numbers in each domain just to have an idea of where the scale of how you might need to respond.

So an important part of the committee report at the towards the end of the PDF when you download it, is that it also provides a bit of a breakdown.

So for example, this is Paramatta, I've downloaded because the department's head office is in Paramatta.

I thought I'd use that as an example.

So this is Paramatta.

You can see that it's a bit of a breakdown, so almost giving you at a suburb level the percentage who are on track and vulnerable.

So that's important because apart from looking at the whole of Parramatta, for example, you might actually say, no, our service is actually at South Granville.

So we want to see because most of the children that come to our service actually live around South Granville.

So we want to just have a look and see how we respond to the data.

So we would, yeah.

So this is basically it in ways how you can engage with the AEDC all understanding.

I'm going to share an example of a service and then after that Shelly is going to come on and talk to you about how you can apply in practise.

So this service has actually engaged with the AEDC data at their community level and then they were able to respond by implementing a particular initiative.

It was based on the grants programme we did before, but we thought this is a good example of how you can look at your data and what you can do in response to the data.

When applying for the grant, we noticed that children weren't adapting very well when they started to come back after COVID restrictions.

So they were coming into service, they were a little bit anxious and they were having a great difficulty in being able to regulate their own emotions.

The AEDC data also reflected that we saw quite a significant increase in their developmental vulnerabilities.

IDFS as a service really wanted to address those things and make sure that we could support the children and the families as they came back to service.

From there we developed a programme called Comfortable Chameleons, proposed it as a 10 week programme.

Someone would come into service and they would deliver that programme to the children to try to get them to engage in building their vocabulary around what it was to have different emotions.

We looked at them being able to use resources and strategies and tools that they could connect and engage with to help support them as they were learning to regulate or Co regulate with their educators.

We followed the curriculum of the zones and regulations.

So we started off basically just building up the vocabulary.

Then we looked at try to matching those emotions to a particular zone and, and where they fit in that zone and that was great for colour recognition.

It's far easier for a child to be able to identify how they're feeling by pointing to a colour if they don't have that word to articulate what that feeling is.

We went into what happens to the body, how your body feels when you have different feelings.

All of our feelings are OK, but with what we do next, that then makes the difference.

We looked at change, how your body copes with change.

We've looked at anger, we looked at frustration, we looked at problem solving.

With each of the programmes with the literacy component then came a tool that these are the tools that you can engage in when you need to.

The programme delivered in nine of our locations that are starts from funded.

These services can be 50 to 30 kilometres from town and we have approximately 230 plus children per day attending a preschool programme, about half of which are in the year before school.

Another big focus of the programme was to make sure that while it was delivered to the children, it was actually a programme that was looking at modelling the ideas to the educators because the educators were struggling on how to cope and support these children.

The programme abled the presenter to model the concepts and the resources and the ideas that they wanted the educators to do.

The educators then could include those activities and strategies with the children for the rest of the time.

We've become more confident delivering things around emotions and talking through modelling and talking to the children about their feelings.

There's zones of regulation.

We've learned a lot more about that, which allows us to help children to deal with their feelings.

When we can see that they're feeling maybe a little bit excited, we can go, OK, So what?

Where are you on the zone?

And get them used to identifying their feelings.

Slowly progress from the Co regulating.

So with us having to go through all the steps, how are you feeling?

What could we do?

What tool could we use to them being more proactive?

They might go and grab some earphones from the quiet corner because they've identified that it's very noisy and they're getting a bit agitated.

They're feeling frustrated, so they grab something to squeeze.

We've also noticed their vocabulary around the emotions has improved.

So they're not just saying I'm happy or I'm sad.

They're able to identify the other emotions.

They have a better sense of understanding other people's emotions.

When they see other students having a meltdown or whatever, they understand that that's OK.

That's just part of life, so we would use the zones of regulations as a resource that they would have a look at and they would be able to connect with both physically as well as just being able to read off it.

Children were going home and starting those informal conversations with their parents.

We ended up making a whole lot of resources that those families could take home and engage in those sorts of concepts at home with their other children as well as the child that was in service.

Big one was transition to school.

We saw this really come strong through their ready to go to school and linking that with the teachers that they were moving through.

So the whole programme moved with the child from the early education setting into that first year of formal schooling.

Thanks Mary for providing such a comprehensive overview of the AEDC and the data collection process.

I thought I knew everything about AEDC but learnt a few things, so thanks.

So now we'll change gears and explore how we can use this valuable data to inform our practise in early childhood settings.

AEDC data is most effective when it informs real changes in practise.

So I'm going to share a few snapshots of early childhood services that use their AEDC community level data to shape their programmes and best support children's development.

So here is an example and we'll call this service A.

And they identified that the community had higher vulnerabilities in communication skills compared to the state average.

This confirmed what educators had already noticed in their daily interactions with children.

Now we know that that communication domain vulnerabilities tells us that the children could be experiencing difficulties with with talking to others and maybe understanding others or making themselves understood.

And it's a really important space.

So interestingly, the local school had also flagged this as an area of concern for children transitioning into kindergarten, reinforcing that need for a targeted support.

So one response that the service took as a proactive step was employing a speech pathologist or a therapist to run a weekly playgroup.

This ensured that children receive that early support in developing their communication skills in a play based engaging environment before starting school.

In this second example, this service found that children in their community had more vulnerabilities in the physical health and well being domain compared to the state average.

So this aligns with feedback from kindergarten teachers from their local schools who had observed that children entering school was struggling with fine and gross motor skills and that fading energy levels and stamina during the day.

So discussions with families or also discussions with families also supported the premise of lack of opportunities to engage in the physical space.

So as one response, the service made a strategic change by incorporating more daily outdoor play and structured physical activities into their programme, really ensuring children had ample opportunity to develop strength, coordination and self care skills.

And that was an example that they used where it didn't require any financial support.

It's it's important to know that a byproduct of this process was used in the AEDC data to not only inform that early childhood service.

Which will also strengthen those collaboration with schools to support smoother transitions and better outcomes for all children.

Our third example found a below national percentage in the areas of both communication and physical development for the children.

In their context, the response was to develop a visiting or borrowing programme with the local library.

And I really like this example.

They created a walking bus that takes them to the library.

Yes.

So they get all the children together and they create a walking bus.

They spend time with the librarians listening to stories and borrowing books.

The librarian also comes to visit at the preschool and facilitate sessions with the children as well as running parent information sessions.

Additionally, this service use the data in an application for a grant to make improvements to their physical area and playground, along with collaborating with local speech therapists and OTS.

So, these examples highlight how AEDC data can validate educator observations, inform targeted interventions, and foster a triangulation of collaboration with schools, specialists, and community.

By using the data effectively, early childhood services can ensure children receive the support they need to thrive.

Effective analysis of the data can assist early childhood services to create responsive, inclusive and high quality learning environments that set children up for success.

As you can see on this slide, ADC supports schools and early childhood education and care services.

In providing insights into children's develop developmental strengths and challenges.

In identifying the needs for additional support to minimise learning challenge.

In informing teaching strategies, transition programmes and curriculum development.

In providing evidence to support grant applications and quality improvement planning and supporting parent engagement and participation in children's development.

Now that we've touched on why AEDC data is essential in effectively supporting early childhood education and care services, let's look at how it directly links to our approved learning framework and informs curriculum planning.

ECEC services know that the EYF is the approved learning framework for our early childhood EC services.

The AEDC data provides valuable insights into children's development.

It helps educators to make informed decisions that align with the EYF principles, the practises and the learning outcomes to create meaningful and responsive learning experiences.

ADC data helps identifies strengths and areas for growth and guided intentional learning within the EYF to enhance children's development through play, relationships and learning experiences.

AEDC data can also be used as an evidence based resource for services to identify relevant short and long term goals.

When we look at this document, I'll just take Mary back when.

Yep, when we look at this document we can see how the AEDC data links to other frameworks including the Early Early Years Learning Framework, the National Quality Standards and the NSW Curriculum.

I use this as an example of how to connect and synthesise the data with other documents to unpick how this supports the learning of many children.

The AEDC can be used to inform planning in line with the NQS, the EYF and the NSW curriculum, and it can strengthen transition programmes and continuity of learning between early education and care services and schools.

It can be used to understand children's development in the context of the community, to identify and respond to community level factors impacting on children's learning, and it can inform approaches to working in partnership with families and community.

On this slide, we've just added some additional links to service examples in practise and these are nationwide.

And this is just to further enhance and support your understanding of the ADC in practise.

Examples of practise and case studies are a great a great way to not reinvent the wheel but to look at how other services have used the data to be innovative and worked with and around other barriers and support and supported positive change for their children.

These links will be available once the slideshow is shared following this session.

There are a lot of links there, but they will be available to you after the presentation.

I've added some more additional links here to assist and aid your understanding of the AEDC and how to support quality evidence practise in your service.

You'll see there that we have the AEDC NSW Community Grants and Studies and that is where we saw the Inverell and District Family Service is actually in that suite of resources.

You'll find the national report at www.adc.gov.au.

So during a data release year, AEDC NSW holds a conference or a symposium to assist stakeholders to dive into the impact of the AEDC data on early years education.

Information about the 2025 Research Symposium can be found through the QR code or by visiting AEDC NSW web page.

Online options are available to all that are interested in understanding more about the AEDC.

Thank you, Shelley and Mary.

And here you can see our details.

If you want to reach out, If we've run a pace through this and you've got follow up questions that you'd love to talk to the team about, please do reach out.

As Shelley has just flagged, there will be the symposium later in the year once we get access to the 2024 data set.

We, we anticipate that coming out soon.

We're waiting on the Commonwealth government to make those final determinations around when it will.

So look out for our, our details, the newsletter as, as we've just posted in the chat, that's a place to sign up so that you can get that at your fingertips as soon as it's released.

Some really great input and, and hopefully we've brought it to life there from Shelley's examples and Mary's setting out the, the range of data that is available to you can see we don't have any Q&A at the moment.

So all here we, we do have, we do have one.

I can just see we're just reviewing it.

The 2024 data is not out yet to review.

So we are anticipating that any day really from from the Commonwealth, it may be delayed by the election.

We just don't know.

So we are navigating that as well as you.

But as I said, sign up to our newsletter, check our website, and we'll share that as soon as we can.

Robin, thanks for that question.

But we will be making sure that our same symposium aligns when that data is out as well.

I'll just see if there's any other questions popping in.

If not, we might close it there for the day.

As I said, we'll publish this, we'll share the the recording and we'll share the slides.

And please do reach out to to Mary Shelley and the team if there's any follow up questions that you have after today.

Thank you very much for being our first ECEC Connect session.

Your lovely group go out there, use that data and think through what it means for us in practise.

Have a really lovely rest of your Wednesday.

Thanks all. Thanks Mary.

Thanks Shelley, and thanks team behind the scenes.

[End of transcript]

Fiona Byrne

My name is Fiona Byrne.

I'm the manager of the triage and customer service team within the statewide operations network. Myself and my colleague Karl Salau, who is the coordinator of the triage and Review team. We'll be presenting this session to you today.

Firstly, our apologies for postponement of this session.

We had an illness with our team, but we're really pleased to be with you today to present this information.

Session on how to make effective notifications to the regulatory authority here in New South Wales.

We have quite a bit to get through today, so we'll keep moving.

I'm pleased to join you from Wangal Country here in the Eora nation, nearby to Goolay'yari.

The name that local Elders advocate for the Cooks River, whose traditional name has sadly been lost due to the impacts of colonisation.

We recognise the ongoing custodians of the lands and waterways where we all work and live together.

We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories.

We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.

A little bit of scene setting, stepping through the focus of today's session with you, we will be talking about what are incident and complaint notifications. We'll do a little bit of a run through of the national decision tree.

We want to talk about the 5W's and how to help you in guiding you with how you actually notify the regulatory authority.

And then we'll go through the specifics of incident notifications and the specifics of complaint notifications.

But we have a little bit of housekeeping to start. As is usual for our ECE Connect sessions, the microphone, video and chat functions are disabled on this webinar today.

The Q&A function is available if you have any questions throughout the session. Again, as usual, we will try our best to respond to questions as they come in.

We understand that you may be.

You may have some questions relating to other topics, including recent media coverage.

About the sector and the parliamentary processes that are underway, we acknowledge the impact that this coverage is having on the sector and understand you may have questions about what this means for you and your service to ensure everyone can get the most out of this session, our team.

Will be focusing on questions specifically relating to the session content. If you do have any additional questions relating to the other topics, I encourage you.

To contact the regulatory authority directly through our information and enquiries team.

Automated closed captions are enabled. If you'd like to use them.

And lastly, the session is being recorded so that we can publish it on our website for you to share with colleagues or refer back to.

But now I'm going to hand over to my colleague Karl to guide us through this topic.

Karl Salau

Thanks, Fiona.

So what is an incident or a complaint notification?

Notifications provide transparency and accountability and enable serious incidents, complaints and breaches of the educational care services, national law and the national regulations to be effectively monitored, tracked and resolved.

Approved providers have an obligation under the national law to notify the regulatory authority of certain incidents, complaints and changes to information about their service.

Today, we're going to focus only on insert and complaints.

If you've got any questions in regards to other notification types.

Your best to go through our information and enquiries hotline to ask any questions around this, but we are specific today on incidents and complaints.

So commonly an incident or a complaint is an event based and it's specific to the children.

You're providing education and care to.

They relate to your service specifically.

An event is commonly something that has happened where there's been an impact to a child, so these include serious incidents as defined under Regulation 12 circumstances at a service which pose a risk to the health, safety and well-being of children.

Or any incident or allegation that physical or sexual abuse of a child or children has occurred or is occurring while a child or children are being educated and cared for at the service.

So the notification itself serves as a record of the event and any risk elements that staff at the service have faced.

The notification and any associated documents can be used to further guide changes in practices.

And it also allows for ongoing reflection on best practice at your service.

Ongoing reflection of incidents and complaints at your service can reduce the risk of reoccurrence and limit health, safety and well-being issues to children in your care.

So when we look at incidents and complaints and how that can guide practice, consider quality area two and seven, they both.

Underpin.

The.

Both these areas of notification. So if we look at quality Area 2, so under the NQF, there's several elements that focus on Children's Health safety in relation to preventing and responding to incidents.

So you've got elements two point 1.2 which is effective illness and injury management and hygiene practices are promoted and implemented. Element 2.2 Point 2 plans to effectively manage incidents and emergencies are developed in consultation with the relevant authorities, practice and implemented.

And element 2.2, point 3 educators and staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities to identify and respond to children. Every child at risk of abuse or neglect.

An incident can happen anywhere, at any time.

It can happen during operation hours and it can.

That includes during excursions and transport provided by the service, managing known risks that your service may reduce overall risk factors.

Getting up to an event or an occurrence at an event, it is understandable that some risks are uncontrollable and accidents do happen.

We we're talking about children here. So we know that there are some uncontrollable variables there.

It's how you manage those risk factors and report it to the regulatory authority and that's the key point.

So when we look at the types of incidents, there are 11 main incident types starting at the most serious and unfortunately the most risky.

And that is the death of a child.

And that goes all the way down through to a service closure and a number reduction. They all have their own requirements which we'll discuss later in this presentation, and each will have subtle little differences in how the regulation requires things and also what it's looking for.

A complaint?

It's commonly a concern, grievance or a statement about something that is unsatisfactory or unacceptable. Complaints may be made verbally or in writing.

By a staff member, a parent, a child.

Now remember, a child has agency here, so they can.

They can voice their opinion here. A member of the public as well. Now when we talk about writing, that comes in many forms, it can be a letter, an e-mail, an SMS information on social media platforms or digital applications used by the provider. So you think you're think.

Of Kinney Hub and the like, so.

There is different ways.

These complaints can come in and they can be coming in through different sources by different people.

A complaint may be made to the proof provider using a formal complaints process or a complaint can be made informally as well.

Complaints can be made about the approved provider, the education and care service, any of its staff or management, and these complaints may be about their behaviour. An incident at the service.

Or other aspects of the service operations where it's an alleged that a breach of the national law.

Is occurring or has occurred, and these two types of complaints, one being the complaint alleging that a serious incident has occurred or a complaint alleging that a breach of the national law has occurred.

So the sequence national decision tree.

The national decision tree was developed to provide assistance to approved providers in deciding whether a notification is required and the time frame in which that notification should be made.

Through the development and the use of the national decision tree, we identify the proportion of the approved providers are actually under reporting incidents and complaints or miscategorising. Some of these notifications.

It's leading to late reporting and incorrect information being supplied within these notifications.

These issues can delay the response by the regulator to assist a service in managing complex matters or add an additional administrative burden.

On the approved writer for reporting of events that are outside the regulatory scope.

All States and territories worked in partnership with the secret to develop the national decision tree.

This tool enables any individual to step through the conditions of an incident or a complaint and identify if it's notifiable to the regulatory authority.

There are elements that make part of that tool.

And there are other aspects that are notifiable for different circumstances.

Outside of an incident and complaint, but the focus of the focus of today's presentation, consider the national decision tree in light of incidents and complaints.

Since it's go live date in July 2024, the national the national focus on it has seen an increase on incidents and complaints notified to the regulatory authorities across.

Australia by 25%.

So it demonstrates that there's an element of the sector that may not have.

Fully understood their reporting requirements.

The national decision tree is not there to make the decision for you.

It is just a tool that will guide you through the core components of the notification. If the wrong notification is selected, the tree will often result in no notification required.

This is due to you not meeting any of the conditions of the notification.

Excuse me.

And each step in the tool gives some guidance on what that particular notification requires.

Or a basic example. If at any stage you're unsure, please contact the regulatory authority for assistance.

In addition to submitting a notification to the regulatory authority, be mindful that there are maybe other obligations that apply under the national law, such as completing an injury and illness form.

There's also the Australian government's new tax system, Family Assistance Act 1999, family assistance law and other state and territory laws, including child protection legislation.

So that has to be factored into.

Excuse me, additional decision making.

So what are the 5W's and how?

The five WS and how are common way to explain the context of an event?

It is used in different industries to define an event or a problem or an issue. In NSW, the regulatory authority receives on average 2000 notifications per month of incident and complaint from approved providers. So over time the regulatory authorities formed a view on what Const.

Best practice in defining an incident or a complaint?

It is recommended that you use the 5 W's and how to provide the regulatory authority.

With the context of your event and ensure that the notification is fit for purpose as we breakdown each incident complaint site, there will be tips to assist you in define these in more detail. So if I actually step through some of these, each element here.

It will help you understand how to layout that notification and provide all the detail.

It's all about being clear and concise, and we remove all emotion from the.

The event itself, but allows the regulatory authority to understand the risks that have been identified.

What risk still remain?

And also to understand the context and which is the most important part for the regulatory authority. So if I look at what has happened, explain the details of the incident risk or complaint, including any injury sustained, this should be an overall synopsis of the event.

One to two paragraphs will commonly provide enough detail to the triage team to understand these risks.

So who was involved?

Include the child or children staff or the complainant.

Details, please use full names for all those involved.

Often we see things like Miss Jane or Jane that actually makes it hard to understand who that is.

So if you can provide their full names, it allows us to understand who is involved.

And that goes for an educator.

A child or a parent.

Some notification types in the portal will allow you to enter the details of the child and parents, so it'll allow you to place the child's particulars, name, date of birth.

Parents or lay to place their name and contact details.

Please use these fields when they're made available in the portal and include. Like I said, mobile numbers, landlines and e-mail addresses. If known, it helps the regulator get hold of anyone that we think we need to contact at any point in time.

Where did it occur?

At the service premises, so provide details as to the exact location of the incident or risk if an event was an occur in the outdoor play space.

What was the exact location in that space to help the regulatory authority?

Stamp the context.

What was occurring at the time surrounding that area and what did supervision look like?

So it's able to it's enabling us to look at the context of what's actually occurring at that point in time. The difficulties you may be facing around the cohorts of children that you're supervising at any one time.

So it's just that contextual awareness of what's actually occurring.

When do the when did the incident occur?

Provide details such as what time of day or what routine was or activity was occurring, and include the number of children and staff in the direct area of the incident.

Again, it's just further value adding to the overall context so we can understand what's actually happening at that time of day.

And another important part is why did it happen? So what was what was happening at that point in time?

And was a procedure followed or not followed?

What was what was an identifiable issue such as supervision?

So if you know something that was not followed correctly or there's an obvious error in the process, you can detail that in this component. This type of information helps the triage team assess the risk of the event and divert it to the correct field team as required.

Again, it enables that contextual view of what's actually happening.

But also things that you've identified as failures and it's OK to put those failures down in there.

It just makes the regulator more aware of there were there were a shortfall or there was an issue at that point in time.

But also on top of that is how have you addressed the risks?

So how have you addressed the issue? Risk or complaint to minimise the risk of it happening again?

So if you can see that.

That there was a simple error or a risk factor that can be managed or mitigated through change or immediate change. You can detail these components in this area of the notification.

So talking about, you've made a change through reflection and you're going to make a policy change or a process change, things like that. What you're intending to do or what you have done.

Yeah.

Things to note about your notification.

Ensure that your service details are up to date in the in the in QSNQAITS portal.

This is to support timely and effective communication with the regulatory authority about incidents and complaints with your notification.

Be thorough yet concise.

Provide all the necessary details about the incident complaint or change The Who, what, when, where and why and how.

Use simple, straightforward language short sentences to convey this information.

Your notifications should provide sufficient information for the regulatory authority to assess the situation without requesting further details unless required.

With a notification you can include relevant and required information and documents.

We want to make sure that you're very focused in this notification should focus solely on the reported incident complaint.

Only include additional or only include additional or unrelated informational documents if requested explicitly by the RA. For example, service policies or copies of an incident or illness report to not substitute the detailed account of the incident.

Or complaint.

So sometimes we do see.

The attached documents being the notification, so some people will put their incident report in there and the notification will be see attached.

So we actually need some sort of description of what's taken place for us to understand it, because the the incident report may not provide us with enough detail or it may be limited in its scope.

So we want you to actually place in the field.

That are in the notification. What's actually happening?

Make sure you submit them within the appropriate time frames.

Services must be aware and adhere to the submission time frame set out in the national law and regulations.

They differ depending on the notification type. These time frames are in place to ensure that the regulatory authority can promptly assess and respond to reported incidents or complaints and ultimately support the health, safety and well-being of children attending ECE services.

So incident specific notifications the information contained in the following eleven slides are there to assist in defining the incident in your notification and any item of the RA feels will assist in the assessment of risk. You may need to consider if other additional information outside of these SL.

Is needed as there is an infinite range of scenarios that can occur in the service. These incidents are specifically events that have happened in your service. Anything that has occurred outside of your service.

I in the home of the child that attend your service does not require a notification to the regulatory authority, however.

It may require a notification or reporting to other agencies under other legislation. So for example, DCJ mandatory reporting.

The next 11 slides are not in order of risk.

They're just listed based on the order and in the law, so they don't.

There's no.

There's no hierarchy.

In those 11 slides.

So death of a child.

It's one of the most critical ones.

But a death of a child at your service or related to an event at your service or, for example, a child's been fed analogy at the service and the child goes home and has an anaphylactic episode and passes away. That notification needs to be made.

Some of these, some of these notifications are challenging and we understand that you have to collect as much information as possible around that and notify within that.

So if we look at the event, if this was to happen in your service, collect all the information you have, make the notification as soon as possible. If you feel that you need to collect information from an agency such as NSW police or medical professionals it.

OK, to take that into consideration for your notification.

But if this is the case, the notification.

You must be made within the 24 hour window.

Consideration should be given to calling the regulatory authorities information and enquiries hotline to advise of the situation.

Just be prepared to provide basic information to allow us to understand the context.

But the notification will be the source of the true source of truth of the obligation under section 1742A of the law. The call to the regulatory authority is not a notification under the law.

Even if emergency services are involved, remember that that is not notifiable under any other incident category.

The event is specific to this notification only.

If you have been advised by if you have been advised of police involvement, provide the details of the officer and their contact number or any information they have detailed or supplied, such as an event number or their local area command.

One thing to note with this and it is possible. You may also receive a complaint from a family member or carer about this event from.

From their point of view, and this is a separate.

Notification.

Serious injury or trauma and or trauma.

So when we go through a serious injury or trauma, we need to look at the elements of the regulation to see to make sure it's been met.

So you need to notify the regulatory authority if a child experienced a serious injury and or trauma. That's the first point whilst being cared for at your service. That's the second point and this is the critical part.

And needed urgent medical attention.

Attended a hospital or should have attended a hospital, so they're the key points of the regulation that looks at what conditions need to be met to make for this. This type of notification to be made.

So when we look at a serious injury, there are some examples that we can give.

But again, this is this is only a very small subset of a very large broad.

Set of of types of injuries so it could be a deep cut, open wound, excessive bleeding, a broken bone, a fracture dislocation, a head injury, concussion or a tooth or dental injury.

Or a burn.

So those are the types of serious injuries.

That's not like I said, not an exhaustive, exhaustive list.

But they are quite serious in nature.

And we look at trauma.

So I've got a few examples of trauma.

They these are just to give you the context of trauma itself.

These are not.

Again, not every type of trauma, but we look at a single incident trauma which can result from experience, a time limited and often unexpected traumatic event.

Such as microsurgery, a car accident, a Bush fire, loss of a loved one through to a complex trauma which can result from exposure to severe, sustained and harmful interpersonal events. So physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

Profound neglect, domestic or family violence.

So they're the two elements of serious injury and trauma. They can be combined so it can be a serious injury and trauma or it can be just a serious injury or just trauma. And then you need the other conditions of care at your service and the medical att.

Attending your hospital or should have attended hospital to actually meet the criteria for this notification.

If emergency services attended because the child experienced a serious injury and or trauma, you need to notify the regulatory authority of the serious injury trauma, not the attendance of the emergency services.

If a parent or carer deems it appropriate and takes their child for urgent medical attention or attended a hospital after collection, this notification should be used. Any serious injury or trauma should require follow up with the family.

After the event to allow for an understanding of the risk and if you need to place any mitigation strategies in place and it can be implemented quickly to reduce the risk.

You may have further obligations under trial protection laws.

Please consider if you're required to take any further action under those laws. So for example, dcj with the mandatory reporting on the specifics of it.

If this event was to happen, collect all the information you have.

Make the notification as soon as possible. If you feel that you need to collect more information from a medical professional, for example, it's OK to take that into consideration for your notification. But in this case, the notification must be made within that 24 hour window.

Your notification should contain detailed information about the injuries, such as and.

I'll use the example of cut the length of a cut, the depth of a cut.

Where it is with a broken bone, that type of broken bone. Is it an open fracture or green stick fracture the size of a burn? If it's a third degree burn, is it the size of a 5 cent piece or a 50 Cent piece?

Or if a child's knocked unconscious, duration of unconsciousness, and whether any issues there lie with that child.

The detail around that allows us to understand the context of the risk that's being presented, so the worst the injury.

Three years.

The bet for the regular can understand the issues that you're facing.

If you've been advised, for example, the child did attend hospital or was there for a period of days to actually let us know that they did have an overnight stay at hospital they did attend.

Ine or if they were there for an extended period, that should be reflected in the notification. If it's not at that point in time.

After you've made the notification, any new information that comes to light, you can notify this information through an additional document via the NQAITS portal.

This should be used if there's a material change to the notification. For example, the child was originally due to be discharged after 24 hours, but is now having microsurgery to reattach an area of their finger.

It's best practice to retain any new information that does not change the outcome of the notification, as this will be. This may be requested and reviewed by an authorized officer at a later stage.

You do not need to send documents that demonstrate qualifications.

First aid certificates, policies, procedures. These will be requested and reviewed by an authorized officer as required.

Again, like most incidents.

You may receive a complaint about this event.

From the parents, and again, this is a separate notification.

A serious illness.

Again, there's elements of the regulation that need to be met in this case.

You need to notify the regulatory authority if a child experiences a serious illness whilst being educated and cared for at your service.

So there's the first two conditions, a serious illness and in care.

And they need urgent medical attention. Attended a hospital or should have attended a hospital.

So that's the third condition.

So all three have to be in place for this notification to apply.

So some examples of a serious illness, there's a severe.

Asthma attack or a seizure or anaphylactic reaction.

It doesn't matter when or where the trigger for the anaphylaxis happens.

For example, an allergen could have been consumed at home or drunk at home if the anaphylaxis reaction happens whilst being an educated and cared for at the service, it needs to be notified by to the regulatory authority.

So even though there's been a catalyst that's happened outside the service, the actual illness, the actual event has taken.

Place at the service.

If the parent or carer deems it appropriate to take the child for urgent medical attention or attend at a hospital after collection, this notification should be used.

Any serious illness should require a follow up with a family after the event to allow for an understanding of the risk of the event and any mitigation strategies that can be implemented quickly.

Again, you may have further obligations under child protection laws. Please consider those.

Please consider if you're required to make any.

Make or take any further action under those laws.

If this event was to happen, collect all the information you have and make a notification as soon as possible. If you feel you need to collect the information from medical professionals, it's OK to take that into consideration for your notification.

But if this is the case, the notification must be made within the 24 hour window.

Your notification should contain detailed information about the illness, such as a duration of unconsciousness.

EpiPen administered, or if no known allergens were provided to the child.

If the service did provide a known allergen detail, the item consumed, it's important that if that allergen was provided to that child whilst in care, that we understand the context of how that's occurred. And again consider your 5W's and how that'll unpack and pull all that.

Information out as you report as you write up your notification.

If you've been advised of a duration of stay in hospital, this should be included in the notification.

After you've made this notification, any new information that comes to light you can notify of this information through an additional document via the NQAIS portal.

This should be used if there's a material change in the notification, for example, a child was originally due to be discharged after 24 hours, but is now required. Now requires follow up with specialist hospital for the next three days due to the severity of the illness.

It's best practice to retain any new information that does not change the outcome of the notification.

This may be requested and reviewed by an authorized officer at a later stage.

You do not need to send the documents that demonstrate qualifications, first aid certificates, policy, procedure documents.

These may be requested and reviewed by an authorized officer as required, and again, you may receive a complaint about this event from the parents.

This is a separate notification.

I may appear to be repeating some elements of this.

It's applicable to different notifications.

The reason we're repeating it is to make sure that not only just reinforce it, but if.

You take notes.

You can actually quickly refer back to those other elements and make it easy for you to understand some of these requirements.

So emergency services attended.

This is specific to emergency services tending your service, so you need to notify the regulatory authority if emergency services such as police, fire and ambulance attend for an emergency while a child was being educated and cared for at your service.

So this includes attendance by emergency services during an excursion because remember, an excursion that service is wherever the excursion is taking place.

Some examples of emergency services attended small fire in the kitchen.

Smoke alarm triggered police attend to check the surrounding areas of your service due to a missing person.

You do not need to notify if emergency services attended for educational purposes. So if you're having a fire truck turn up to the service to show children how that all works and

the process of being a firey that's not required.

To be notified.

If this event was to happen, collect all the information you have and make the notification as soon as possible. If you feel you need to collect information from other individuals, for example from police, fire services ambulance, it's OK to take that into consideration for your notification, but in.

In his case, the notification must be made within the 24 hour window.

Your notification should contain detailed information about the reason for the attendance.

The contact details of the officer, if appropriate, consider recording the time of attendance and the time departed and why they were there.

A child was missing or could not be accounted for.

So you need to notify the regulatory authority if a child and his two conditions here if a child was missing or the second condition or could not be accounted for when being educated and cared for by your service.

So missing from a service some elements here, this notification must be made if a child has gone missing by leaving the educational Care service premises for any length of time.

For example, a child has left the service to go to a nearby road or a shop or a property.

We see this regularly in in the Ush space. A child couldn't be accounted for because they had left to go to the shops or out the front of the service.

So for a child missing the service could also for a child missing from the service. It could also occur during an excursion or an outing.

So remember, wherever you take the children on excursion, your excursion is your service.

Not able to be accounted for. A notification must be made if a child cannot be accounted for while being educated and cared for by your service for any length of time.

This includes during the transportation of children and on excursions. For example, a child could not be located by the child's educator and was found in another part of the service, or a child could not be located during a routine head count.

The child may not have left the education and care service premises.

But could not be accounted for. For example, a child was later found in an outdoor area an out of bounds area such as a cleaning supplies cupboard or a staff room or a vehicle.

Your notifications should contain detailed information on whether the child was signed in when the child was first noticed missing. Were the parents contacted?

Were the police contacted?

Was the child found?

Where was the child found and who returned them?

And that's important, whether that's a member of the public or staff duration of the time that the child was missing and was the child OK, upon their return, if the child was unaccounted for in the service, where was the child found?

Did they have access to items that are dangerous, such as cleaning, cleaning chemicals or fluids?

The duration between identification of the Disappearance and locating the child.

And were the parents informed regain after you've made the notification?

Any new information that comes to light you can notify of this through an additional document via the nqaits portal.

This should be used if there's a material change to the notification. It's best practice to retain any new information that does not change the outcome of the notification.

This may be requested and reviewed by an authorized user at a later stage.

You do not need to send documents that demonstrate qualifications, first aid certificates, policies.

These procedures these may be requested and reviewed by an authorized officer as required, and you may also receive a complaint about this event from parents.

This is a separate notification.

Child was taken or removed from the service.

You need to notify the regulatory authority if a child was taken or removed from the service in a way that breaches the national regulations.

This notification is specific to a child has lifted service premises with someone who did not have permission to take the child the child was taken on transport or on excuse, and without the appropriate authorization.

Your notifications should contain detailed information on whether the child was signed in.

When the child was signed out by whom?

If that was known, were parents contacted? Were police contacted?

Was the child found?

Was the child OK upon location?

If the child was taken on transport or an excursion without the appropriate authorisation, where was the child taken?

Who by whom was the transportation or the excursion?

Planned or unplanned, why was an authorisation not sought from the parents?

And were the parents informed again?

You may receive a complaint about this event from the parents and this is again a separate notification.

A child was mistakenly locked in or out.

You need to notify the regulatory authority if a child was mistakenly locked in or out of the service premises or part of the premises. A notification is required if a child was unknowingly locked in an area of the service was unable to rejoin a group on their own.

Accord or without assistance, for example, an educator locked the door to an outdoor area without noticing the child had exited the room and the child was mistakenly locked out of.

Or environment or a child has entered a toilet or a bathroom and the educator unknowingly locked the child in.

Or a child has been left behind in a locked bus during an excursion.

They go into context is everything here.

Your notifications should contain detailed information about the roots. The routine underway at the time, how the child became locked in or out, supervision of that cohort of children, and the duration that the child was locked in and out.

On whether the parents were informed.

Again, you may receive a complaint about this event from the parents and this is a separate notification.

Reasonable belief of physical or sexual abuse of a child.

Again, there are certain elements or there are elements of the regulation here that we need to to meet. If you need to notify the regulatory authority, if the proof provider reasonably believes this first one, that physical or sexual abuse has occurred or is occurring whilst the child is.

Being educated and cared for the service.

So there's three points there reasonably believes.

Physical or sexual abuse has occurred or is occurring.

And while the child is being educated and cared for at the service, so this could include an incident that occurred during an excursion transportation to and from the service or in an area of a Family Day care educators resident that is not part of the service premises if.

You reasonably believe that a child has been physically or sexually abused whilst being educated and cared for.

Notify the regulatory authority as soon as possible.

For example, an educator reports to the approved provider that they had witnessed an incident where another educator has used unnecessary force against a child. The unnecessary force is equivalent to physical abuse and may constitute inappropriate discipline under section 166.

It therefore needs to be notified to the regulatory authority, so note here.

The focus of this regulation is about the child whilst being cared for at your service or by your service. Events that happen outside of your service.

I whilst the child is not in your care, are regulated by laws of other government agencies and you may have obligation under those laws and that's why we talk about if it's happening outside of your service.

There may be the requirement for a manager or there will be a requirement for a manager report to be made to the CA.

Any allegation of physical or sexual abuse while a child is not being cared for by your service does not need to be notified to the regulatory authority, but will be needed to will need to be reported under other relevant legislation. For example, a child told and educated that.

They were subject to physical abuse at home.

This does not need to be notified to The Reg authority, but would be reportable to a dcj as a mandatory report.

Now when we look at.

When these events happen.

You need to collect all the information you can about this event and make a notification as soon as possible.

There is the within seven days of becoming aware for this particular notification, but the sooner you notify of the matter the better it allows the regulator to start stepping through some processes to make sure that we.

Are managing those risks.

Now when you make that notification, it should include the following details in relation to the person who is subject to the allegation.

So the person that the proof provider reasonably believes has performed physical or sexual abuse of the child.

So we're looking for the first name, middle name and last name, a date of birth, of working with children.

Check so the reference number.

The contact number and e-mail address of that individual.

If you don't have things like a date of birth or a middle name, or working with like, you should have the working with children check. But if you don't have an e-mail address or contact details, that's OK we need a first name and a last name as.

A minimum we prefer to get everything that we can with that, it allows us to look to see if that person has come up in the system historically. If you feel you need to collect information from other individuals, it's OK to take that into consideration for your not.

But in this case the notification must be made within that seven day window.

So don't delay it.

Make sure it's done inside that seven day window, but preferably as early as possible.

Allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

Again, we need to meet elements of the regulation.

Here you need to notify the regulatory authority if a child is alleged to have or is physically or sexually abused.

Whilst being educated and cared for by the service so.

The three components there, the child is alleged to have been.

The second part is being physically or sexually abused, and it's happening at your service.

Allegations of physical or sexual abuse of a child by any person, including but not limited to, a staff member or contractor.

An educator, a visitor, a volunteer, a parent, a resident, or an other adult, or a child at your service need to be reported.

The perpetrator of physical abuse may be an adult, an adolescent or another child.

If there's an allegation of physical or sexual abuse while a child is being educated and cared for, notifying the regulatory authority as soon as possible. Again, this is another within seven days, but as soon as you get all the details to make a notification to make that not.

As soon as possible.

If a complaint has been made alleging physical or sexual abuse of a child and has been notified to the regulatory authority under section 1742C, then this allocation does not need to be notified a second time. Under Regulation 1752 E.

The focus of this regulation is about the child whilst being educated and cared for at your service. Events that happen outside of your service.

I while the child is not in your care, are regulated by laws of other government agencies, and you may have obligations of those other laws.

So again, a manager report to DCJ.

Any allegation?

Sorry for example, if a child told an educator that subject to physical abuse at home.

This does not need to be notified to the regulatory authority, but would be reportable to another government agency such as DCJ.

Again, if this event was to happen at your service, excuse me, collect all the information you have and make the notification as soon as possible.

This notification should include the following details in relation to the person that is subject to the allegation. The first name, the middle name, the last name, date of birth, working with children.

Check contact number and e-mail.

If you feel that you need to collect information from other individuals around the allegation, it's OK to take that in consideration for your notification.

But this notification must be made within that seven day window.

And also note if the incident or allegation of physical or sexual abuse also meets the criteria of a serious incident, you have to notify of this within 24 hours of the incident because it changes from there's still this notification.

Type. It just changes the time frame to 24 hours because there's a serious it's trauma or an injury.

If you move the event from one notification category to another.

For example, an from an allegation to a serious incident, you'll need to justify this in your notification on why it sits within the category you've chosen.

So that just allows us to understand whether there's more risk or not, if it's changed from an allegation to actual physical abuse.

We we want to see that. So we know how to deal with it and we should see that change in the reporting time frame.

A risk to the health, safety and well-being of a child.

You need to notify the regulatory authority if there are circumstances at the service that pose a risk to the health, safety and well-being of children attending your service.

This notification requirement is separate from the requirement to notify of a serious incident involving a particular child.

These circumstances are more about situations that have happened to or impacted on the operations of the service. So if we look at what's on the slide, there are talking about a broken window, a broken fence.

Smoke from nearby bushfires.

Your air conditioning is not working properly.

The behaviour of a child that poses the risk to other children or people.

Or as simple as a land subsidence at the property which is neighbouring you.

So there are different things that impact.

The health, safety and well-being of children, and it's quite broad. So you have a lot of scope to put things in there if you need to.

Again, if this event was to happen at your service, collect all the information you have and make the notification as soon as possible. If you feel you need to collect the information from other individuals, it's OK to take that into consideration for your notification. But in this case.

The notification must be made within the seven day window.

And the last of our incident notifications service closure or reduction in numbers due to an incident.

You need to notify the registry authority if your service is required to close or reduce numbers of reduced numbers of children being educated and cared for due to an incident.

So a service closure is a closure when your service cannot be operated due to an incident occurring at your service for a period of time.

So an example of this would be your local area experiences flash flooding over the weekend and your service was completely flooded and is now unsafe to operate.

You have to notify The Reg authority because your service cannot operate safely. When we look at number reductions and number reduction means your service operating at a reduced capacity due to an incident at your service.

So an example would be.

Your service has had a burst water pipe in one room. The flooding is isolated to that one room, so let's just say that that's not the twos.

You've got a temporary repair being done.

And there's no more flooding, but you need to ensure that that room is safe to have children in, so you can't operate the nought to twos. You would want to reduce your numbers until you can return to providing care to that cohort.

So you need to notify The Reg authority of that number reduction.

Another way of thinking of it is if we look at a Family Day care educator, if they are sick.

For whatever reason and they can't work for five days. You need to do a number reduction because the scheme cannot provide education and care to those children that are no longer have that educator to rely upon. And that is for that period that, that, that educ.

Is ill.

To note for these, these are short term.

Only so if you're looking at.

Reducing your numbers for an extended period of time or you need to close for an extended period of time. You should look to see.

Whether you need to make a particular application in the portal so it will manage it through a different process.

The notification is for very short term.

There's no time frame or specifics around it.

But the view is that it is only short term.

So we now onto our final two complaint specific notifications.

The next two slides are there to assist in defining the complaint in your notification and any items that the regulatory authority feels will assist in the assessment of risk. You may consider if other additional information outside of these slides are needed, as there's an infinite range of scenarios.

That can occur, you know, service.

These complaints are specifically related to events that have happened at your service.

Or non-compliance of the national law and regulation. Anything that has occurred outside your service, for example in the home of the child, does not require a notification to the RA, however may require a notification reporting to other agencies under other legislation such as DCJ for Manager Report.

So we have a complaint alleging a serious incident.

Um.

These notifications need to be made within 24 hours, so you would upload the relevant documents.

You would upload the relevant documents relating to the complaint.

Again, it's just it's very much the same way. We need to understand the context of the complaint, but you can include relevant documents that allow us to understand that that that context, for example, a copy of the original complaint if it was received in writing or screenshots if.

It's SMS and so on.

Evidence of actions being taken in response to the complaint and any outstanding risk to the safety, health and well-being of children.

If you identify that you have not notified the regulatory authority of the serious incident, please follow the steps for lodging a serious incident for that notification as well.

That complement each other, you still will need to make that serious incident notification about the event itself. Once you've been made aware of it.

After you've made the notification, any new information that comes to light, you can notify the regulatory authority of this information through an additional document in the NQAITS portal.

This should be used if there's a material change in the notification.

So if we see a material change in this complaint, it's best practice to retain any new information.

And it does not change the outcome of the notification.

This will be or. This may be requested and reviewed by an authorized officer at a later stage.

You do not need to send in documents that demonstrate qualification.

First aid certificates, policies, procedures.

These will be requested and reviewed by an authorized officer as required.

So what?

What I want to focus on here is when we see complaints.

Often there's a lot of emails.

Why around between the service and parents or carers we need to see the initial.

E-mail or the initial complaint or complaints and how your in synopsis of how you're managing those. We don't need to see every e-mail that's been sent because as you could understand, there's sometimes a lot of backwards and forwards with those emails and because they're being supplied, we.

We have to look at them to see if they change any of the context or.

So we ask that you show us the initial complaint, your response and responses to that and anything else that comes in just store that into an authorized officer either a requested or wants to sign it when they come out for a service visit.

And the final slide.

A complaint alleging there's a breach of the national law.

So again, this notification needs to be made within 24 hours. Again, upload, upload relevant documents relating to the complaint.

For example, a copy of the original complaint if received in writing evidence of actions being taken in response to the complaint complainant, and any outstanding risk of to the health safety well-being of children.

If you identify.

That you've not notified the regulatory authority of an incident.

Please follow the steps under the relevant incident category.

As we've gone through today, now when we look at a complaint around.

An allegation of a breach of the national law.

These can.

These can be things such as the physical environment.

Adequacy of the educational care.

Program interactions between staff children, including inappropriate behaviour and inappropriate discipline, educator qualifications, staffing arrangements and educator to child ratios.

Children's supervision matters that impact the health, safety and well-being of children at the service.

How interactions between children are managed and supported, or how behavioural challenges or medical needs of a child are managed and supported?

So though.

There are some, not all.

Consider reviewing all the offenses in the national law to understand the majority of the breaches that could occur.

An actual breach of the law does not have to be proven before the notification is made, so it has to be.

It can be an allegation in itself, so once an allegation is made that there is a breach of the national law, you must notify the regulatory authority a breach of another law other than the national law.

Does not need to be notified to the regulatory authority, but may need to be notified to other bodies, such as. If we look at complaints about fees.

Fees are not regulated under the national law, but it may fall under other laws or another agency, such as Fair Trading in NSW. If you've made the notification and any new information that comes to light, you can notify of this information through an additional document in.

The NQAITS portal.

It should be.

They should be used if there is a material change to the notification.

It's best practice to retain any new information that does not change the outcome of the notification, as this may be requested by an authorized officer, reviewed by an authorized officer at a later stage.

You do not need to send documents that demonstrate qualifications first. Those certificates, policies, procedures as these may be requested and reviewed by an authorized officer as required at a later stage.

So that's the end of the presentation.

I think I've just skirted in with no minutes to spare.

We're going to put up a link for our survey for this presentation.

Please take some time to provide us with feedback in that survey and complete that tab.

Best abilities and any questions that you may have, they will be captured through our Q&A.

Section. If we haven't responded to you, we'll endeavour to do so in a timely manner and a lot of this information at a later stage will be placed on the department's website.

So thank you for your time today and enjoy the rest of your day. And thank you for your attendance.

[End of transcript]

Alicia

Thank you everybody for joining our webinar for the 2025 Health and Development participation Grant. We are going to chat with you for the next 45 minutes. Just about the grant and how you can spend your money. We might just move on to the next slide please.
Excellent. So, good morning, everybody. My name is Alicia Kenyon, and I am currently the acting manager for the Health and Development Check team at the NSW Department of Education. I am joined today by my team as well, and you'll see a couple of faces come up onto the screen as we go through this morning's webinar.
I'd like to begin our meeting today by acknowledging country, so I am calling in today from the land of the Dharug people where I live, work and play.
I'd like to extend my respect to the traditional custodians of the lands that I'm on, but also to the lands that you're all joining from today as well. And I acknowledge that wherever you're dialling in from in NSW, we're joining from Aboriginal land always was and always will be.
I'd like to pay my respects to all of our Aboriginal colleagues that are joining us today as well.
As we gather today and we talk about health and development cheques and we talk about our 2025 grand that can support our littlest learners.
I encourage everybody to keep Aboriginal children and their families at the centre of everything that we do to help children's development, OK.
So thank you all for joining us today. I'm really glad to see so many people have jumped on to hear our webinar today. Congratulations to everybody for receiving a 2025 health and development participation grant. As I said earlier, we're going to go through and just have a look at the different categories of the grant and how we can spend our money.
A little bit of housekeeping before we dive straight in as we go through the content this morning. If you have any questions, you can add them to our Q&A function.
As I said before, our team is here and they're ready to answer questions as we go through. So just pop them into the chat, into the Q&A, sorry, and we will answer them as we go through. If there's anything that you think of after we finish this morning, don't sweat. You can just send us a quick e-mail. The e-mail address will come up on your screen multiple times throughout the morning. So just jot that down. Any questions you have that you want some more information on or anything you think about later, just send us an e-mail.
And we will answer your questions.
OK, so we're here today to discuss how services can best utilise their 2025 grant and we will break it down as we go through into category one, category two and for people that got grants across both categories, if you're unsure which grant which sorry which category your service got a grant from. You should have received this information in your notification of outcome letter and you should have received this via e-mail.
On the 5th of March this year.
If you're not sure, still, after looking at that letter or you can't locate the letter, just send us an e-mail so we can assist you.
We are also going to give you a bit of a brief overview of the rollout of the health and Development check program across the state, how your service can book a visit and what you're reporting requirements will be at the end of this grant process.
OK, so as you can see, there's a slide up on the screen now about our programme. So, we are going to give you now a quick overview of the health and Development check program, so a lot of you probably have heard a bit about this programme already, but we're just going to give you a quick recap and just give you some information about where we're up to. So health and development checks ECEC
Services program is a partnership between NSW Health and the Department of Education, we know that not that many children are missing out on having their four year old check before they go to school, and we know that about two and five children are also starting school developmentally off track, so regular health and development checks give families really important information and crucial insights into how their children are tracking before they start school. And these health and development checks can be found in their blue book.
The health and development check in early childhood education and care builds on the sorry builds on services that already exist already exist.
So parents and carers can access their child's health and development checks from zero to five.
At their local GP at the child's Health and development, sorry, the child and Family health nurse or the local Aboriginal medical service.
The programme aims is to increase the number of children who complete their four year old check.
So that families can access that information that they need to support their child's health and development and seek help when needed before their children start school.
Each local health district across NSW has tailored the program to their capacity and to their community’s needs.
But broadly speaking, this is what a health and development check would look like. So before the health and development check occurs at your service teachers and educators will be asked to support families to complete the required forms, so a consent form and a pre-questionnaire to support families with completing that and then to discuss their visit with children so that they feel prepared and comfortable with what's going to happen on the day of the check.
On the day of the check, the visiting health professionals will conduct the checks in a private room or a private space at your service.
You will need to ensure that a teacher or educator is present at all times and should provide families feedback as to their child's experience throughout the day.
Following on from the checks, we would encourage families to share the results or report with you so that you can best support their child's needs at your service.
You can also ask the local health district for a service summary form and this will provide you with an overview of the key developmental needs of the children in your service.
OK. Just move on to the next slide please.
Thank you very much.
OK, so the health and development check program commenced roll out in September 2023 and it is now available in 14 of our local health districts across NSW with our last local health district kicking off very shortly.
Health professionals from NSW Health, the local health districts will check Children's Health and development.
As you can see on this slide.
The team at NSW Health and our team here at the Department of Education are working hard to support the roll out, so in 2025 you will see us delivering or already delivered things like new and easy information, easy to read information sheets for services for families and we're hoping to do translations of these sheets as well. We have a Culturally Safe Approach Reflective toolkit, which is now online, and we will be having capability uplifts workshops.
We're going to give you a little bit more information about these things as we progress through the webinar this morning because some of these things are these are things that you can use your funding for.
OK, I am going to pass over to Hannah now, who's going to break down the category One, category two and spending requirements. Thanks Hanna.

Hannah

Thank you, Alicia. My name's Hannah. I'm the policy officer in our health and development check team at the Department.
So let me break down the grant for you today.
So in 2025.
We designed the grant to support access to the program and to keep children at the centre of our work, so we're aiming for this grant to support uptake of the HDC program.
Especially for services in lower socioeconomic areas, services with high numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse families and all services with a high number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, as well as this we aim to increase capability of teachers and educators in services to implement the HDC program and to embed support for children following the check.
Our goal also is to align with our district equity strategies and their capacity to deliver in 2025, we have had 862 successful applicants.
Congratulations to you all.
So these included across the state, not-for-profit community preschools, not-for-profit long daycare services standalone for profit, long daycare services, Multifunctional Aboriginal Children Services, Aboriginal Child and Family Centres and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.
Let's have a closer look at these categories.
Yep, ready to go to the next slide.
So in 2025, as you would be aware, we have two categories. So category one on the screen there is $1500 for participation in the HDC program, so that includes relief time and overtime payments for educators and teachers to participate in the program. This might include completing administrative tasks, engaging with NSW health staff, and supporting those follow-up conversations that arise after the check.
Category 2 provides $6000 in funding for capability uplift and educational resources.
The intention for category two is to build capacity of ECEC educators to support Children's Health and developmental needs. So, breaking that down that includes professional learning and workshops on Children's Health and development could include, but is not limited to, department-led workshops, which we will be delivering as part of the health and Development checks program.
Or existing conferences or professional development opportunities across Australia.
Allied health professionals in service to support Children's Health and development let me just put myself on the screen. Sorry, here I am.
So that might include, you know, engaging a health professional to come into the service to observe the service in its as you are on your day-to-day and to suggest opportunities to add additional supports into the program or curriculum.
And that funding could also be used for the purchasing of resources that support children's development we encourage you to think about how that could align with Children's Health and development domains, which we will explain later through this webinar today.
We do just want to note that services receiving category one funding have committed to participating in the program in 2025.
Which includes having the district team delivered those health and development checks for four year olds at their service.
Your local health district will be in contact with you when they are able to offer you a service.
Services who've received category two funding are welcome to participate in the Health and Development Check program, but it will not be a requirement of receiving that funding.
Let's look at category one funding in greater detail.
So category one funding can be used to provide relief time, overtime payments or travel costs for educators and teachers to undertake administrative duties related to the checks, which might include assisting families to complete consent forms, meeting with district staff the distribution of reports to families after the check or providing additional support to children during the check.
We just want to make clear funding cannot be used for non HDC program related activities with this category one funding.
So this might so funding cannot be used for things like increasing ratios to provide one-on-one support.
To complete other administrative duties.
So yeah, all working with an individual child. The intention is to support the whole cohort of 4 year old children in receiving those health and development checks.
Services do not need to arrange or pay for their own health professionals to provide the checks the local health district teams will do this for you.
Let's look at category two. So as I mentioned before, we can breakdown category 2 into 3 sub categories so that is ECE, teacher and educator professional development so that covers trouble and relief time costs to enable educators and teachers to attend health and development, check workshops and engage with training resources or related professional learning.
To be engaging allied health professionals, so that includes bringing in an allied health worker or other professionals to support Children's Health and development by providing educators and teachers with professional development, specialised education programs or support to embed suitable cohort wide strategies 2 C.
Is purchasing resources for the program so that includes arranging the provision of resources to support children's development and, as I've already mentioned, resources will need to support cohort-wide engagement.
Let's go to the next slide.
So category two focuses on upscaling educators and teachers in relation to the HDC program, such as preparing to take part of the program or building capacity to support children, support Children's Health and development following a HDC visit.
To determine what may be included under the term health and development, we encourage you to consider the components of the health and development checks program, which includes listening and talking skills, social skills and behaviour, gross and fine motor skills, learning, thinking and problem solving skills and how children's bodies are growing, such as their height, weight and teeth development.
We encourage you to take a look at the Blue Book in particular, the four year old cheque, so that is the basis for the HDC Program in services as delivered by the local health district, so that is forms a great starting point when thinking about how you may wish to use the grant funding in your service.
Let's go to the next slide.
We thought it might prove useful to provide some really tangible examples for how to use the funding. I know that these are merely ideas and is not an exhaustive list you know your service, best, please lean on your experience and your knowledge of the children in your service when choosing how to expend the grant funding. So here are some examples for you, number 1.
Would be to arrange for allied health professionals to build educator skills so consider engaging a relevant external provider, such as an allied health professional, to facilitate role modelling and training support to educators and teachers in order to embed strategies into everyday practice and into programs delivered within the service.
Number 2.
Attend conferences related to early childhood development. An example of a conference you might wish to look into might be the annual ECA conference there are a range of conferences past just that conference to look into.
When deciding what conference or workshop you might consider engaging with, have a close look at the agenda and consider what learnings you could bring back to your service that would support health and development throughout the service as a whole.
Number 3 engage with professional learning, courses, so consider engaging an online or in person training workshops related to supporting children's development, this might include talking, listening, problem solving skills, social skills and behaviour as per the blue book that we looked at earlier.
We've got a couple of tangible examples on the screen, and I also note that we will the team has developed a recommended professional learning list which we will link in the chat.
Number 4 would be engage in training delivered by your local health district. Local health districts are regularly delivering training and PL in their areas. We encourage you to reach out to the team and see what they have on offer. A great example.
Would be.
We we've got a great example in northern Sydney Local health district.
They deliver training related to healthy eating and physical activity.
Which is their small bites, big steps, training so that's something to look into there’s some great opportunities across the state.
Number 5 engage with the department's professional learning and tools, which is related to the health and development checks program Alicia mentioned that before, but we will also go into further detail shortly our Connect and Communicate toolkit and our Culturally Safe Approach toolkit.
Let's have a quick look at the next slide. So as I've already mentioned, we have published a list of recommended professional learning it's available through the QR code and we'll drop a link into the chat this list is always being updated as new information comes to light so we will make sure we provide updates as we are aware of new learning opportunities.
Just to note, the list is not exhaustive, you may choose to use funding for other professional learning and development courses, conferences, or workshops, provided that they are linked to and are relevant to supporting Children's Health and development, and the HDC program.
Professional learning can be completed at any time so long as the funds are spent before the 31st of December 2025.
We encourage you to use funding to attend our health and development workshops and engage with the department's professional learning materials related to health and development but again, we also encourage you to consider what works best for your service.
And let's look at the next slide for some more examples as mentioned before, category two can also be used to purchase resources that support children's development. I've listed some examples on the screen there, but I'll just run through some examples here now so examples of resources to assist with children's childhood health and development might include so social, emotional books, self-regulation, teaching resources, role play resources and books, visuals and games to support communication development. You might also consider books to engage in shared reading, which foster language development or books on topics such as emotions to support children to develop their social skills. You might also consider equipment purchasing equipment that supports children's social skills and behaviour such as purchasing resources in order to set up a quiet space for children to visit when they need time away from the group.
You might consider creating visuals that support transitions between routines in order to support children's regulation and socio social emotional development, healthy eating resources, or oral health books.
Such as a toothbrushing model, posters for learning about healthy eating and toothbrushing and role play resources such as food models might also be in consideration for your service.
Gross motor equipment can be purchased such as climbing frames or stepping stones for children's physical development. You might consider purchasing an edible of not purchasing or setting up. Sorry, an edible garden which allow children to learn about different foods and might lead on to additional opportunities, such as assisting in food preparation and developing a positive attitude towards food.
You may also choose to create classroom visuals that encourage an inclusive environment for children with hearing impairments or rearrange your learning environments to reduce hazards and enhance accessibility for those hearing or vision impaired.
As I've popped on the screen there again, you know your service best, so this is not an exhaustive list and we encourage you to consider what might work best in your service and for your cohort of four year old children?
Let's look at the next section, so the boring stuff, I suppose, but the important stuff.
If we go to the next slide, I'll just run through some reporting requirements for the grant, so approve requirements, approved providers are required. Sorry to comply with all financial and data collection reporting and acquittal requirements which are outlined in the program guidelines.
Approved providers must undertake a formal acquittal process by June 2026.
With forms being released in May 2026 through ECCMS, all of that information will be provided at the time for you to be aware of. The acquittal process includes completing a statement which includes reporting on how the funding has been spent approved providers may also be audited from time to time.
This could be part of the department's annual audit or to confirm the accuracy of data provided in an applicant's statement. Therefore, we just kindly ask that relevant records are retained by providers for the purpose of the department undertaking reviews so there's just some information on the screen there, which is also available in the program guidelines for you.
Let's go to the next section. I'm going pass now to my colleague Charlie to talk through our capability uplift activities and tools.
Thank you.

Charlie

Right. Thank you, Hannah. Hi everyone. My name is Charlie. I'm an assistant policy officer with the health and dev checks team here at education.
Could we go to the next slide, please? All right, we're going start with the culturally safe approach. So, the Culturally Safe Approach for HDC Toolkit was created to help ensure that HDC program remains culturally safe and respectful. It was designed based on feedback from stakeholders who raised three main points: one the support for Aboriginal children and families ensuring their needs are met in an inclusive way.
Two respecting cultural identity, making sure families, cultural practises and values are honoured, and three, adaptability, ensuring the approach works for different communities if each one is unique. The toolkit offers early childhood services practical ideas to create culturally safe environments and meet the cultural needs of families. It aligns with the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards, showing that cultural safety is an important part of quality education I think Hannah has just put the link to the toolkit in the chat. Thank you, Hannah.
So, ensure the toolkit helps services reflect on and improve their approach to be more inclusive, safe and respectful for Aboriginal children and their families before, during and after the health and development check process. So, I would encourage all of you to check out the toolkit and as Hannah said, you can use your funding under category two to engage with the relevant professional learning. Can we go to the next slide, please?
Thank you. So, the Brighter Beginnings Connect and Communicate toolkit has been designed to address a key need for greater speech and language support in the year before school.
Children facing communication difficulties in early childhood are more likely to have ongoing challenges with tasks such as reading, writing, and spelling, as well as challenges with behaviour and maintaining relationships. Early detection and intervention are key to reducing the impact of these difficulties and supporting all children to thrive. For this tool Kit has been designed to be used across the year with short, bite sized pieces of information and strategies to engage with each week.
Each topic includes a theory section providing you with relevant information and evidence-based strategies followed by a practical section to put those strategies into practise. Appendices are provided throughout with different resources you can use within your practise, such as posters, visual routines and games. A summary of each topic is provided as a family fact sheet which you might like to send out to families as part of your newsletter or regular updates. The toolkit also includes a reflective workbook with tasks embedded throughout the topics that provide a space for engaging in deep thinking about pedagogy and practise and critically, reflecting individually and with peers on the learning within the toolkit to generate new ideas and goals, completion of the workbook can also be logged as professional development hours. We are going to have more information on the toolkit at its release very, very soon. So please keep an eye on your inboxes because we'll be sending emails out when that is ready. We go to the next slide, please. Thank you to support the roll out of the connect and communicate toolkit and the culturally safe approach, we'll be delivering workshops across the state in partnership with local health districts, some of you on the call may have attended our first workshop in Dubbo in November last year if that was you hello, this year, we will be visiting 8 LHDs from June to September. We're aiming to visit each LHD by the end of June 2026. The all-day workshops are designed for educational leaders and room leaders and will include an overview of how the HDC Program operates in your district.
A session on typical communication development for four year old children.
Introduction to the culturally safe approach and an opportunity for discussion and reflection on culturally safe practises within the service. An introduction to the Connecting Communicate Toolkit and an interactive let's play session where attendees can explore and practise some of the strategies and experiences in the toolkit with support from speech pathologists and opportunities for discussion, reflection and networking with other services in your local health district.
The services in our participating LHDs will receive invitations to register their interest in attending soon, so please keep an eye on your inbox and again, the department will notify all services of the release of the toolkit via e-mail.
I'm now going to hand back to Alicia.

Alicia

OK, thank you, Charlie.
OK, so now we're going to have a little bit of a look at what the next steps are.
Awesome. OK. So, we have 15 local health districts, as we said earlier and if you're not sure which local health district your service falls in, you can go onto the interactive LHD map and it will be able to tell you, you can just pop your address in and it tells you which LHC you're in. So, Hannah has just added to the website to the chat for us, but it's also there's a QR code on the screen too, if you want to use that just to pop in and have a look.
Let's go to the next slide, please. Thank you so much. So, as Hannah mentioned earlier, participation in the programme is a requirement when you receive category one funding only. If you received category one funding, your local health district will contact your service to let you know when they're able to offer you the program and they will work with you to find a convenient time for them to come to your service and provide 4 year olds with health and development checks. As we've said before as well, you do not need to arrange your own health professionals to do this NSW Health your local health district will provide the health and development checks for the children at your service.
If you didn't receive category one funding, your service is still eligible to participate in the program and we encourage you to register your interest with your local health district.
They will contact you when they have availability to provide you a service.
Emails for all of the local health districts can be found on our website, and one of my lovely team, thank you. I'm putting that in the chat for you right now.
So you can go on to this website and there is a list down the bottom of all of the LH Ds find the one that you're in and send them an e-mail to express your interest.
If you have any concerns about booking a checks or you have further questions around that, please feel free to e-mail us at earlychildhooddevelopment@det.nsw.edu.au
OK, just go to the next slide. Thank you. Just a little bit of a timeline for everybody. So, all services should have received the notification letter, and the money should be in your account. If you're a public preschool, that money will be coming shortly.
Services have until the end of December, so the 31st of December to spend their funds in whatever category they received funding for. But if you receive category one, you also have until the end of December, so the 31^st to have a visit completed by your local health district.
And as mentioned earlier by Hannah, you will have until the end of June 2026 to complete your financial reporting or your acquittals process.
OK.
Next slide. So, this is next steps for services if you need more information. This is the slide you need to look back at. So if you want more information about the programme itself, that is the first website and the first QR code on the slide, that will give you an overview of what the programme is and your local health districts.
We encourage all services to re-read the program guidelines, the web page and QR code in the middle will take you to this document if you haven't engaged with this document, please do it's got lots of helpful information in it.
And if you have more questions, please visit our FAQ page that is the one on the right-hand side of the screen and you, there's lots of extra information in there about the 2025 grant.
After you visited all these three sites, read the documents if you still have questions, we are here to help, so please don't hesitate in sending us an e-mail and we will reply to you and provide you with the information that you need. OK. So, I just wanted to say thank you to everybody for joining our webinar this morning. We really hope that we have provided you with some additional information about how to effectively spend your 2025 grant and again don't hesitate to contact us if you need more information. We're more than happy to help.
I think we're keeping up with answering all the questions in the Q&A. My team just give me a quick nod.
Yeah. OK. So, we might just say goodbye and again if you have any questions, just get in contact. Thanks so much everybody.

[End of transcript]

Louisa

Good morning, thanks for joining us today for this session on child safety in your service as part of our ECE Connect series.

It's great to have you with us.

As always, we appreciate you giving up your time to come along to these sessions.

I know you'll find this session today particularly valuable on such an important topic.

So thanks very much for joining us.

I'm just going to give it a little bit more time.

I can see the numbers still climbing.

Great that you can be with us today.

I'm going to make a start.

So thank you everybody for joining us for this session today on child safety in your service.

I'm Louisa Coussens

I manage a team at the NSW Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority called the Quality Practise and Regulatory Support Team.

We provide advice and guidance to services in NSW to help with understanding the National Quality Framework and how to put that into practice in your service.

I'll be talking to you today about reporting and introducing you to some new eLearning that we've developed that will help you improve child safety at your service.

With me today is my colleague Eddie Issa.

Eddie

Thanks, Louisa

Yeah, hello everyone.

My name is Edward Issa.

I'm the manager of Compliance and Investigations.

I look after two teams of investigators within the regulatory authority and also two compliance teams.

I'll be talking to you later in the presentation about the investigations process and we'll be sharing with you some learnings from my perspective about that process.

So welcome.

Louisa

I'd like to start by acknowledging that wherever we are today, we're on Aboriginal lands.

I'm joining you today from the lands of the Darkinyung people, and I'd like to pay my respect to Darkinyung Elders past and present and thank them for the continuing care of the lands and waterways where I live and work.

I pay my respects to the Elders of the lands that we're all joining from today as the teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories.

I'd like to acknowledge the important work that's taking place across our sector to make early childhood services culturally safe places for all children, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families.

I hope that some of you are able to come along to yesterday's ECE Connect session on the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

If you're interested in finding out more about the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework, take a listen to the recording of yesterday's On the Couch session where three services discuss their experience as an early adopter of the Cultural Safety Framework.

In today's session, we're going to talk to you about the importance of the reporting process, who you should report to and when, and we'll take a look at what happens during an investigation.

This will help you to see the reporting process in some practical context.

Obviously, we hope that you don't have to experience an investigation, but the reality is that incidents happen and it's helpful to know what's involved in an investigation and to understand why it's so important to capture the right information and make the right notifications and reports on time.

We'll finish off with some useful tips and advice that you can take away with you.

Back to your services to reflect on and share with colleagues.

To start some housekeeping. As is usual for our ECE Connect sessions, the microphone, video and chat functions are disabled on this webinar today.

The Q&A function is available though if you have any questions throughout the session.

Again, as usual, we will try our best to respond to all the questions that come in today.

We understand that you may have some questions relating to other topics, including recent media coverage about the sector and the parliamentary processes that are underway.

We acknowledge the impact that this coverage is having on the sector and do understand that you may have questions about what this means for you and your service.

To ensure that everyone can get the most out of today's session, our team will be focusing on questions specifically relating to the session content.

If you do have any additional questions relating to other topics, I encourage you to contact the regulatory authority directly through our Information and Enquiries team.

Automated closed captions are enabled if you'd like to use them.

And lastly, the session is being recorded

So that we can publish it on our website for you to share with colleagues and refer back to reporting.

It's important that all staff in early childhood education and care services drive a culture of advocacy for children.

If you are concerned or have a suspicion that a child is at risk of abuse, harm, neglect or ill treatment, you should talk to someone about it.

You should refer to your service's policies and procedures on child safety, child protection or complaints handling to understand who you can talk to.

It's important that any concerns or suspicions you may have are discussed with an appropriate person.

This might include your nominated supervisor, approved provider, area manager or a relevant agency.

Once you've discussed your concerns.

If you become worried that your concerns have not been appropriately addressed, you should contact a relevant agency such as the Department of Communities and Justice, NSW Police or us at the Regulatory Authority For more information.

Child safety is our highest priority.

As mandatory reporters, we have a legal and ethical duty to act when we suspect a child is at risk.

I'm going to cover the key steps in responding to, reporting and supporting children and families in the event of an incident or allegation.

Our first priority is always the safety and well being of the child.

If there is an immediate danger, act quickly.

This could include administering first aid, removing hazards, or ensuring children are in a safe place.

For serious incidents or medical emergencies.

Call 000 immediately.

Stay calm and follow your service's response plan.

Everyone working in early childhood education is a mandatory reporter.

If you if you are concerned, you must report it.

This is not optional.

Serious incidents.

I've touched on individuals in your service who you can raise concerns with.

Serious incidents or allegations must be reported to specific authorities within required time frames.

We'll look at this more closely in a moment.

I want to reiterate that if you report a concern within your service and you are not satisfied with the response, you must escalate the matter.

You can do this by phoning the regulatory authority.

Failure to report child abuse is a criminal offence.

Recently, police have charged individuals for not reporting.

This is a serious matter that all early childhood staff need to understand.

In terms of informing parents, do this as soon as practical unless authorities have advised otherwise.

If there are child protection concerns, seek guidance before speaking with parents.

Keep communication to parents or carers factual and sensitive.

Explain what happened and the next steps.

Monitor the child and provide emotional support with guidance from child protection agencies.

Work with families and refer to support services where needed.

Ensure staff also have access to debriefing and support.

Finally, after an incident, review what happened and identify areas for improvement.

Update policies and make sure that staff feel confident in reporting procedures.

Encourage a culture of open discussion and continuous learning.

Reporting is not just a policy, it's a legal requirement.

Reporting isn't just about responding to what happened.

Effective reporting prevents future harm.

If you're concerned, report.

If your concerns aren't taken seriously, escalate them.

Speaking up can protect a child and prevent harm.

As you've heard, ensuring child safety requires clear and timely reporting.

If you suspect a child is at risk, it's essential to follow the correct reporting channels.

I'm going to explain now how to record and report your concerns to the relevant authorities.

First, record document details immediately.

Who was there, what happened, what actions were taken?

Stick to the facts.

This helps with accurate reporting.

NSW Police For serious risk of harm, such as suspected physical or sexual abuse, contact NSW Police immediately by calling 000.

The safety of the child is the priority and police can take urgent action.

The Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority approved providers must report serious incidents to the regulatory authority within 24 hours.

This includes significant injuries, allegations of abuse, or any risk to child safety.

Delays in reporting can have legal consequences.

Ensure this step is completed promptly.

Office of the Children's Guardian If the concern involves reportable conduct such as child neglect, abuse, or misconduct by someone employed in an early childhood service, make a report to the Office of the Children's Guardian.

The OCG overseas allegations of misconduct within child related work.

The Department of Communities and Justice use the Mandatory Reporter Guide to assess whether report should be made to DCJ.

The guide helps determine the best course of action based on the information you have.

If a child is at risk of significant harm, submit a report to the Child Protection Helpline.

Reporting concerns isn't just a responsible thing to do, it's a legal obligation.

If in doubt, document everything and seek advice.

Acting quickly can protect a child and prevent future harm.

Early childhood education and care services in NSW are required to implement the Child Safe standards under the NSW Child Safe Scheme.

The regulatory authority has collaborated with the Office of the Children's Guardian to develop some online modules to support services in strengthening their child safe practises and culture.

The free resources are designed for approved providers, service leaders and educators within all ECEC service types.

They can be found on the OCG's website or through the Department of Education's website.

A link will be provided in the chat now, or you can scan the QR code on the slide to view the modules and other resources.

Knowing what to report and when is important, and we acknowledge it might not seem straightforward at first.

Modules 3 and 4 cover this topic, with Module 3 designed for all staff and Module 4 specifically designed for service leaders.

We encourage you to complete these modules and share them with colleagues.

The full package of 6 modules have three different pathways.

So whether you work at a centre based service such as long daycare or preschool, outside school hours care or family daycare, the modules have been tailored for your service type.

The 1st 4 modules are available now.

Module 5 will launch next week and Module 6 soon after that.

I'll now pass to Eddie.

Eddie

Thanks, Louisa.

So what?

What exactly happens if the regulatory authority investigates your service?

Just to build on what Louisa was discussing, Accurate reports are absolutely critical to ensuring that there is sufficient evidence to support a positive outcome for children.

Any delay in reporting may compromise evidence and compromise child safety at your service.

So this slide is presenting you with an indicative time frame that may adjust depending on our work and our work with other agencies, including with NSW Police.

But it gives you a broad guideline around the time frames and the phases in the process of an investigation at your service.

The first phase of the process of investigating a matter is an initial assessment.

An investigation or a case is assigned to an investigator and the investigator assesses that information to determine what required action may need to be taken.

The investigator will contact the service and introduce themselves, will advise the service of the incident that they are investigating and foreshadow that they will be requesting documentation from you and from the Service and will attend the service in due course to speak with the approved provider, the nominated supervisor and educators at the service about the matter and about the documentation that may be required.

The second phase of the process involves the conduct of and the development of a detailed investigation plan.

The purpose of that plan is to inform the direction and ensure that the investigation is thorough and is conducted consistently.

The plan will detail the breaches and the offences that an investigator will be looking at and we'll also identify possible evidence that they will be looking to obtain to determine whether there's been any breach or offence committed at the service.

Evidence that an investigator will generally need to collect will include documentation from the service such as enrolment records of of the child, attendance records, staff records, working directly with children records.

They may also need to collect other evidence including CCTV footage if that is available and they will need to take statements from educators at the service and from the parents of children that are impacted by an incident reported to us.

The third phase after the planning phase is to actually conduct the investigation that involves the the conducting field inquiries and entertaining and examining records, interviewing witnesses and affected parties.

Obviously one of our key stakeholders in this process is are the parents of children impacted.

In most cases when a matter is allocated to an investigator, you will be contacted and a time will be arranged for that investigator to attend the service.

Visits therefore are generally announced.

The process of an investigation will be explained to you at that visit and at that time the investigator will, as I said earlier, request specific documents including enrolment forms, staff rosters and other evidence.

At times other agencies including NSW Police may be involved and we can only provide limited information to you as we conduct our enquiries.

Under section 199 of the National Law, investigators have specific powers to attend the service, to enter the service and to search any part of the service premises.

Investigators are able to inspect, measure, test, photograph, film or make audio recordings while at the service.

They can take documentation or or CCTV footage and they may require approved providers, nominated supervisors and other educators at the service to give the investigator information to help him or her in conducting the investigation.

Investigators will always try and attempt to mitigate disruptions at the service which may affect children's activities and the routine at the service.

Sometimes to address an immediate risk to children at the service, we may do an announced visit, but most visits, as I've outlined earlier, are announced.

Where an investigator attends the service, they will seek to speak with staff and educators to determine whether they have any evidence that may be relevant to the investigation and if necessary, a formal statement may be taken.

After all the evidence is collected, it is analysed by the investigator to determine whether there are any breaches of the national law that can be substantiated.

We have a strong focus on procedural fairness and if we consider or an investigator considers that there may have been a breach, we will extend an we will extend an invitation and provide the educator or any interested party with an opportunity to be interviewed and provide their version of events to that investigator.

That interview is entirely voluntary, but it may be recorded electronically.

At that interview, questions are asked in relation to the case and investigation being conducted, and those questions are around determining whether there's been any breach of the national law.

If a person declines to be involved with an interview, the investigator will proceed based on the information and the evidence that the investigator has has collected.

The final phase of the investigations process includes preparing a report of the investigation, including the evidence identified, the findings on whether there's been a breached and and making any recommendations as appropriate.

The final report is reviewed by a senior investigator and then by me as the manager.

If the evidence is not strong enough or does not establish that there has been any breach of the national law, the investigator will make that conclusion and no further action will be taken.

If the evidence does substantiate that there's been a breach of the national law, the investigator will make a recommendation as to what may be an appropriate and proportionate sanction in response to that breach.

Once an investigation has been completed, the investigator will contact relevant parties to advise of the outcome.

Relevant parties will include any persons who are subject to the allegations, including most often an educator, the nominated supervisor or approved provider.

Parents of children impacted as well are often advised of the outcome, as are complainants.

But it should be noted that on occasion only very limited information can be provided as investigators are bound by duties of of confidentiality.

So while it is really an issue, there is an expectation, and it is indeed a national law requirement, that all providers and services engaging with investigators display respectful conduct and comply with lawful requests.

This includes supporting an investigator to undertake their duties and displaying courtesy and communicating respectfully with with the officer.

Inappropriate behaviour may call into question a provider or nominated supervisor.

Fitness and propriety.

It may also indicate that a person may not be an appropriate person to be involved in the provision of an education and care service as outlined in section 171 of the National Law, and that includes a person who may pose a risk to children or his behaviour or state of mind, or his pattern of behaviour or common state of mind is such that it would be inappropriate for that person to be on service premises while children are being educated and cared for.

It is also an offence under the National Law for a person to obstruct an investigator or an authorised officer, to fail to assist an authorised officer while they're performing their functions, to provide an authorised officer with false or misleading information or documents, or for an approved provider to take serious detrimental action against a person who has assisted and made a protected disclosure to that investigator under the national law.

I spoke briefly about procedural fairness.

The national law provides generally for a show cause process to occur when the department is considering taking specific administrative action against an approved provider, an educator, or a nominated supervisor.

Where a matter is serious and the department, for example, is considering issuing A prohibition notice against the person or potentially cancelling or suspending a provider or a service approval, the department is required to issue a letter called a show cause notice to the approved provider or person telling them about that action and why they are proposing to take that action and seeking a response from that person or approved provider.

Any response that is provided must be considered by the department before it makes a final decision on whether it should take that action.

Services will often need to undertake their own internal investigations into an incident that they've reported to to the department.

This may be because an incident constitutes reportable conduct and involve the Office of the Children's Guardian, or it may be the service needs to determine what action it takes internally in response to that incident.

In most cases an internal investigation can proceed and it should not have any impact on a departmental investigation but if it is is going to jeopardise the conduct of that departmental investigation or has potential to do so, the investigator will advise the service and that internal investigation will need to be paused.

It may be that some evidence collected by the Service can be used by an investigator as part of a deep up mental investigation, but in most cases the proofs of the breach and the offences under the National law are different and an investigator will need to collect their own evidence.

At the end of the investigation an investigator will advise the Service of the outcome and if no breach of the National law was substantiated on the evidence, the investigator will advise the approved provider and nominated supervisor and no further action will be taken.

If a compliance notice or a compliance direction is issued on the basis that there has been a breach of the National law, the Service will generally be required to provide evidence about what they have done to comply with the notice or or direction.

For example, it might require specific refresher training if there's been a substantiated breach of the national law to do with supervision or inappropriate discipline or failure to protect children from harm hazards.

Investigators will also generally advise the complainant of an outcome in general terms and any parent of any child involved in the incident being investigated.

However, it needs to be noted that under Section 273 of the national law, as officers exercising functions under the national law, investigators cannot disclose to another person information that is is protected.

And often times it's, they're very limited.

They're very limited.

Information can be provided because of that that protection.

To address any potential risks to children, the department may also share information with other agencies.

The provisions of chapter 16 A of the Children and Young Persons Care and Protection Act provides that a prescribed body and the Department is a prescribed body, may provide information relating to the safety, health, welfare or well being of children to another prescribed body if the provision of that information would assist in making any decision, assessment or plan or to initiate or to conduct any investigation relating to this the safety, welfare or well being of children or to manage any of this to children.

These agencies that we share information with will generally include NSW Police, the Office of the Children's Guardian and the Department of Communities and Justice.

So finally, I just wanted to share some learnings with you all from my perspective based on some of the matters that we've recently investigated with with within the The Reg Authority.

So the first thing I'd like to talk about is in terms of taking responsibility for child safety.

The policies and procedures in place at a service are critical.

Ultimately, legal responsibility for compliance with the national law rests with the approved provider and nominated supervisor, who must ensure, for example, that all children are adequately supervised.

They must ensure that all reasonable precautions are taken to protect children from harm hazards and they must ensure that no child is subject to inappropriate discipline corporal punishment.

That obligation is an absolute one.

If supervision policies, for example, are not followed and a child leaves a service, the approved provider is ultimately legally responsible.

So it is absolutely critical for approved providers to have excellent recruitment practises in place to get the right people into their services and to have excellent policies and procedures in place, to continually review those policies and procedures and to ensure that everyone at the service, everyone at the service is aware of the details of these policies and procedures and to ensure they're followed.

The next thing is ensuring compliance at the service.

So how do you approve providers ensure that policies and procedures are followed?

They do that by having robust governance frameworks.

For example, that could include an internal audit function or just a simple process where regular checking occurs at the service to ensure that everyone working there is aware of the details of the policies and procedures and that they are being followed.

If concerns are identified in relation to a policy and procedure not being followed, I would suggest that a discussion be arranged with on the with the relevant staff or all staff at the service on that policy or procedure at a staff meeting where this can be addressed.

Having a regular refresher, regular programme of refresher training on all policies and procedures will also ensure that all staff are across the detail and are aware of their obligations to follow those policies and procedures.

Mandatory reporting So everyone would no doubt agree that the safety, health and well being of children in education and care is paramount.

If you or anyone at your service identifies anything that indicates a child may be at risk of significant harm, it is critical that any concerns be reported to the Department of Communities Justice, to us as the regulatory Authority and to NSW Police.

If you have any concerns regarding an interaction or incident at your service involving an educator and a child, you must report these concerns to NSW Police immediately.

Concerns including incidents of physical or sexual abuse.

Any potential grooming behaviours or inappropriate interactions with children, or any other indications that a child may be at risk, whether those concerns relate to the child being at home or in education and care, must be reported.

We all need to take our child protection obligations seriously.

If you have any concerns, make sure you report them and make sure you keep a record of that report.

Remember, all adults in NSW are required to report information to police if they know, or believe or reasonably ought to know, that a child has been abused.

Failing to report that information to police without a reasonable excuse is an offence and punishable by a term of imprisonment.

Please also bear in mind that if you receive any new or updated information concerning a child or a matter that you've made a report on, you must also report that updated information as it could signify an increase of risk to that child.

The regulatory authority, by virtue of its role, takes a sector wide view of risk and we can take action to address risks that a person may present to any and all children in education and care.

This includes prohibiting a person from being involved in any way in the provision of an education and care service in any jurisdiction.

It is an offence for a person who is prohibited to work in education and care and it is also an offence for an approved provider to employ a person who's been prohibited.

Approved providers can check whether a person has been prohibited via the NQAITS portal.

The regulatory authority may also take action to address immediate risks by directing an approved provider to exclude a person who may pose a risk to children while children are present in an education and care service, and likewise it is an offence for an approved provider to not comply with that direction.

That brings us to the end of our presentation.

We we hope this will help you all understand the process of investigations and reporting.

Please scan the QR code there for any resources to assist you with understanding how, when, and what to report.

Thank you to everybody who's joined us and listened to the session.

Please keep an eye out for our upcoming sessions and thank you all for your time.

Have a great afternoon.

My name is Louisa Cousins.

I manage a team in the NSW Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority called the Quality Practise and Regulatory Support Team.

My team is responsible for delivering advice and education to those of you working in our sector on everything, anything and everything to do with the National Quality Framework.

And we are here today to talk about an important topic close to all of our hearts, child safety.

And particularly looking at how your service can reflect on your own child safe practises to further support the safety and protection of children in your care.

I'd like to start by acknowledging that I'm joining you today from the lands of the dark and young people.

I'd like to pay my respect to dark and young elders past and present and thank them for their continuing care of the lands and the waterways where I live and work.

I pay my respect to the Elders of the lands that you are all joining from today.

As the teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories, I'd like to acknowledge the important work that's taking place across our sector to make early childhood services culturally safe places for all children, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families.

I'd like to take a moment to let you know about another ECE Connect session that's taking place at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon, the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and Early Adopter Experience.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework that's being developed by the NSW Regulatory Authority along with services and people with lived experience and how you can be involved as an early adopter, please come along to this On the Couch session where three services will discuss their experience as an early adopter of the Cultural Safety Framework, the benefits implementation approach and sustainable practise.

To start, some housekeeping.

As is usual for our ECE Connect sessions, the microphone, video and chat functions are disabled in this webinar today.

The Q&A function is available if you have any questions throughout the session.

Again, as is usual, we will try our best to respond to all the questions that come in today.

I just want to acknowledge that you may have some questions relating to other topics, including recent media coverage about our sector and the parliamentary processes that are underway.

We acknowledge the impact that this coverage is having on the sector and understand that you may well have questions about what this means for you for your service.

To make sure that everyone is able to get the most out of today's session, the team will be focusing on questions specifically related to today's session content.

If you have any additional questions related to what I've just talked about or anything really, please do know that you can contact the regulatory authority at any time through our Information and Inquiries team via email or by phone during office hours.

Our automated closed captions have been enabled during today's session if you'd like to use them.

And lastly, the session is being recorded so that we can publish it on our website for you to share with colleagues or refer back to.

SO why are we talking about child safety today?

You know that you have requirements and responsibilities to do with child safety and so today we are going to help you to think about ways that you can look at your child safe practises.

Child safety continues to be a priority for us at the regulatory authority as I know it is for you across our sector.

Protecting children from harm and abuse is at the heart of all of our policies and our practises.

The role that you play in safeguarding children has a profound impact on their lives, shaping their educational and social outcomes.

The RA works closely with national and state bodies, including the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian, to guide child safety practises.

We encourage services to reflect on their child safe culture.

A Child Safe Culture reinforces to our ECE staff that they all share the responsibility to keep children safe and must work together to protect children in your services from harm and abuse.

A Child safe culture can be seen in your recruitment activities, induction and reporting processes.

It's vital to embed child safety in everyday practise and to foster open discussions about continuous improvement.

We've developed a comprehensive guide to implementing the Child Safe standards, tailored especially for the early childhood sector, and we recommend that you use this guide to ensure that your service is child safe.

I'm hoping that we'll share a link to the guide somehow during the session today.

Self assessment, as I've said, is a valuable way for services to assess their current practises and identify opportunities for growth.

The OCGS Self Assessment tool supports this process by providing clear insights and guiding actions for improvement against the Child Safe standards.

And I am delighted to today welcome Sky Taylor from the Office of the Children's Guardian, who will share further insights on how we can collectively strengthen child safety in our sector.

Thank you.

Over to you, Sky.

Thank you so much, Louisa.

I will just adjust it so that you can sit back and relax and I will drive the show.

So hello everyone, Welcome.

Yes, today we'll be talking about using the Child Safe self assessment tool to improve child safety.

And I would also like to briefly acknowledge the country that I'm on.

I am on the country of the Wangal people of the Eora, our nation, and I'd like to pay my respects to elders past and present for looking after these beautiful lands.

I'd also like just to point out, in our acknowledgement of country that was written by our First Nations team here at the OCG, we talk about the importance of culture being handed down to children to Jajam's, the indigenous word used for children.

And I think that that's something that we can really consider today when we're thinking about keeping children safe, cultural safety, and safe from any abuse or harm.

So I would like to acknowledge everyone here also who might be in attendance who is from a First Nations background.

I would also like to acknowledge survivors of child abuse and I would like to state that we need to work hard because of the ramifications that people are still feeling from child abuse that they suffered as children.

I'd encourage you all to look after yourselves.

If anything is concerning you today, please reach out to a trusted friend or colleague for support.

And you can also reach out to these numbers that are on the screen there for professional support.

So first of all, first point on the agenda was why child safety.

And Louisa spoke to that before I got started.

So really we're looking at the importance of child safety, the importance of a child safe culture.

We'll then look at an overview of the OCG Self Assessment tool.

Some of you may have used it, some of you may not be familiar with it.

We'll look at what a customised report looks like that you receive once you've done that and some current high level trends for your sector.

And then the final part of my presentation will be about what support and what resources can you use to improve what you found out you might be lacking from doing the Child Safe self assessment.

If you have a question today, please pop it in the question and answer.

There's a whole team of people there helping me make sure that everyone is across what's going on.

If you have a specific question for the for the Office of the Children's Guardian and for the Child Safe team, please do email us at Child Safe at ocg.nsw.gov dot AEO and I will share that email address later in case you think of something between now and then that you would like to ask about.

South The Child Safe Self Assessment Tool is just one in a whole range of supports that can help you implement the Child Safe standards.

So the Child Safe Self Assessment Tool was launched in December in 2022 with the goal of helping organisations identify the areas of strength and also identify opportunities for improvement in implementing those NSW Child Safe standards.

It allows you, your services, to reflect on your Child Safe practises and how you rate yourself against each of the standards.

The Child Safe Self Assessment Tool also aims to fulfil the legislative function that the OCG has under Section 8 VE of the Children's Guardian Act and organisations can be directed by the Children's Guardian to complete this self assessment tool for a compliance exercise.

Also, it's part of the registration requirement for specialised substitute residential care.

So when we're looking at all the different tools that we could be using, the Child Safe Self Assessment tool is only one, but that's what we're focusing on today.

The others include webinars and face to face training that you can access from the Office of the Children's Guardian.

The ECECE learning and this is something that I'm hoping all of you are familiar with.

It's been a great collaboration and a Co design between the ECECRA and the OCG and we have managed to produce 3 pathways for these E learning.

So whether you're at centre based care, Family Day care or after school care or outside school hours care, you can do the training that's most suitable for you.

We also have the online handbooks which you can find from our resources page.

And also if you were to be assessed, then there could be recommendations that would be made that would help you also implement the child safe standards.

So what is the child safe Self assessment tool or the Caesar as we call it internally, But maybe I should just call it the Self self assessment tool for everyone today.

So it's an online questionnaire that anyone in your service can answer and you can access it for free.

It allows you to reflect on and identify those areas of strength and those areas of opportunity for improvement in the implementation of the NSW Child Safe Standards at your service.

You can also use it to measure progress in your implementation because you can fill it out and a year later you can fill it out again and you can measure that progress.

So that can be a really useful thing.

So for you, those of you that have already done the child Self, child Safe self assessment, then you are very welcome to do it again if it's been 12 months since you last did it.

And hopefully you can see some improvement and maybe be able to focus on other standards that weren't as important.

But now that others have improved, you can go back and use some of the resources for those.

So there's a handful of questions.

It takes about 30 minutes to complete.

This is one of the questions that's asked when an organisation has a child safe culture.

It means, and we have a list there of all the positive things that child safe culture is.

And then thinking about that description, you have to rate your service or the child safe culture of your service from weak to strong.

So that's one of the questions that you would find in the online self assessment tool.

Another question might be or is how confident are you that parents and carers could make a complaint about child abuse to your organisation?

So again, thinking about your service, reflecting on this question and choosing 0 not comfort at all or all the way through to hopefully A9 or A10 of highly confident.

Another example might be a question asking you how do you ensure your new staff understand their child safe responsibilities?

And in that question, there are a list of choices.

It's multiple choice and maybe it's mandatory induction.

Maybe it's induction completed before before contact with children.

Maybe it's having to do the OCG online training, the E learning.

Maybe it's making sure that you have a good mentoring programme and that staff are supported.

Or it might be none of the above.

Obviously that would score you low if it was none of the above, but hopefully you would tick some of those.

So there are different kinds of questions, but they're roughly like that and there are 30.

It would take you about 30 minutes to get through the questions.

So the wrong results are yours and they reflect how you view the child safe practises and processes and procedures at your service.

So before you complete the Child Safe Self assessment, please find out about your child safe systems, processes and policies.

Make sure you have done a little bit of research and you know your stuff before you go in to take the assessment.

Good thing to note is that you can save and come back later.

This could be really useful if you get to a question where you're not quite sure how it works at your service, or you want to investigate, or you run out of time because suddenly you need to go back on the floor so you can save and come back.

Identifying a gap in capability is really a good thing with this tool.

So it's much more useful for you if you are honest and if you scale and score yourself reliably and honestly, then it will pick up the things that you are that you do have areas of improvement for and will give you a good plan for how to improve the child safe capacity and capability of your service.

The fourth point there is that it is a really good tool that you can share.

So the things that you learn, the way that you were doing things, you can share this and you can compare.

You might find sharing with other services really helpful to enable some collaboration and some sharing of how successes are are working or what learnings you have.

This can be used maybe geographically people that you are local to the the area that you are.

So maybe it's an overarching organisation that each service can share their details so that you can help in the collaboration process.

So this is what the report looks like.

This is what you would receive by email after you have done this self assessment and the details go through each standard and resources, which resources you can use from the OCG that can help you implement the standards as as measured by this tailored report.

So you can see here it goes from one through to 10.

There are 10 bars on that graph and it shows us that, oh, standard one, they're doing really well.

It's green.

We can see that two and three in this results are not doing so well.

They're the red or pink and then the moderately well are the orange.

So we can see here just at a glance how well you're doing as a service or how well you think you are doing as it is a self reflection tool.

So then on each page of your report, it will go through each standard.

So in this case, we have standard 3 about family and community involvement.

When we scroll in closer, we can see that it has some actions that you can take and also has the resources that you could use to improve on the family and community involvement as it is a pink one with a higher area of need, a higher need.

So in this case you can print this out, you can use it as a working document.

I have had the pleasure of talking to many centres and last year I met with someone who had a ring binder.

They printed it out.

They were using it as a living document.

They were writing in who was responsible.

They were writing extra notes about things that they had done that were meeting their improvements and their continuous review of the standards.

So the first thing that you can do is actually read the report after you've done it.

So we know that policies and reports that sit on shelves don't really make a big difference to the culture of an organisation.

We know that working through things, sharing things with your staff will improve the child safe culture.

So review your report.

If you've got any questions, you can always come back to the OCG and ask.

Make sure that you share the results and the meaning behind some of the results with your staff so that collectively you can work on improving in the areas that you need to and also maybe celebrate the areas that you're doing well.

Work through the actions and the resources and then you can repeat it in 12 months if you would like to.

This can 1212 months can give you a good period of time to put in some new practises or to update some policies or change ways that you do things.

And so in 12 months you can see if that's improved your your child safe standard implementation.

So now let's have a look at some data and this is where we can see what's been happening in the last couple of years with completion rates.

So we can see that your sector, the early childhood education and care sector is very engaged and have submitted the most number of self assessments.

We can see that ECEC has over 8000 submissions there.

And also we can see so ECEC centre based care and Family Day care are together.

And then we have the outside school.

The House care is the other purple block further along.

So they've been, yeah, over 8000 submissions, completions in over in the last two years from December 22 through to February this year.

And you can see that they're broken down by sector.

You can see that the early education and care sector represents about 34% of the completions.

It is notable to mention that individuals from the same organisation can complete the self assessment.

So the numbers are showing the individual number of responses, not actually the number of services that have completed it.

But we can see that you're using the tool and that's very pleasing for us at the OCG.

So now this is the breakdown by standard of how services view their their work that they're doing with the child safe standards.

So it shows that all the services that participated assess themselves as being better than 50% for the implementation of all standards.

And that's from results from the 12th of December 2022 to the 14th of January 2025.

So it's great to see that there's a lot of a lot of work has been done and is being done and people can people that have filled out this self assessment tool have been able to reflect and see how well they've been doing in some areas.

And also that in most areas they're doing a good job.

But we can always improve.

Child safety isn't a set and forget.

It's always something that we can be improving upon.

So from that data that I just showed you, I just want to talk about the three highest self rated standards and then we'll also look at the three lowest rated standards.

So for standard 9 has was number one for both the early childhood education and family daycare and also for the USH sector.

So that's the implementation of child safe standards being continuously reviewed and improved.

So I think we can probably see that everyone that's doing the self assessment tool is already in that cycle of thinking about how do we make this better, how do we continuously review and improve.

Then standard 4 was also highest ranking, the second highest ranking for both sections of your sector again.

So we and that is equity is upheld and diversity is taken into account and we can see that in standard 9.

Sorry.

Now we're on to the next one which just got a lot of notes here.

Our standard for is very high in both, which is great to see.

We know that early childhood education and care, most organisations within that sector, within your sector, use multiple strategies to ensure activities are inclusive and most organisations are working really well with children with a diverse range of children, children who have disabilities, children who are coming from a non English speaking background and First Nations children as well.

So we know that those things are being done well and so standard 4 is being held high.

So in the early childhood education and family daycare section we had standard one as third and this is great to see high ratings for their organisation leaders transparency and putting children's safety 1st and child safe culture being right rated really well.

We know that the head of entity is legally responsible for child safety but the culture needs to be organisational wide and we know that that needs to happen to keep children safe.

So standard 1 is a really important standard.

Now outside school hours, care had standard 6 as slightly stronger, but it is only by 1.5%, so it is only just a bit stronger.

And then they also had standard 1.

So we can understand standard 6 is about making sure processes to respond to child abuse are child focused and that complaints are easy to be made for children.

And that's understandable that the after school hours care sector scored themselves higher there.

It's much easier to be confident in the complaint system and the reporting processes, being child focused and being child friendly if the children are older and can speak to you easily.

So that's kind of self explanatory.

Really great to see that those standards are being, people are reflecting on that and, and think that they're doing well with those.

So the three standards that were self rated as needing the most attention were the same across both sectors almost.

So we had for the early childhood and education that staff are equipped with knowledge, skills and awareness we had in the 60s.

Sorry, though, they've ended up very small for me.

So I'm just going to say in the 60s because I can't read the real details, but they're about 60%.

So they're not terribly low, but they're the areas that could be worked on by services.

And then for out of school hours care, we also have the lowest scores, 478 and the seven, three and eight.

And we can see that 3 is about making sure families and communities are informed and involved.

And one of the interesting notes that was made about this was that some of the questions were about how much do you try and involve families.

And some of the questions were about how involved our families.

And we could see that early childhood and education and care sector.

So your whole sector was doing a really good job of trying to get families and communities informed and involved, however, maybe not always the uptake that we were hoping for.

And this is across across the board for Standard 8, looking at environments and minimising the opportunity for abuse or harm to occur.

So those risk assessments being done and that's where some attention could be paid from what we've seen in the self reflections of these standards.

So I want now to talk about those three lowest scoring standards and the ones that need more attention and point you in the right direction.

Because whether you've done the self assessment or not, you might find that this is a trend that you're seeing at your service as well.

And so we would love you to be able to improve and provide a little bit more.

So the most important thing about Standard 7 is prioritise staff training.

So a lot of you here today, that's great.

This is part of staff training, learning about how we can improve our child safe culture.

We need to really making make sure that there are in depth inductions and regular refreshes for all staff about things like responding to disclosures, recognising abuse, doing risk management plans, knowing what the child, what child safe, what practises mean and many ways to skill up your staff.

Face to face training.

Like I mentioned before, if you have more than 20 people at your service and you can request training from the OCG webinars, the OCG have webinars at least one a week.

There's two or three a week, sometimes many different topics and they are free.

So please look at our website to enrol in those.

The E learning that I've plugged already and I will plug again because it is a fabulous tool.

Really, it has been designed specifically for your sector and gone through so many iterations with lots of different people who know your sector and know the child safe standards.

So it's really something that we're proud of.

And then also of course you have your Department of EDECE web page, so the child protection training requirements that you can make sure that your staff are up to date with their training.

Standard 3 was the next standard that was self reflected as being needing a bit more attention.

And this is the one I was just talking about, how we try and involve our parents and involve carers and involve the community in the messaging of child safe.

So some of the resources that we could share with families and carers could be, for example, information flyer if you are doing the safe series.

So if you're using the OCG Safe series, we have an information flyer for parents.

And we also have a webinar on demand that can explain to parents what the safe series is, why their child is coming home and saying no more often, and why it's OK for them to learn how to say no about certain things.

There's also a lot of information about the child safe standards in multiple languages.

So if you have families and communities who don't speak English or don't speak much English, please go and have a look at our resources.

We have them translated into many languages.

We also have a video and the one of the videos on the OCG website is to help parents understand how to choose a safe organisation.

And because it's on YouTube, you can use any language you like to watch that with subtitles.

So this also can be really handy if you have a family who's struggling to understand what, what, what do they mean when they say child safe in English, Then you could you could point them in that direction.

Then of course, also you have your ECE resource library filled with many, many resources.

And I'm to tell you that the philtres can be filtered by theme, quality, area and resource type.

So there are many different ways that you can go about finding something that could be helpful to share with families and carers.

And standard 8.

So standard 8 is talking about risk and talking about minimising risk.

So some of the resources that we would recommend.

First of all, I would just remind everyone that you need to consider child safe risk assessments for all situations.

So this means, OK, I'm just in a centre in, we don't do excursions, we only do incursions.

But even just in a centre, there will be the toddler room, the baby room, the indoor, the outdoor play area, maybe some kitchen that children have access to occasionally.

So all the different places within your service, you need to think about what are the risks here and how can we put in plans to minimise those risks.

That's for your physical safety and your physical risks.

Then when we're talking about online risks, the E Safety Commissioner website is the place to go to get your resources to improve and to implement Standard 8 about online risk.

They have great resources.

They're tailored to even preschool rooms, books and videos that you can watch and share so that children can start to understand what online risk really is as well.

And the Department of EDD is hosting another ECE Connect session on the 3rd of April, which the day after tomorrow, which is also about child safety in your service.

So this would be another great resource for you to go along to, to be able to strengthen the knowledge that you have about the implementation of Standard 8.

So a few more interesting points about the data that we we have gleaned from the ECEC sector.

The respondents are roughly evenly split between managers, executives and team members.

They're about 26% each.

And then HR team members were slightly smaller amount, 91.4% of the respondents indicated that their staff are mostly female.

And of the ECE respondents that was very high at 93% I believe.

And the after school hours care, outside school hours care was 76% were were of the staff were female.

Again, it was a little, it was slightly different, different for after school care services.

They were much more likely to be not for profit.

The ECE services were kind of equally, equally weighted between profit and not for profit in the services that did the self assessment tool that we're sharing the information with you today.

So key points to remember, really important child safe is a holistic way to view your service and the the your service delivery and encompasses all aspects of your organisation.

So it's not one area, it's embedded across the area.

And I know that Louisa at the beginning talked about how we all need to share that and all staff need to work together to embed the child safety really deeply into the service practises and the service culture.

It's not just policies.

Having a child safe policy that sits on the shelf will not make the children safer at your service.

It's the practise and it's the culture as well.

And it really is a long term approach.

We're looking at constant review and constant updating of the approaches.

And that's one of the reasons why we have all these resources for you that are continuously updated with different ways that you can implement the child safe standards and ways that you can be aware of the latest news about how to best keep your service child safe.

So the Child Safe Self Assessment Tool is a tool that you could find very useful.

It's free and I would encourage you to go ahead and do the the assessment for yourself.

Reflect on your service, reflect on your practise.

If you have done it before, do it again in 12 months since you last did it and that way you will be able to measure and compare the improvements that you're making.

So the child safe self assessment tool, you can Google child safe self assessment tool OCG and it will pop up, will also pop up from your screen with this QR code if you would like to find it now.

So that is the end of my section.

Please do stay in touch.

As I said, child safe at ocg.nsw.gov dot AU is our email address.

We're very happy to receive questions.

We're very happy to support you in your journey with implementing the child safe standards.

And I will hand back to Louisa.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Sky.

That was a really interesting presentation.

I know everybody will have really taken a lot away from that, so thank you so much.

I'm sure you've all gained some insights into the ways that your service can interact with this important tool, really useful tool.

What we'd love to ask of you now or after this session is take what you've learned today about this tool back to your teams, to your service.

Engage with the tool involving all of your staff, your colleagues, in a review of your child safe practises.

Be honest.

As Sky said, be honest, thorough and detailed in your reflections and most importantly, act on your assessment findings.

Find ways to improve child safety across your service building, strengthening and maintaining a child safe culture where children are protected from harm and abuse at all times.

We have lots of resources.

You've heard about some of them today, both on the Department of Education's website and the Office of the Children's Guardians website, some of which we have collaborated on between our two agencies.

There really is a wealth of information there for you.

Engage with these when you can, share them with colleagues.

If you've found today's session useful, share the link with your colleagues.

Come back to it as often as you as you need.

The recording will be uploaded I believe in around about a week's time, so check back on the department's website for that link.

So thank you very much for attending today's session.

There's AQR code for a survey there.

If you could take a moment to complete that survey and let us know your thoughts about today's session and any ways that we can improve as we continue to provide these information sessions for you.

We hope that you can join us for our session tomorrow at 2:00 on the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and on Thursday at the session that Sky mentioned again at 2:00 for another session on child safety that will cover more of the things that you can do to improve your child safe culture.

Thank you again on behalf of myself and Sky and the Office of the Children's Guardian, and we'll see you again soon.

[End of transcript]

Vanessa

Good morning, everyone.

I can see lots of people still coming in, which is really great.

So we just want to welcome you today and thank you for joining us for our session on assessment and rating.

We are aware of the many commitments that you have and how precious time is.

So we're really grateful that you you've decided to spend some time with us today and we're going to jump straight in and get started so that we can make the most of your time.

Before we move into our discussions today, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands where we work and live.

I live and work on Dharug lands and I'm always grateful for the care of the beautiful bush and park lands that has been given over generations that I am privileged to have access to and to call home in my community.

I'd like to pay respects to Elders past and present as teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories and acknowledge any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people who may be with us in this session today.

So today's session is going to focus on assessment and rating, getting a better understanding of the National Quality Standard and what to expect from assessment and rating.

So we understand that you may have some questions relating to other topics, including recent media coverage about the sector and parliamentary processes that are underway.

We acknowledge the impact that this coverage has had on the well-being of educators in the sector and we understand that you may have questions about what this means for you and your service.

While this is not the focus of today's session, we have published some information on our website to support you on this topic.

To ensure that everyone is able to get the most out of this session, our team will be focusing on questions specifically related to the session content.

If you do have any additional questions relating to other topics, you can phone our NSW ECEC Regulatory authority.

So our team may support you with your questions and we're going to pop the best contact details in the chat for you to be able to do that now.

Now as we commence, I just will go through a little bit of housekeeping things, but to help you navigate this session.

So you'll notice that the microphone, video and chat functions have been disabled for the session, but the Q&A function will be available if you have any questions.

So big thank you to my team who are here to support us today and we'll be answering your questions in the Q&A area as they can.

We're also hoping to have time at the end of the session to respond to any key questions where we can, including some of those that potentially came through registration.

We do have automated closed captions during the session for accessibility and we will be recording today's session and this will be made available on our website.

So what are we going to talk about today?

You can see on your screen here some of the topics that we're going to cover around our education and care services and the importance of quality and early childhood education and care.

Assessment and rating, of course, in NSW, understanding the National Quality Standard, unpacking your practices, the what and the why, how to support your team.

Assessment and rating visits and support that's available for your services.

So I realised that I very rudely didn't introduce myself at the beginning.

My name is Vanessa Beck, I'm the hub coordinator of the Continuous Improvement team.

Now it's my absolute pleasure to introduce you to Belinda Wakeford, who is our NSW Lead Assessor and the State Manager within our regulatory authority.

Thanks, Belinda.

Belinda

Thanks very much, Vanessa, and welcome everyone.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

So I'm going to just have a little chat through why quality in early childhood education and care matters and recap assessment and rating in NSW.

So, as we know, participation, early childhood education and care can have a lifelong impact on children and their families.

The recent Australian education research organisation AERO conducted a study linking quality and child development in early childhood education and care.

Key findings of that AERO report indicated that the National Quality Standard overall ratings were consistently associated with the AEDC domains.

Children in services rated Exceeding NQS are excellent had lower rates of developmental, vulnerability and quality areas

Physical environment and Area 5 Relationships with children have the greatest and most consistent association with these AEDC domains.

Research tells us that high quality ECEC experiences support children's education, well being and development, providing them with the best start in life and improved outcomes beyond the early years.

And we, as the NSW Regulatory authority for early childhood education and care, are committed to supporting services to uplift their quality and compliance to provide safe, enriching environments to improve outcomes for all children.

So we'll just touch on the quality ratings system and give you a bit of an overview of assessment and rating within NSW.

So on screen, there's a recap of the seven quality areas that are within the National Quality Standard.

And these seven quality areas are assessed toward a service rating.

And as mentioned earlier, the recent AERO report findings mentioned quality areas 1, 3 and 5 have the greatest and most consistent association with the AEDC domains.

The assessment and rating process is one way to measure service quality.

This assessment is applied against seven quality areas of the National Quality Standards and while there is often a focus on services overall rating, it's important to look deeper to gain a clearer picture of where a service is AT and identify areas for improvement.

Today I'll be joined by Samantha Gillett, who's an authorised Officer in our Continuous Improvement team, and Sam's going to talk to you about how to look deeper into the NQS and get a better understanding of the standards and elements that sit within each quality area. To get that clearer picture for participants who are new to the sector or joining us for assessment and rating

in this session for the first time, we as the New Wales Regulatory Authority are responsible for assessing and awarding ratings between Significant Improvement Required and Exceeding. And where a service receives a rating of Exceeding in all 7 quality areas, they can apply to a ACECQA to be further assessed for an Excellent rating.

The National Benchmark for service quality is Meeting the National Quality Standard and the A&R process determines a quality rating against the NQS by looking at your service’s strengths or key practices, compliance with the national Law and Regulations and knowledge and use of the approved learning frameworks.

And this is done through an assessment and rating visit conducted by one of our authorised officers.

Our officers undergo national training and rigorous testing conducted by ACECQA who is the independent national authority that assists governments in administering the National Quality Framework for children's early education and care.

This ensures that our officers apply a nationally consistent approach to the quality rating system, which is designed to indicate the level of quality within that ECE service.

The ratings also support families make informed decisions about their child's early childhood education and care, and it's used to improve quality service practice with the intent of improving outcomes for children, as mentioned.

So a quick visual here to give you a look at how we're tracking in NSW. Of just over 6200 services that we regulate in NSW, 5725 have a published quality rating.

Those who've not yet been assessed are our newer services who are working to establish their service and practice.

So we've been communicating over the last 12 months about the national improvements to assessment and rating which have been implemented in the phased approach in NSW.

So this isn't new information,

just to recap,for those of you who haven't joined one of our sessions in a little while or haven't been through A&R in the last 12 months. We want A&R to provide reliable information to families about service quality

as just mentioned, ensure ratings are a true reflection of everyday practice, promote continuous improvement and make the process of A&R as efficient as possible for services.

So the first change that we introduced was the increased use of partial reassessments.

So typically that includes an assessment of either two or four quality areas and services can nominate one quality area for assessment and the authorised officer will select the remaining areas

and that decision is based on a range of factors, for example, the date of your last assessment, your service’s compliance history and sector trends.

The second change to A&R is the five day notice period

which is now in play for all assessment and rating visits within NSW, excluding our ACCO services where further consultation has been occurring.

Moving to a 5 day business notice period

was designed to help ensure assessment and rating reflects your everyday practice.

And we continue to listen to feedback from services undergoing A&R with these changes to refine our approach and ensure A&R supports the best outcomes for children and families.

So I'm going to now introduce you to my colleague Samantha Gillett, as I mentioned, who is an authorised officer in the Continuous Improvement team.

And Sam is going to share with you ways in which we can develop a deeper understanding of the NQS and support your quality improvement journey.

So welcome, Sam.

Sam

Thanks, Belinda.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Samantha Gillett and I'm an authorised officer in the Continuous Improvement team.

I'm going to discuss how to unpack the National Quality Standard.

So we're all very familiar with the table of the National Quality Standard.

It includes 7 quality areas, 15 standards and 40 elements.

It contains a lot of information, but if we break it down by each quality area, standard and element not only do we gain a greater understanding of the National Quality Standard, but we're able to align our practices to demonstrate how your service is Meeting the National Quality Standard.

And once we do this effectively, we continue to reflect and develop goals to uplift quality practice.

So the Guide to the National Quality Framework aims to support services understanding of the requirements under the National Quality Framework.

The NQF.

The Guide to the National Quality Framework was updated this year in January 2025.

It contains 6 sections.

In particular, there are two sections which can guide and support services to understand and clarify where their practices align against the National Quality Standard.

They are sections 3 and 4.

Sections 3 outlines clear explanations along with examples of practice for each quality area, standard and element, whereas Section 4 provides detailed information on the Law and Regulations linked to each quality area.

The information helps to guide your compliance against the national Law and Regulations.

And as we know, to be a quality service we must also be compliant with the national Law and Regulations.

So how do we interpret the National Quality Standard?

So the table to the National Quality Standard can help guide us when we're articulating our key practices.

Here we're focusing on Quality Area 1.

The heading for Quality Area 1 is Educational Program and Practice.

This provides us with information that Quality Area 1 is all about the educational program and the practices related to it.

We then look at the first standard in Quality Area 1, 1.1 program -

The educational programme enhances each child's learning and development.

Here we're not talking about aspects of the programming cycle, for example how the program comes together, but rather Standard 1.1 focuses on how the approved learning framework underpins everyday practice, including experiences that are planned for children and the teaching and learning that occurs.

Element 1.1.1,

And how the program is developed based on educators' knowledge of each child to build on children's current strengths, abilities and interests,

Element 1.1.2, and how interactions, experiences, routines and events included in the educational program maximise opportunity for children's learning,

Element 1.1.3. If we look at the table here on the black ribbon, there are three columns and two headings, concept and descriptor.

What many people do when they start writing their key practices is they look directly at the element descriptor,

as their eyes are drawn to the centre of the page. They read the descriptor and start writing their key practices and this is OK,

however generally what they don't do is look at the concept of the element.

The concept is the main heading of the element.

By reading and understanding the concept first, it will help you to understand and articulate the key practices that can demonstrate you are Meeting the element.

Let's look at the first element in standard 1.1, Element 1.1.1.

The concept of element 1.1.1 is Approved learning framework.

This element discusses the approved learning framework that your services use to inform your curriculum

for example, the Early Years Learning Framework or My Time Our Place, or it could be both depending on the ages of children in your service.

In this element, many people read the first word in the descriptor, curriculum, and identify key practices related to the assessment and planning cycle, which is aligned to element 1.3.1.

They discuss their observations, how they evaluate their program and extend on the experiences implemented.

This is not the intention of element 1.1.1. As we can see here

the concept for element 1.1.1 is the approved learning framework.

This is what we focus on when we are writing our key practices.

The descriptor helps to guide us with language and context.

However, the concept is our main heading for the element.

This is our starting point when looking at where our practices align and some examples of key practices for this element you may focus on could include how is the Approved learning framework reflected in your learning environment and what does this look like?

Have educators reflected on sections of the Approved learning framework and if so, have practices formed as a result of these reflections?

Do you have versions of the Approved learning framework in different languages for your families, children and educators and if so, where are these displayed?

Do families receive a copy, link or QR code to the Approved learning framework at enrolment?

Let's look at element 1.3.2

critical reflection.

Now when we look at the descriptor for this element, it says critical reflection on children's learning and development, both as individuals and in groups, drives program planning and implementation.

This is discussing critical reflection as the element where we reflect on children's learning and development.

It's not about the theme critical reflection where we are critically reflecting on other aspects of the National Quality Standard.

Here for element 1.3.2 we focus on the critical reflection educators engage in when reflecting on children's learning and development.

Some examples of key practices for this element may focus on how educators reflect on the program, considering children's learning and development both as individuals and in groups.

Educators reflecting on their own practice to improve opportunities for children's participation, learning, development and wellbeing.

How educators use critical reflection about individuals and groups of children to inform future planning and decision making and make changes to their program and practice and how educators reflect on the program as an inclusive learning environment, supporting each child to participate or consider barriers to learning and what could be implemented to ensure participation for all.

Articulating key practices in your self assessment the what and the why. So what is a key practice?

Key practices are your current every day practices.

These are not one offs or things you think you need to do for the purpose of your assessment and rating visit, rather things that are typical for your service.

Key practices are statements about your practice that should align with the National Quality Standard.

When we align our key practices to the National Quality Standard, we support all of our stakeholders in their understanding of the National Quality Standard and by doing this you give them the confidence to contribute to your service's continuous improvement conversations and documentation.

And at the time of your service’s assessment and rating visit, it makes it clearer for you and your team to articulate your practices.

And by making it clear there's no need for the authorised officer to look for evidence to support an outcome or a rating.

Key practices demonstrate your services quality against the National Quality Standard and they can be any aspects of your practice you are proud of and what makes you smile.

Specific statements that are not general and overarching.

Instead they describe what you do and how you do it.

They record current typical practices.

Practices you are planning to introduce should be documented in your improvement plan.

Use clear and simple language and this will help you to communicate and demonstrate the what, why and how you do what you do.

When you identify your key practices, you make the invisible visible.

So what is not a key practice?

As I've mentioned, a key practice should be a current, clear statement of what's occurring at your service.

When articulating your key practices, consider avoiding statements that include what you believe.

This is for your philosophy.

If you're using words like believe, strive, endeavour, value, know that you're writing your philosophy and not your key practices.

Interpretation and analysis of the practice.

It's not required.

Just note the practice, align it against the relevant standard and element and the interpretation of the practice becomes evident.

Regulatory requirements.

These are minimum requirements.

They are not practices and direct quotes from the Guide to the National Quality Framework,

generalised or philosophical statements.

They don't demonstrate your actual practice. Where evidence can be found.

There's no need to take up characters or room explaining where something is located,

for example, see Week 6 of Outdoor Program. Language which is too technical.

If the language is not understood by educators and other key stakeholders, they may not be able to understand your document and therefore not contribute. An introduction and conclusion.

It is hard to write without an introduction or conclusion because that's how we're trained to write.

But they're not required.

Just write your practice, just write what you do.

So we have some examples of key practices.

In the first one we have two key practice statements, an unclear example and a clear example.

These examples are not prescriptive, are not intended to provide a copy paste.

They work well because they are unique and consider the context of the individual service.

If we look at the unclear example, ‘the weekly menu is displayed and accurately describes food and beverages to children’.

This is a regulatory requirement and describes Regulation 80.

The unclear statement does not describe the service’s practices regarding their weekly menu.

It just states what they're required to do according to the national Law and Regulations.

But in the clear example, we've rephrased this into a key practice statement that describes the service practice in relation to element 2.1.3.

‘Our four weekly rotating seasonal menu was reviewed by a dietitian to ensure that it's consistent with the Dietary Guidelines.’

And as you can see, the practice outline here makes the invisible visible.

Our next key practice in this unclear example, ‘children have the opportunity to choose what they would like to play with each day.

Children can tell educators what resources they would like.’

This is an unclear example as the key practice is not specifically describing what current practices are actually occurring.

It says ‘children have the opportunity’, they have the opportunity, but do they choose what they would like to play with each day?

And children can tell educators what resources they would like, but do they actually do that?

What does this look like in practice?

The clear example says ‘educators ask children what they would like to play with during the morning Meeting and again at the start of the afternoon session.

Children record their choices on the programme using text and drawings.’

The clear example describes the practice.

It states when children are asked what they would like to play with and how children record their choices on the programme.

In this unclear example, ‘the design of the physical environment is reflective of the unique cultural and community context.’

This does not give a clear description of your practice, it is overarching and general, exposing it to be potentially interpreted by the reader in different ways.

Whereas in the clear example, ‘local elders, National Parks and Wildlife services were consulted to develop a Bush Tucker garden and habitat for native wildlife.

This includes a variety of native fruits and herbs, a native beehive and frog hotel. Children are involved in the care of the garden and this has led to several projects around native and introduced species. Produce from the garden is used in cooking experiences such as making Davidson plum jam and lemon Myrtle scones, which are then shared with families. (488 characters).

This clearly describes the practice, it describes the consultation that occurred when developing their Bush Tucker garden, what this looks like, how the children are involved and how the produce is shared with families.

I'd now like to introduce you to Alison Hendry who will share with you on how you can support your team through assessment and rating.

Alison

Thank you.

Hi everyone, my name is Alison Hendry and I'm an authorised officer in the Continuous Improvement team.

We're going to take a little time now to talk about how we can support our teams when we're preparing for an upcoming assessment and ratings visit.

When I think about when the nominated supervisor starts gearing up to support their teams for the assessment and ratings visit, it usually begins with that pre visit phone call.

After all the initial nerves or excitement of finding out about the upcoming visits settle down, the nominated supervisor often starts thinking, how can I help my educators demonstrate all the amazing practices they've developed, their strong relationships and the depth of collaboration they've built into their daily routines?

So let's dive into some strategies that can really help support your teams in doing just that.

We have some resources that we will pop into the chat to support this discussion.

And we also have a new resource articulating key practices underway that will support the messages Sam has just shared with you and we will ensure that this is sent out to you all in the coming weeks.

The service will have a quality improvement plan which will include your philosophy, key practices and areas for improvement.

Whether you use the NSW Self-Assessment and Quality Improvement Planning Portal, Self-Assessment Working Document or any other format.

One of the best ways to support educators for this for their upcoming visit is to involve them in the document during the self-assessment process.

When educators actively participate in accessing their assessing their practices, they can clearly explain what they do and the reasons behind it.

They'll also be aware of the specific practices they're asking the authorised officer to review, which can help them feel more prepared for the ratings process.

Share a copy of what you submit to the authorised officer with your team.

This involvement gives educators a sense of agency and advocacy, and it helps clarify any uncertainties about what the authorised officer might like to ask or see during the visit.

When a service is scheduled for assessment and rating, the focus often shifts to the authorised officer leading the service to prepare to host to the visit.

However, it is important to direct attention towards the educators and their practices.

Every service is on a unique journey towards implementing, improving quality practices and educators should feel emboldened, supported and encouraged to demonstrate those practices with pride and confidence.

It is beneficial to encourage educators to advocate for their practices, demonstrate their work and discuss it with the authorised officer as appropriate.

The assessment visit provides an opportunity for educators to explain how their practices align with the National Quality Standards and the rationale behind them.

It's really important for your educators to feel as comfortable as possible so that they can demonstrate their key practices confidently in their usual way.

One way to help educators might be to provide them an opportunity to talk with the nominated supervisor or educational leader about their practices.

It's also a good opportunity for them to ask you questions or discuss any concerns they might have, which can make a big difference in their overall confidence.

It is essential for educators to feel included in the assessment and ratings visit.

They should have the opportunity to identify the key practices that are meaningful to them, and they take pride in.

While these practices often out are outlined in as part of the self-assessment, this is not always the case.

It can be beneficial to speak with educators to determine which practices are important to them and ensure that these are included in the visit plan and shared with the authorised officer.

An assessment and ratings visit involves many different elements.

To make the most effective use of your time with the authorised officer, it can help for the service to create a flexible plan with the authorised officer for the visit and let them know about specific times when important activities or routines will occur.

This way the service can show the practices that matter to them.

For example, it may be helpful to mention that children vote on which resources they want to use during the morning group time, or that they share an Acknowledgement of Country at a certain time in a certain place.

If your service is scheduled to undertake a partial assessment and ratings visit, the service will be invited to nominate one quality area to be considered for assessment.

The educators and key people might like to collaborate, discuss and debate which area they would like to nominate collectively.

This may be a time where support is required to determine which quality area to demonstrate, with consideration to past ratings, current practices and quality areas the service has been working on or are most proud of.

So now we've discussed how we can support our teams to prepare for the visit,

let's look at what an actual assessment and ratings visit looks like.

Your visit really begins with the pre visit phone call.

This is when the authorised officer reaches out to the service to speak with the nominated supervisor, approved provider or responsible person.

They'll notify you about the upcoming visit and confirm some important details like whether the educational leader will be available for discussions, the service's opening times and if there are any planned excursions or activities happening on the day.

As an authorised officer, I also like to ask about specific allergies or whether any children might be distressed by a new person being in their space, and if there are educators who might be particularly nervous about the visit.

It's also a good chance to share practical details like parking access or the best street to use to enter the service.

This call serves as your first opportunity to discuss your services, practices and context with the authorised officer.

You might even start thinking about how the visit could be organised during this conversation.

After the call, the service will submit their Quality Improvement Plan.

The authorised officer will familiarise themselves with your service in preparation for the visit, for example, reviewing your key practices and quality improvement information provided.

When the authorised officer arrives at the service, it's an ideal time to begin the visit positively by establishing clear expectations from both the authorised officer and the key person they're engaging with.

For example, information may be shared regarding where the officer should place their bag, or certain rooms may have established routines that necessitate particular behaviours, such as the removal of shoes, or specific areas of the service are designated for educators to complete prayers or rituals at certain times during the day.

If the service has created a plan for the visit, this is also the time to share it.

One of the initial steps typically involves providing the authorised officer with a tour of the service and introducing them to educators.

It may be beneficial to mention that if a specific casual staff member is scheduled for the day to ensure that key personnel are available for discussions.

Additionally, introducing the educators along with their respective roles such as room lead, inclusion, support or float staff, can facilitate a better understanding of the team's structure and responsibilities.

This practice allows the authorised officer to break the ice with educators and offer a warm smile.

It gives the educator time to settle with the authorised officer being in their space and relaxing to their normal everyday practice.

The Authorised officer utilises the information you submit ahead of the visit to identify key practices that demonstrate compliance with the national Law and Regulations and that are aligned to the National Quality Standards.

To confirm that these practices are being implemented, the officer employs 3 evidence collection methods.

Observe, sight and discuss.

A balanced approach involving these methods helps the officer gain a clearer picture of your practice and how that aligns to the standards to support their ratings decision.

Different types of evidence are best collected through various means.

For instance, an officer may review your program documentation, while an educator may explain the planning cycle or the rationale behind a specific experience or learning activity.

Some evidence, such as interactions with children and families, is most effectively gathered through observation, whereas discussions may provide clarity on how educators have reflected on routines or transitions.

The bringing together of these three collection methods enables the officer to form a comprehensive understanding of your service and practices.

If you encounter a question that you find challenging to answer, it's OK to ask the Authorised Officer to rephrase the question or take a minute to gather your thoughts.

We really value your inquiries and requests for clarification because they enhance engagement and collaboration through the assessment process.

Towards the end of the visit, there may be practices that the Authorised Officer is unable to confirm are currently occurring.

The Authorised Officer will discuss these practices with you to determine if they are taking place, although not at the time of the visit. You may wish to provide additional evidence regarding how these practices are typically implemented at the service.

If a practice is not currently happening and maybe historical in nature, or a legacy practice that has been updated over time, this is an opportunity for you to communicate that to the authorised officer.

This part of the conversation is just about being open and honest about what you're currently doing.

It doesn't affect the assessment and ratings visit either way, it's about being transparent and keeping things clear.

The authorised officer will engage in discussions with the nominated supervisor, the educational leader and potentially support staff such as area managers.

It's also important for the authorised officer to speak with some educators and it is beneficial for them to be prepared for this interaction.

While engaging with educators is a vital component of the assessment, it may not be possible to converse with every educator on the day of their visit.

If there is a specific educator who would like to engage with the authorised officer, please notify us so that this could be incorporated into the visit plan.

Additionally, the authorised officer may speak with children regarding practices if it's appropriate, such as how they communicate their interests to educators and what follows from that communication.

The officer may also engage with families, again if it's appropriate, to gather feedback on aspects like the services’ communication channels and access to their children's programming information.

At the end of the visit the authorised officer will offer to have a wrap up discussion.

During this time the officer may highlight practices observed during the visit, discuss plans to address any identified non-compliance or outline the next steps.

This is also an opportunity for you to ask any remaining questions or seek clarification before the officer leaves.

However, please keep in mind that the authorised officer will not be able to provide an estimated rating at this stage.

This is not possible as the officer needs to collate and review all the evidence from the visit and assess this against the elements and standards.

There is also a peer review and approval process that occurs before your draft rating is determined.

I'm handing over to Belinda now who will discuss how your service can be further supported.

Belinda

Excellent. Thanks so much for that, Ali.

That's really helpful and thank you to Sam for taking some time.

Really great insights you've both shared, which will be really helpful for participants joining us today.

I know that we often get questions from our audience attending these sessions about you know what you can expect from the authorised officer during those visits so thank you both for sharing your insights with us.

So now that we've heard from Alison on some supports for your teams and what you can expect during an A&R visit, we'll have a look at supports that are available for your service.

So as I mentioned earlier, as the regulatory authority, we're really committed to supporting services to uplift their quality and compliance to ensure the health, safety and well-being of all children accessing ECC services across NSW.

And by accessing these supports, services will gain a clear, practical guidance to help them better understand their obligations and embed quality improvement into their practice.

There's a range of tailored supports available to ECE Services that we provide, and each has been designed to provide quality professional learning for services and their staff, with a focus on uplifting quality and improving outcomes for children.

So up on the screen there's a few options that they're available.

The Quality Support programme is delivered by ACECQA.

There's two pathways so Meeting the NQS pathway is a 20 week programme for services with a Working Towards rating and is delivered by an ACECQA facilitator.

Services with the Working Towards rating can self-nominate their interest in the program and following completion they will also be reassessed through an assessment and rating process.

There's a Compliance Support program that also is delivered by ACECQA and that's a 10 week intensive program available to all services to support their compliance with the national Law and Regulations.

Again, services can self-nominate or be referred by the Regulatory Authority.

Second, on the screen there you can see the NSW Continuous Improvement team, which is the team that Alison and Sam work with and it's a team of authorised officers and they're available to assist you with your self-assessment and quality improvement processes and provide a range of support available to support the needs of your service.

That includes initial support sessions for providers and services, providing some key practices and getting feedback from the officers on how you're articulating those in line with some of those messaging that Sam shared earlier and supporting you while you're using the Self-Assessment and Quality Improvement Planning Portal.

So the Continuous Improvement team are available anytime and we often say don't wait until you've been scheduled for A&R.

The team’s available anytime for you to link in with them early to support you and your team.

The sector strengthening partnership is with SNAICC and that's for our ACCO services and this program provides a holistic support that goes beyond the National Quality Standard.

SNAICC facilitators provide in person coaching, mentoring and support around quality practice to meet the NQS and assistance with policies and procedures and support with funding as well. Sector development programs.

So the safety and quality practice programmes you might be familiar with safe sleep and rest and a range of others.

We have our ECEC resource library which features a range of resources for services, providers and educators and there if you haven't already checked these out, jump onto our website they're really accessible and easy to navigate through. I think the team are going to pop through some links to the others mentioned there around the guide to the NQF.

I just wanted to mention that ACECQA have updated their online guide with a new look webpage which is really easy to navigate so that was updated in January this year.

While the team are popping in some links to some of those supports for you, I'm just going to pop on to the next slide.

We've got a Menti.

We're really keen to get your ideas for further supports that you might find helpful.

So I'll just give you a moment to grab out your phone, use the QR code or if you're on desktop, go to menti.com and enter the code up on the screen, which is 3697 2212.

If you get that up on your phone or your device, there's just one question there.

What other supports would be useful?

And we had taken onboard feedback through this option in previous sessions and have used that to tailor some supports that we've provided.

We'll pop a link into the chat.

As mentioned, there's a couple of new resources that we have available on our website and one of those is providing effective feedback to your draft A&R report that was directly in response to a service recommendation.

There is the new resources around applying for a first-tier review and how to provide evidence to support and put your application forward.

So again, we'll pop a link to those into our chat that's there for you.

So I'll move on to the next described slide.

Hopefully everyone has been able to link in through that QR code.

We'd love to hear your feedback so thank you for doing that.

So up here we have the Self-Assessment and Quality Improvement Planning Portal, which I know many of you will have registered for and are using.

For those who haven't, we recommend you check it out.

We'll pop a link in the chat Q&A for you.

So the portal was released last year and provides a one stop shop for you to monitor your compliance with the national Law and Regulations.

You can maintain your self-assessment information including your key practices and your quality improvement planning.

I know there's lots of people here already using the portal and we've received great feedback and we're really always open to hearing more from you directly.

So again, we've popped a QR code in here.

Really keen for services who are already been using the portal to provide us feedback on how what you found most useful and if you have any suggestions for improvement also really keen to hear from you as well. So I'll just leave that up on the board for a moment just so you can get that down.

If you've got a mobile phone, if you use your camera to go to the QR code or if you're using a desktop, go to menti.com and enter the code up on the screen.

Super keen to hear about that and if you've got any suggestions for improvement.

So while you're scanning that code, I'm going to hand you back over to Vanessa.

Vanessa

Thanks, Belinda.

If anyone would like more information about self-assessment for quality improvement or support with accessing the Self-Assessment and Quality Improvement Planning portal, you can contact our Continuous Improvement team and we'll in a moment bring some details up so that you can do that.

Please reach out anytime.

It's really good to start this engagement early or if you need to, you can check back in with your team later down the track if you need some ongoing support.

The Continuous Improvement team is a team of people who are dedicated to supporting services with self-assessment and so please reach out to us

we would love to have contact with you to support you. Technical Support -

If you are having experiencing any technical issues with the portal or you have found you have additional questions regarding the Self-Assessment portal itself, please contact I&E through the phone and you can see that 1800 619 113 phone number is on your screen at the moment or you can email and outline your challenges.

If they are unable to answer your questions, they will connect you with the right person who can most likely put you through to our Continuous Improvement team who can then give you a call back and touch base with you and sort out any issues that you might have.

And can I encourage you, if you haven't had a session with a Continuous Improvement team yet, this is a good opportunity to contact us through those details on the screen.

OK, So I think you'll agree that's been a really great session, very informative and thank you to everyone who's been involved.

It looks like we've been able to answer quite a few questions throughout today's session and also through our question and answer function and content and links that have been shared through the team.

If you find that you haven't been able to have your questions answered today, please reach out again to our Continuous Improvement team or the information and enquiries line and we'll be really happy to answer any questions that you may have.

So looking through, there's a couple of questions that I will come back to and have a chat through that hopefully help everyone.

But obviously we've still got people in the Q&A if you would like to put any other questions in that you have.

So someone has asked what will happen when we have notice for assessment and rating.

So as we know all services in NSW have five day reduced notice period assessment and rating now, apart from our ACCO services which is a different question.

But five days prior to an assessment and rating visit and the officer will call the service to notify you t of your scheduled assessment and rating visit date.

So during that phone call they will talk to you about the visit.

Alison talked about that a little bit today. And then a confirmation of the date, the time of the visit and summary of the discussion that you've had will be sent to you via an email.

You as the service then will have two days to submit your self-assessment information or quality improvement plan and indicate through that which area you would like to have assessed in preparation for the visit.

How will we know if it's a full or a partial assessment and rating?

It's a really great question.

So when you're talking with the authorised officer during that five day phone call, they will inform you and let you know whether you are having a full or a partial assessment and rating.

So we, we do continue to use full assessment and rating for all services that are not yet rated or potentially if you've transferred providers since your last assessment rating visit or changed or added additional service types to your service approval.

Full assessments are also considered using a risk-based approach considering when the service last had the A&R and also obviously at the discretion of the Regulatory Authority.

Do these changes impact Family Day Care services?

Well, Family Day Care services will move to the same five day business notice period

in line with other service types and so you may receive a partial reassessment. On the initial phone call if family daycare services will be told how many quality areas that you'll be having for your assessment and rating as happens with other services with partial assessments.

The family daycare service pre visit teams call will then occur two to four days prior to the visit and services will be informed which educators will be assessed the day before the visit again through phone call.

OK, how does the department decide who is scheduled for assessment and rating and when?

Great question and layered question.

There are multiple considerations obviously when it comes to deciding and making schedules for assessment rating visits, including taking a risk-based approach.

Since 2012, our early childhood services have been subject to an assessment and rating process as we know, which results in a service being given an overall quality rating assessed against each of the National Quality Standards.

So you can find further information answering these questions on our website and we may be able to put that link in the chat if possible, to take you straight to the assessment and rating process part page on that website.

We also do have a NSW scheduling policy and we'll share that link with you also now through the chat function.

OK, so thank you for joining us today.

We're going to share another, another QR code for you to request that you share feedback with us.

We really hope that you walk away today feeling confident about what you can expect at your next assessment and rating visit.

I know that we've asked for a couple of different forms of feedback today, but we'd really love it if you could just take a few more minutes to scan the QR code on your screen and share some feedback with us on this session so that we can shape our future sessions and presentations around the things that you need and are wondering about.

So please take out your phone the details are on there if you would like to enter through your computer

if you're on a desktop, open up that survey and please share with us your thoughts about this session so that we can, as I said, use them to shape our future presentations to you.

Thank you so much for your time today.

We know that it's precious. And the fact that you've taken it to sit through our session with us, we don't take for granted. So thank you very much.

We hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

And as I said, please take a few moments now to fill in that survey for us.

That would be wonderful. Thank you so much.

[End of transcript]

Yaama Maliyaa

Welcome, everybody.

Yaama.

Just giving it a few more moments before we start.

I see numbers are increasing as I'm speaking.

All right, I might kick things off.

Yaama Maliyaa.

Hello friends in Gomeroi the language of my people.

My name is Stacy and I'm a proud Gomeroi woman.

My family are Duncans and Smiths from Moree, Northwest NSW.

I'm currently coming from you from the beautiful, Darkunjung country.

I am also the manager of the Cultural Safety Team within the NSW ECE Regulatory Authority and the Cultural Safety Team are responsible for the development and the implementation of the first ever Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework for the early childhood education and care sector.

The aim of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and the Early Adopter Experience ECE Connect session is to give you a taste of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework resources so that early childhood education and care staff interested in improving their practise and building their knowledge and understanding can see what's involved with this resource.

Today you'll also hear from three services that participated as early adopters of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

They will discuss their experiences and the benefits of implementation of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

They will also talk to you about how they implemented the framework to their particular service needs and their service type and size, and what practises have continued as a result.

Lastly, you'll find out more about what to expect and how to register for the next round of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

Titled the Momentum Builders.

The Cultural Safety team are aiming for 1000 services to enrol into the Momentum Builders Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework programme.

Now, just some quick housekeeping before we begin.

This is a recorded session and can be accessed a week after the event.

A transcript will be added to the recording and then made publicly available on the website.

The question and answer function is available, so please feel free and comfortable to ask any questions.

The Cultural, the Cultural Safety Team and myself will try to answer all these questions.

However, if we are unable to answer any of the questions during this session, you can always reach out to us on the Cultural Safety Team email.

I'm now going to hand to Ron who will acknowledge country for us today.

Thanks, Ron.

Thanks, Stacy.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Ron Timbery.

I'm an Aboriginal man from the La Perouse Aboriginal community in southern Sydney.

Our traditional name is the Bidjigal Clan.

On behalf of everyone joining today, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands where we all work and live, and to pay our respects to Elders past and present.

I'm joining the meeting from the suburb of Botany in southern Sydney and these lands are recognised as the homelands of the Bidjigul people of the Sydney Coast.

The Cultural Safety Team in the NSW Regulatory Authority, the RA, will be presenting this session to you.

I'm a Senior Policy Officer in the team and I've been with the team since June 2022.

I've worked in the public service for most of my working career but I've also worked in the community not for profit sector.

Tony Ross, one of our team's policy officers, unfortunately couldn't be with us today.

Tony is a proud Gamilaraay woman who is deeply connected to country, culture and community in Tamworth, NSW.

Tony joined the Cultural Safety Team nearly two years ago as she saw the importance of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and wanted the opportunity to be part of work that could transform educational outcomes for Aboriginal children in their early years of learning.

Now I'm going to hand over to Jazz for further introductions.

Thank you, Thank you Ron Yaama everyone.

My name is Jasmine Weldon and I joined the Cultural Safety Team in 2024 as a Senior Policy Officer.

I am a proud Gomeroi woman from Boggabilla, which is located on the Queensland, NSW border.

It has been a great honour to contribute to this groundbreaking work across the ECEC sector in NSW and particularly for my people, and I'll hand over to Nick now to introduce himself.

Hi everyone, my name is Nick Birrell I am a proud Aboriginal ally and have been involved with the Cultural Safety Team since the start of 2024.

I saw this as a chance to make a resonating positive change to the existing educational landscape in my home state, surrounded by a great team as well as a selfless and passionate early childhood sector.

I'll pass it back to Stacy to give some information about the framework.

Thanks Nick.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework was a key deliverable of a Co design process which was informed by a consultation outcomes report.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework was designed and delivered by Aboriginal people and allies with expertise and lived experience and it was informed by a culturally appropriate and accepted methodology.

This phased approach of the creation of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework has previously been shared with the sector and detailed information on the development can be found on our website.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework consists of Archie's story and five core needs and is written from the perspective of Aboriginal children.

This is intentional and it's a key feature of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and the key resources in the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

Archie's story is one of many stories that illustrate Aboriginal children accessing and participating in early childhood education and care in NSW.

And if you lean in and you listen to our jarjums stories, you will hear that Aboriginal children are diverse with hopes, dreams, aspirations and they look forward to their education and care journeys with excitement.

The research tells us access to and participation in high quality early childhood education care sets up Aboriginal children for the rest of their lives.

I'd also just like to take a moment now to give a big thank you to Tammy Anderson, who is a Biripi woman and a principal out of Briar Rd Public School for sharing her knowledge, her wisdom and her family.

Tammy shares Archie, her son, with the ECE sector.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework elevates the voices of Aboriginal children and defines 5 core needs to ensure cultural safety for Aboriginal children and their families who are participating in early childhood education and care.

Additionally, these 5 core needs support all children, learn about, value and celebrate Aboriginal peoples, our cultures and our histories.

The five core needs written from the perspective of Archie and Aboriginal children are my language, community and country are known, honoured and cared for.

Building trust and culturally safe relationships is important to me and my family.

My culture is seen, heard and valued.

Your values reflect my people's way of knowing, doing and being, and your policies are designed with my people.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework is a 10 week programme and begins with the implementation of the Starter Kit.

The starter kit unpacks each of the five core needs using a Core Need Animation, a cultural chronicle booklet.

This is essentially teaching notes that complement the animation and creates deep discussion about key concepts and a poster that reinforces the learning.

I'm now going to share with you a taster of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework resources so that our early childhood education and care staff interested in proving their practise and building their knowledge of culturally responsive practise and Aboriginal people's histories and cultures can actually see what's involved with the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

So you'll begin the week being exposed to one of those core needs written from the perspective of Aboriginal children.

Core need One is my language, community and country are known, honoured and cared for.

Then you're exposed to the shared definition to support your understanding of that core need.

And the shared definition is I need you to value and commit to building relationships with me, my family and my community.

Strong relationships and continual connections to country and community are at the heart of who I am as an Aboriginal.

Jarjum, it is important that you acknowledge and value the contributions of my people, past and present in my learning, including preserving and sharing languages.

So the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Frame will outline Aboriginal children's and families and communities expectations.

Again a primary feature of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and this is explicit in the This is what I Need column.

Individuals and teams will unpack, discuss and reflect on This is What I Need column.

For example, on your screen point 4 of the This is What I Need column states.

My educator recognises Country and Elders as my library.

So this is an expectation directly from Aboriginal children and families and communities.

We want to see this in all early childhood education and care services.

So what does this mean?

Who can support the understanding?

How does that look in your service and how can this be delivered in your service?

So if you're watching and viewing this right now and you're thinking about point 4.

My educator recognises country and elders as my library and you're reflecting on those questions.

What's that mean?

Who can support my understanding of this expectation?

How does this look in my service and how can this be delivered at my service?

Then this is the programme for you.

Next slide.

So after you've read the core Need, you've read the shared definition, and you've really looked at the This is what I need columns, individuals and teams are then asked to watch an animation.

I'll get you to play now, please.

So after the animation, individuals and teams discuss the Cultural Chronicle.

These are the teaching notes that support this animation.

This animation highlights the following key themes and are unpacked and explored in the teaching notes.

So Animation One supports building strong relationships with local communities, celebrating culture, language, and country in safe and respectful ways, and inviting local mob to share their perspective, knowledge and values.

Next slide, please.

So we have a Kahoot, which has been created to reinforce the animation and the teaching notes.

And we're going to hopefully learn through play today.

So I'm going to ask everybody to please scan the QR code.

And once you've scanned the QR code you will get a pin, which I'm hopeful the comms team can support me with and then we can enter the game.

If you're having any problems accessing the QR code, you can go to Kahoot www.kahoot and we can enter that way.

There we go, there's the pin 849684.

So www.kahoot it.

If you weren't able to use the QR code, the PIN, please type in 849684 and then join.

And the very first question up, Oh no, people are still joining because I can see numbers coming up.

So Kahoot site PIN 849684 and numbers are still going up.

So I will pause a little moment and that first question, can you identify tokenistic practise in the animation?

Oh, I see.

We're still going up.

We're still going up in numbers.

Can you identify tokenistic practise in the animation?

OK, Your options are is the tokenistic practise, embedding localised Aboriginal perspectives in the programme, working with Aboriginal families to integrate Aboriginal culture and learning, displaying Aboriginal artifacts without understanding or sharing their stories, Children painting the Aboriginal flag while listening to the didgeridoo.

OK, we have 80 answers.

Oh, 100,12.

Excellent.

Yes.

In the animation, Neil is tokenistic in his attempt to celebrate NAIDOC week.

Neil's display table, with an assortment of Aboriginal actions and objects, falls and fails to engage children to start conversations about Aboriginal people's histories and cultures.

Without context, engagement and knowledge, these objects and items are meaningless and tokenistic.

And we had 100 people get that one correct.

Well done, everybody.

All right, let's go to the second question.

What is NAIDOC Week?

OK.

Is NAIDOC Week a week to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, a government holiday unrelated to Aboriginal communities, a sporting event for Aboriginal athletes only, or a time when only Aboriginal people celebrate their culture?

There are 25 seconds left.

What is NAIDOC week?

Oh, we've got 117 people, 19 people who have popped their answering.

Let's see if we get 100% again.

You've got to get your answer in.

Wow, there we go, 118 people.

Got that correct?

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July each year, Sunday to Sunday, and we celebrate and recognise the histories, the cultures and the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest continuous living culture on Earth, and you can support within your local Aboriginal community to celebrate NAIDOC activities.

Next question please How was NAIDOC Week celebrated?

In the animation, a display was created using Aboriginal items.

The service invited a local elder to share cultural knowledge.

Children participated in storytelling about Aboriginal history.

The staff ignored the occasion and carried on as usual.

If you answered the red triangle you would be correct.

Neil decided to celebrate NAIDOC Week by arranging a variety of artifacts items on an exhibit at the entrance at Gumnut Giggles.

And although Neil's display reflects an effort to honour Aboriginal culture, it falls short of actively involving the early learning service in the true essence and value and appreciations and celebration of NAIDOC Week.

So well done to our 104.

Who guessed how NAIDOC Week was being celebrated in the animation?

Next question please?

So what did Tahlia think of the display?

She thought it was beautiful and deeply meaningful.

She felt it was tokenistic and could be a lot better.

She believed it was the best way to celebrate NAIDOC week.

Or she didn't really care about it.

She didn't comment on it.

Which one in the animation tells us how Tahlia thought about the display?

If you answered Blue Diamond you would be correct.

Tahlia recognises that culturally unsafe practises are happening and exhibits courage by initiating a really difficult but unnecessary conversation with Neil about the display.

Next question please.

What suggestion did Tahlia make to improve the display?

She only wants educators to use printed materials from the Internet without any localised input.

She wants to remove the display and not celebrate NAIDOC week.

She wants to add more generic Aboriginal symbols and items and artifacts and make it more visually appealing.

Or does she want to involve Aboriginal community members and make NAIDOC Week celebrations more culturally safe?

If you answered Green, you would be correct.

Tahlia offers to assist Neil and Gumnuts Giggle at the Early Learning Service to establish more meaningful connections with the local community.

And the last question and everyone's doing very, very well.

Good job.

What mistake did Neil make about the children and the families who were attending the Gumnut Giggles Early Learning Centre?

He made sure to include families in cultural discussions.

He actively engaged with Aboriginal families.

He assumed there were no Aboriginal children attending his service or he identified correctly Aboriginal children and families.

And if you answered circle yellow you are correct.

Neil assumed there were no Aboriginal children and families accessing his early learning service.

Neil and the staff at Gumnut Giggles now have an opportunity to really identify and nurture and value Aboriginal children and families who attend the service.

And that'd be the point that what I would like to make about this activity we've just completed.

Yes, we've completed 6 questions in terms of the Kahoot, but the animation, you just saw it.

There's a number of key messages and the teaching notes that support it.

Unpack tokenism, how we can move the display table and have deep and rich meaningful conversations to improve the knowledges of Aboriginal peoples and histories.

We talk about celebrating not just NAIDOC Week but other days of the week and culture every day in your teaching and learning programme and then this point about identification of your Aboriginal children, how you might use transition to be able to do that and support you.

So I hope you have enjoyed seeing the animation and playing a game.

In terms of the teaching notes that support the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework, that was just a small taster in a large number of resources that are easily and free and easily accessible and free to anybody that would like to participate in the next round of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

I will now hand to my fellow team members, Nick.

Thank you, Stacy.

I believe we're going to pull up a slide relating to our early adopters programme and have a chat about the impacts of that.

Hopefully that comes up in one second.

OK, so the early adopters programme, the early adopters programme as you can see was completed in March 2025 and and it began about halfway through 20-2024.

So this slide showcases some answers to some frequently asked questions that were asked as part of the roll out of the Early Adopter programme.

So The Cultural Safety team successfully completed the first phase of the Early Adopter programme roll out with 518 ECEC services across NSW participating in the 10 week programme.

The The programme was designed to support ECEC services in embedding cultural safety.

The Early Adopters Programme provided guidance, resources and practical strategies to help services create culturally safe environments for Aboriginal children, families and communities.

And while there was an expectation of commitment in engaging with the resources and the framework, there was also the offering of optional community of practise sessions, which provided a great platform for services to connect, share and support others on their cultural safety journeys.

If we could go to the next slide.

Thank you.

So we talk a lot about the resources you've you've seen Stacy show them off.

So the following resources have been developed to support implementation of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

So we've got the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework starter kit.

So the Starter Kit unpacks each core need by presenting simple scenarios like the one you saw in the animation, that are applicable to a range of services.

This allows staff within a service to begin or continue to develop the concepts and thought processes that create culturally safe environments.

The resources promote cultural understanding, respect and safety for Aboriginal children, families and communities accessing ECEC settings.

So the Starter Kit, what does it include?

The starter kit includes 5 core need animations which you saw before, about 3 minutes per animation on average.

And five core needs posters, which are a kind of commitment to, to put up, into a service and show that they are ready to take their cultural safety journey seriously.

And we also recognise that, you know, each service's cultural safety journey is a unique one

So we really encourage them to decide how and when to use the starter kit for their service.

I'll just throw it to Jazz.

Thanks Nick.

So the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework also includes the Quality Practise Pack, the QPP and this is also a five week programme that coincides with the starter kit.

However, the Quality Practise pack showcases real best practise films and it also utilises deep listening and yarning as an Aboriginal learning style to build further knowledge and understanding of the core needs.

So this this pack provides real world examples of what cultural safety is from best practise services around NSW.

So you probably asking what does the Quality Practise Pack include?

So the Quality Practise Pack includes 5 core need videos which unpack the five core needs that Stacy outlined earlier.

Each video goes for about 5 minutes.

We also have 5 Deadly Dialogue which are podcasts, and these go for about 10 minutes.

And then along with that, as a complementary, we have 5 cultural journals that also unpack the five core needs, featuring a choice of three guided yarding sessions per core need each week that work through how to best implement Aboriginal cultural safety in your service.

I'll go to the next slide, please.

OK, so right.

Oh, sorry, Nick, is that you?

Yeah, it's I'll, I'll kick things off.

So now we have something really special.

We have been lucky enough to have some of our early adopter champions come join us for this session today.

Each of the Champions have completed the early adopters programmes for the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and in doing so they committed to both of the two by five week programmes, firstly the starter kit and then followed by the quality practise pack.

They also participated robustly in the community of practise sessions with the Cultural Safety Team.

Each one of them demonstrated their openness and willingness to make their ECEC settings more culturally safe.

They are all at different stages of their cultural safety journeys.

And are here today to share their experiences with you?

So let's have them introduce themselves for the audience before we kick things off.

So if I could just throw it to Jacqui to introduce yourself.

Oh, we can hear you, Jackie.

You can hear me but you can't see me.

We can hear you.

We can't see you at the moment though, OK, My name's Jacqui Bail.

I'm the Bush Kindy and cultural leader at Bradbury Preschool located in Bradbury which is on Dharawul country.

We're a not for profit community based set service.

We cater for 120 children across the week, ageing from three to five years.

I've been working at Bradbury Preschool for 14 years with four of those being as the role of cultural and Bush Kindy Leader.

And I'll hand you over to Kerry.

Mic's on.

Thank you, Jacque.

You can hear me, Nick.

Yep, Yep.

Great.

OK Jingiwala to everyone and my name is Kerry Chadburn.

I'm the community liaison office of the Northern Rivers Children's Services Family Day care.

So our office head office is situated in Lismore and I'm based at Tweed, our Tweed Heads office which is on beautiful Bundjalung land.

So Northern Rivers Children's Services is a proud community based, not for profit organisation that believes in the value and inclusion of each child and their family.

So our services include family daycare, OSHC services, we've got Nimbin, an early learning service, Gingerbread house, Ready Set Go team and an in home care service.

So my role as the community liaison officer is to support educators in providing high quality childcare for their children in family daycare settings and to support families to access these services.

So thank you.

And I'm going to hand over to Carolyne.

My name is Carolyne Hutchinson.

I'm an assistant principal and preschool teacher at Briar Rd Public School Preschool, so we're located in Airds Campbelltown on Dharawal land.

We're a transition to school preschool programme, so for children who are attending our preschool come the year before kindergarten.

So we're a one room preschool, but we have two classes of 20 children over the week, so 40 children over the whole week and they attend the same attendance pattern each week.

I was born, raised and live on Dharawal country and have been teaching early childhood for over 30 years in Dharawal land.

I've been at Briar Road now for 12 years and I just love the ongoing learning journey that I, I have at Briar Road and working with children every day.

Thanks, Carolyne

Sorry, I'm going to hand it on to Jazz.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks for sharing and introducing yourself.

So we're going to jump into some questions.

So the next few minutes are actually going to be like an on the couch session.

So my first question is what were you expecting when you enrolled to be an early adopter of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework?

And I might ask Carolyne to answer that one, if that's all right.

So for us, we're really open to whatever the cultural learning journey from the early adoptive programme took us on.

We're at a school who and a preschool who are quite heavily involved in Aboriginal cultural safety framework.

So for us it was where we're all going to start.

And our preschool team is very passionate about ensuring we have a really deep understanding of the unique cultural needs of each of our children and families.

We wanted to learn more about providing a culturally safe learning journey for our Aboriginal children, families and the community.

And we just felt that being part of the Early Adopter programme would broaden our knowledge of Aboriginal cultural safety in the framework.

Thanks Carolyne.

Kerrie Lee, I'd like you to answer.

Lovely.

Thank you, Carolyne.

Yes, I'm very much like as what Carolyne said that we wanted to gain knowledge and understanding of what the Early Adopter programme was all about and how we could implement it in a Family Day care service.

So we wanted to learn more about implementing a culturally safe journey for our educators and families and to engage more deeply within our local community during this process.

Thank you, Jasmine.

Thanks, Kerry, Lee and Jacqui.

You still can't see me, can you?

No, but that's OK.

That's OK.

We'll forge ahead.

Yeah, we were just really curious about the programme and what it was going to involve.

So we wanted to, yeah, jump on board and we're hoping to gain a deeper understanding of cultural safety and how that looks in the ECE services.

And we're also hoping to connect with like minded and passionate early childhood educators and services.

Thank you and I might just hand to Nick.

Thanks, Jazz.

Next question we have for the services, could you please share how you implemented the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework Early adopters programme in your service?

And we'll kick things off with Jacqui for that one.

Thanks again, Nick.

So we needed to have the flexibility to tailor the programme to meet our needs because we only meet as a whole service once a term.

So first up, there's a bit of a challenge how we're going to work that out.

But, you know, using the reflective tools and the guided yarns in the, in the programme, we were able to at our room meetings, deep dive and reflect, you know, as small groups and then come together for our whole whole, our whole service meetings and share our perspectives there.

So it was, it was really wonderful being able to tailor it to meet our needs.

Fantastic.

Thanks.

Thanks Jacqui.

Carolyne.

So when we received the programme, we also discussed as a team and unpacked how we actually going to be able to use this programme to suit our setting and our service.

So we found allocating time once a week, as we're quite a small team, was a doable thing for us.

So after school we would actually meet as our team and I was really fortunate our team was happy to stay back after closing and we would go through the programme.

But we also said if it was something we had a little bit more time, we would spread it out over fortnightly and more time to give us reflection and implementation.

Working through the programme though for us we also found it gave us really robust, respectful conversations and reflected reflections and allowed us just to get that deeper understanding of Aboriginal cultural safety framework.

We're also very fortunate that we were able to include our school executive team in our meetings.

So therefore for us, we're able to spread it over not just the preschool, but through the whole school and we were sharing our learning and implementations also with our Aboriginal education team in the school.

And this allowed and our families.

So this allowed us a very holistic approach to the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

Fantastic.

Thank you, Carolyne.

Kerrie.

Thanks, Nick.

So yeah, So what we started our journey by sharing the weekly cultural chronicles with all of our coordinators across the service.

So then each coordinator then was given the opportunity to watch the little videos, read the notes and then they had opportunity to document their own thoughts and notes.

And then we came together as a team.

Every Thursday we would join a regular teams meeting, but with a with a link and we use this time to share our thoughts, ideas and feedback.

So our combined learning journey was then documented into a folder with each cultural journey.

We were then able to access this information and use this to expand our cultural journey with each of our family daycare educators and this allowed us to expand and grow our knowledge and understanding of the Aboriginal cultural safety along the way.

Fantastic.

Thanks Kerrie.

And some great examples of what worked best in each of the different services in implementing the the Early adopters programme for, for, for each of their different environments.

Jazz, next question please.

Thanks, Nick.

So how did your team respond to the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and its resources?

And I might ask Carolyne to answer this one, if that's OK.

Yep.

So as a team, we're actually very much, we call ourselves paper people.

So we really like to see our thoughts written and spread out in front of us.

So we decided to actually use a scrapbook method of documenting what we were doing and unpacking our conversations.

So at our team meetings, we would actually unpack what the focused core need meant to each of us.

Then we would watch the video and after watching the little animation, we would then go on a reflection journey.

So we looked at each of the specific statements about this is what I need and this is what you should do.

But we actually then discussed that about what we actually did and how the practises in our preschool currently did or you know, did or didn't meet these needs and what we could do.

And we use a good old highlighter system to indicate what points we really wanted to continue to strengthen and things we wanted to learn more about.

It also helped us in a smarter approach and a more time effective approach because we were trying to do it in a short time frame.

And when we explore the key themes, we use the same approach of unpacking each point and putting it in our scrapbook.

We also we had when we had completed the Cultural Chronicles, we also developed an action plan from these.

So we went back to our highlighted points and because we'd already had them highlighted, it was quite easy and created an action plan of where we move to next.

We moved on to cultural journals and we just continue with that same process of robust conversations, unpacking core needs and doing it in our book.

For us, one of the little things we really liked in it was the sight sentence, sound icons, which is part of it, which made that our cultural pulse check in really relatable and friendly to everyone.

In our context, we love the guarding, the guided yarning sessions and deadly dialogues and they just encouraged our team to we haven't approached our school called speaking truth over comfort and and also allowed us to strengthen areas that we just thought we could do more in and then displaying and engaging families in this whole process has just enabled it to be a whole school and preschool community approach to understanding Aboriginal cultural safety.

Thanks Carolyne.

Fantastic answer there.

I might just hand to Nick.

Thanks Jazz.

One thing we love to hear about this work.

The next question, what were the benefits of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework early adopter programme for you and your service?

So we'll kick things off with Kerrie, please.

Great.

Thanks, Nick.

Well, there were many benefits.

So we used our regular coordinated meetings to set aside a safe space to have these discussions about our journey through the Early adopters programme.

So this was a space that everyone's ideas, opinions and thoughts will listen to.

The space was really useful in gaining knowledge about where each of us were in our own journey with Aboriginal cultural practises and how we could improve and deepen our own understanding.

So it also allowed us time.

It also allowed us to highlight where we were doing really well and how far we were progressing with our own journey.

It gave opportunity for everyone to share their own experiences and acknowledge with the team.

I found these meetings inspiring to seek further information from our local Aboriginal community members.

Fantastic, Thanks Kerrie, Jacqui.

Thanks Nick.

The framework enabled us to pinpoint areas where there was room for improvement in terms of cultural safety.

For us, that included deep diving into our policies and procedures and implementing cultural changes to our environment.

We also implemented an employment strategy to reach local Aboriginal educators when advertising employment opportunities at our service.

Awesome.

Thank you, Jacqui and Carolyne.

Yeah, as a team we all felt that we all improved in different ways and it also improved our understanding of Aboriginal cultural safety.

But for us, we looked at it also as a way of how can this be sustainable.

So we looked at how we ensure that what we're learning or what we're doing continues long after finishing the early adopter programme.

So we want it to be a sustainable practise.

We've also continued, and for us it was big about continuing our expansion community networks and those relationships and just deepening our knowledge on specific points in there that as a team we thought we could learn more about.

In particularly, we all wanted to learn more about the principles of Indigenous data sovereignty, which was something we knew very little.

So all of those things we found our strengths, but we also found that this journey has allowed us just to continue learning and continue to be improving.

Thanks, Carolyne.

And that and the great thing about it is that a lot of these benefits were often shared and discussed in great detail amongst the services in our community of practise sessions.

So that even that allowed even greater reflection on these benefits.

Jazz, next question please.

Yeah, thanks, Nick.

Absolutely.

Some really, really positive points there that the ladies were able to point out and share the benefits of, you know, completing the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

So my next question is, did you find any opportunities to connect with other services regarding cultural safety?

And I might ask Jacqui to answer this one if that's OK.

Thanks, Jazz.

Yeah, through the the framework we were and the Zoom meetings, we were able to establish connections locally and further afield with a number of services, one of those being Carolyne from Briar Rd.

We've been able to connect with services, to collaborate and share ideas and I've even had some members visit our service and attend our RAP meetings.

As Nick touched on the the weekly Zoom meetings were invaluable with so many members willing to share their experiences.

This in turn inspired many of us to implement cultural initiatives with our within our own service.

Fantastic, Thanks Jacqui.

And like Jacqui said, you know, the community of practise sessions there, that's what they are there for, to connect with other services and to share your experiences and your cultural journey and I'll hand to Nick.

Thanks Jazz.

So we'd like to know what have you implemented post the early adopter programme, which is now just something as a usual practise within your service.

So Carolyne, can you kick things off?

Yeah, so we're continuing our journey of strengthening place based learning and learning on country.

So that's through professional learning, networking and working really deeply and closely with local knowledge holders.

We've also have developed processes now as to how we're going to review our policies and some mandatory inclusions that are in all our staff meeting agendas.

And this was for us around that ongoing sustainability of Aboriginal cultural safety throughout a preschool community.

Many aspects of the early adopter programme we already had embedded into our daily practise.

However, since up taking the programme, we've just continued to change and improve those practises for that long going sustainability of ensuring that it's it's embedded everywhere.

That's fantastic to hear.

Thanks Carolyne.

Kerrie Lee Thank you, Nikki.

So one of the ways we have done this is we've really looked at our acknowledgement, acknowledgement of Country and explored ways to individualise this by seeking guidance and information from local Aboriginal community.

So we've looked at some of the Aboriginal practises that are still happening in our community today.

This we've used the seasonal calendar and local totems and we've incorporated these into our acknowledgement and we've actually been able to gather this information from, you know, our local elders, which has really personalised it.

And it's really become a bit of a platform for learning as well.

So that's been something that I've been felt really inspired by everyone then is, you know, sharing and, and seeking information where they can.

So thank you to hear Kerrie, Jacqui.

Thanks Nick.

For us, it was the programme kind of gave us the push to get all of those little ideas that we've had, you know, sitting in the back of our minds or, you know, that get bored up that we never quite pushed over the line and actually implemented.

So one of those was to signpost finally our Bush Tucker plants that we have growing in, in our environment.

We had the children write up the signage on little timber plaques and we placed them around along with our plants.

And we've linked those then to a recipe book that the children have helped to create.

And you know, we now access that with cooking with the children.

Another was to consult with the Gujaga Language Foundation who worked with us to name each of our rooms in language.

And just recently, thanks to this, the discussions and inspiration that was brought about through the programming, sorry, through the programme, when we were advertising for a recent role available at our preschool, we reached out to the local AECG and they were able to share our ad with their community members.

So that was, you know, a really positive step forward.

Again, great to hear Jacqui.

And you know, these amazing stories, hearing them of all the things that were implemented in the service practises throughout the progression of the early adopters programme, you know, really inspired not only the cultural safety team in our practises, but other services as well.

So Jazz, could you ask the next question please?

Yep.

So what would you tell other services who are thinking of being part of Round 3 Momentum Builders of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework?

And I might just ask Jacqui to kick that off.

I think it's really important to know that no matter where you are on your cultural journey, whether you're just starting out or whether you've been, like us, implementing Aboriginal culture and perspectives for many years, there's still so much you can learn and gain from participating in this programme.

So my advice is get on it.

Thanks, Jackie.

Carolyne.

Yeah, I would just say enrol now, be part of the programme because you just won't be disappointed.

The programme written in a way that suits all early learning services and it doesn't matter what stage of that cultural journey you're on, Aboriginal cultural journey, your whole team can always learn more and everybody, both children, families and community will highly benefit from being a part of this programme.

Thanks, Carolyne and Kerrie Lee.

Yes, thank you.

I agree with both ladies but yes please take the time to invest in this programme.

You'll gain so much knowledge and support from the ACSF team along the way.

The weekly online catch up sessions with Tony and Nick were a real highlight for me and we had many great yarns and I was able to take a lot of this back to our team and chair.

So the the ACSF team really highlighted for me how to create our cultural safe learning environment within your team so that these discussions were really authentic.

Yeah, that's something that, you know, was really highlighted for me.

So yeah, get on it, do it.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So just as we wrap up the On the Couch session, I'd just like to say a big thank you to Jacqui, Kerrie Lee and Carolyne for joining us today and sharing.

We want to remind everyone that each services cultural safety journey is unique and here is a list of common messages reinforced during the programme.

Take time to learn and build your own understanding.

Teach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives.

If you make a mistake, learn from it and share your learning with others.

Include Aboriginal children, their families and community in conversations and plans for incorporating Aboriginal and cultural Torres Strait Islander perspectives in educational programmes.

Act locally.

Get to know the Aboriginal people in your community because Aboriginal cultural safety it is a benefit to all children.

So thanks ladies for being able to share with us today and I'll go to the next slide.

Thanks and hand to Ron.

Yeah.

And that brings me up and only a couple of minutes to go.

Look, isn't it great to hear from Jacqui, Kerrie and Carolyne about their experiences?

What better source to learn about a programme than learning from people who've been and experienced the programme?

So they all had positive things to say and they all encouraged everyone to be part of this ground breaking programme.

So thanks to them for giving us their time, sharing their experiences and for being strong advocates for the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

The good news, there was more opportunities coming up to participate.

The next opportunity is called Momentum Builders.

The Early adopter programme saw over 500 ECEC services participate in the programme and now we're aiming for 1000 services.

So please, please look up the information and and apply to participate in the Momentum Builders programme.

You'll get access to free resources to help build cultural safety in your service and have the opportunity to get direct support from the RA's Cultural Safety team.

The link will be included in the chat and as will the link to the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework web page.

The QR code is on the screen now to access that information, so please take this opportunity now.

One minute left, so please take your phone, take that snapshot of the scan code.

And yeah, if you have any questions, you can reach out to the cultural safety team using the shared mailbox.

That's going to be in the chat as well.

And that is cultural safety.ecec@det.nsw.edu.au

And, and the next slide we have a another scan code, I believe.

And if you could take a minute or two to answer, it's a survey.

If you could take a minute or two to answer the questions about this, this session, ACEC Connect session, how you experienced it and you know what you thought of it, please provide that feedback.

Sorry, we didn't have any time for questions.

That's all for now.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for participating and joining the session.

And we look forward to more sessions about Aboriginal cultural safety in the future.

Thank you.

[End of transcript]

Welcome everyone to our third Mental Health and Wellbeing series webinar session within the ECE Connect series.

Today we'll be talking about mentoring and how it can improve ECEC professionals’ wellbeing.

Just calling out, we're not going to be covering specific mental health topics.

Our focus for today is specifically on mentoring in the context of how it can improve staff wellbeing and create connection for people.

These particular sessions’ focus is not about mental health and wellbeing for children and families, but more specifically around the early childhood workforce, early childhood professionals.

So as we get started, I just wanted to do a bit of an acknowledgement of country.

So today I'm joining from Dharug land, the land of the Burramattagal people.

So I wanted to acknowledge the Elders, past and present on the lands that I'm on, the land that I'm coming to you from, and I'd really like to, in my acknowledgement of Aboriginal heritage and history and custodianship, reflect on the topic of mentoring.

In that context, I look to my learnings that I've undertaken so far personally and professionally about Aboriginal ways of living, being and doing, where from family, community, land, sea and culture and identity are integral as part of health and wellbeing And connection to all these things are so fundamental to Aboriginal ways of life.

And I think there's such a rich opportunity to learn and build our understanding from that perspective and that lens.

So I just really value and appreciate the sharing and generosity of Aboriginal communities and what they offer around sharing their culture and what we can learn from that. Cool.

So for those who haven't joined an ECE Connect session before, if this is your first time or if it's your third time on this specific series about mental health and wellbeing for the workforce, I just wanted to run through some quick housekeeping.

I'm not don't want to spend time on too much time on it because I really want to spend time on the topic.

But just to clear out that the microphone, video and chat functions are disabled during the webinar, but the Q&A function as distinct to the chat function will be available if you have any questions throughout the session.

So what will happen is you can start throwing in questions from right now and all the way through in the background.

My colleagues will be working on answering some of those questions within the Q&A function.

But we'll also be storing up some really juicy questions to ask our in conversation panel style members later on and I'll introduce them shortly.

The session is going to be recorded.

So if you have any colleagues who haven't been able to make it today or if you want to share it with colleagues who aren't aware of this session after the fact, the recording link will be uploaded to the website and then you'll be emailed a link after the session, I believe.

And so yeah, that'll be shareable and rewatchable as well.

If you require closed captions, if you navigate, if you're looking at the same version of Teams as me to the more triple dots at the top and go to the language and speech options.

You can select closed captions for yourself with the version that we upload later to the live to the website.

Sorry, you it will already have like a transcript attached to it.

So you'll be able to use that as well afterwards.

Awesome.

So just now I'm moving into the session outline.

I just wanted to run through what we're going to be doing today.

So as I mentioned earlier, this is the third session in the series.

And what we kind of did was start really broad and now we're getting a little bit more specific as we go.

The first webinar was Mentally Healthy Workplaces and the next webinar was on building Networks Of Support based on sector feedback and also research evidence.

We feel that mentoring is one of the most impactful ways for the early childhood workforce in particular to build networks of support in in the service style setting and building networks beyond just your service that you work at.

We hope you'll feel the same after this session if you're yet to be convinced or that you might have something to share, we have the Q&A function and also a mentee a mentee questionnaire session later on.

But really what we want to look at is how mentoring can create a supportive nurturing environment to both mentor and mentee.

And really importantly that this can have a flow on effect on children who benefit from improved practise and improved workforce wellbeing.

That was a bit of a tongue twister today.

What we'll do is we'll set the scene and get a shared understanding of what I'm saying when I keep repeating the word mentoring, but also what its impacts will be, can be.

Then we'll bring in an educational leader to interview him about his own personal experience as a mentee and aspirations as a mentor.

And we'll also then add to the conversation by bringing in subject matter expert Professor Andrea Nolan for a discussion about the research base for mentoring in the early childhood context.

And that's where we will bring out some of your questions.

So if you have anything that you want to ask someone who's had lived experiences like Jake and I'll introduce him further soon or Andrea, please feel free to think about that context of questions or even questions for myself.

We'll end with a Menti.

I know it says slido on the screen, but it's Menti now and where you can where we're going to ask you some questions and then we'll just I'll kind of summarise and narrate your contributions there. Cool.

So as I mentioned, this is the third session and what we will do is I'm not sure that we can put it in the chat as such, but what we will do, if possible, we'll put a link in the chat to our website where the other sessions are visible.

Otherwise, afterwards when you receive the website link, you'll also receive an info pack.

And in the info pack, there's a link to our website to access the previous two topics, webinar topics.

So today we're honing in on mentoring just so we have a shared understanding of what mentoring is we have.

We want to take you through some of the evidence and research agreed language that we use.

And what we've got on the screen is how it differs from communities of practise, which is a group setting facilitated by someone with a specific expertise.

It also differs from peer to peer support because usually a mentor is not at the same stage of career as a mentee, rather a more experienced professional.

In some circumstances though, you and your mentor may hold the same job title.

So you may both be, for example, room leaders, but potentially your mentor has about 10 or 15 years experience as a room leader and you may be in your first or second year as a room leader.

And that's the lived experience in sharing opportunity piece.

I'm just moving into the next slide and got a quote on the screen, but just to expand on this quote a little further.

Mentoring should chiefly be a collaborative model of professional learning and individualised support.

The mentor helps the mentee to grow and they collaborate together on this growth.

Both the mentor and mentee engage in a mutually beneficial relationship, build on guidance, shared learning and really importantly, trust.

The mentors also grow in their professional practise because they're actively reflecting on it with their mentee.

Mentors also experienced increased senses of professional identity as a leader, taking others under their wing.

So what we're seeing here is that as maybe traditionally viewed, the mentee is the one that stands to gain.

But in further analysis and unpacking of the situation, actually the mentors gain something here as well.

A collaborative approach ensures that the mentoring's not just about one person's growth, but also about fostering a connected and supportive professional environment.

This will this can also be seen to enhance wellbeing for both parties.

So that's why we're pretty passionate about this stuff because there's benefits for all involved.

Talk about benefits.

I'm going to move on and break that down just a little further.

Not a fan of reading words on the slide, but just to add to what you can see there, we know from our research, there are benefits across the sector, including enhanced professional growth, skill development and continuous learning.

These things lead to improved job satisfaction with reducing attrition, which is great for employers of course, but also importantly, it's for the benefit of children and communities.

It helps because it fosters collaboration, strengthens leadership and overall quality.

So what I'm about to do, I'm about to introduce Jake who can speak more about the benefits for the individual, including those that we see, that we see their professional skills, but also crucially wellbeing.

So I'm very excited to introduce Jake to the screen.

We're going to probably take down the slides for a little while and Jake and I are going to have a bit of a chat for you around his experiences.

Jake Small is currently completing a Bachelor's degree at the University of Wollongong in early childhood teaching, and he's based in the Blue Mountains.

Jake's a room leader.

Sorry, I should get that right - an educational reader leader and we're really excited to have Jake along just waiting to see that he's up on the screen and off mute and then I might dive into my first question for him.

I, I sort of, as you were trying to fix the tech, tell people a bit about your mentoring experience in terms of where you did your mentoring through, which was while studying.

But I really want to hear from you around how having a mentor helped you in your work and studies and even if you want to talk about how it affected your teaching practise and the impacts with children as well.

OK.

Regarding mentoring, I have through the, through the, my studies at university, I have had the opportunity to connect with multiple individuals regarding those in both leadership positions and aspiring to be leaders.

And through the program we also have designated leaders that are both combined through community of practise sessions which are weekly online catch ups to check on content that are studying.

And there's also through my work, we also have systems in place, including an operations manager who overseas myself and other education educational leaders within my organisation.

And they not only are supporters of ourselves, but also we worked, we worked collaboratively to build on our professional practise through the sharing of knowledge and also through educational leader meetings that happen.

There's also more opportunity to have that networking.

And that has allowed for that further collaboration to happen, establishing networks that you have within your profession itself, but also within the context of the university study.

Yeah, awesome.

And how about in the sense of how being a participant of that has affected, your work, and particularly your work in regards to the flow on effects with children.

I see it as kind of a way that goes hand in hand, like as in as professionals within the, within the context of early education, we for best practise, it's required that we have that kind of you're, you're nurturing the child.

And I think to have that nurturing of the child, you have to have the nurturing of the professionals involved.

And that can also mean through the sharing of your strengths as individuals.

An example that I can give for is how one of my passions as a outside of the profession is to do digital arts.

And through my, my university prac, the children noticed a particular that a particular function through my through the iPad to create digital arts.

And I felt as though that in turn allowed for a beautiful opportunity to learn through not only your shared expertise, but also through collaboration and supporting the child's inquiry-based learning.

And I think that feeds into how not only do you have the environment supported to allow your building of professional practise and to share those strengths, but also through careful planning allows you to build confidence and incorporate that into really vital experiences to support children's learning and development.

Well, I love that.

I feel like sometimes when we look at professional learning and professional development, it's really feels kind of distinct and separate from the application.

But the way you've tied that together is amazing.

And I think that building of confidence and trust in relationships and networks and like fostering, questioning the way things are done and innovation is really fantastic, relevant and applicable kind of insight.

I really value that comment.

Thank you, Jake.

I want to ask a little bit around challenges.

So as being a mentee and also, as you mentioned, like an informal mentor, what are some of the challenges that arise within the context of working in early childhood and trying to manage that relationship?

And whether you, whether you have any hacks or solutions or resolutions on how to kind of navigate those complexities or challenges.

I think part of it is like, like, like many people within the profession we are, you can often experience fatigue or burnouts like it or it like everyone experiences it every once in a while.

And one of the things that I do think is important to remember is for every leader, while they want, while there are.

Always wonderful opportunities for leaders to engage in that fostering and nurturing of educators.

I think sometimes some leaders may forget that they're human too and it's important that they look after themselves in regards to their own personal wellbeing.

And sometimes if things become busy, you do have to take a step back and remember to revitalise yourself as well.

A second point, though, in terms of challenges can sometimes be where like it's all about when you have a mentor, I feel it's all about ensuring that you make the time as well to have those check insurance and catch ups. Through, through my university study.

It has, I feel, I feel that in terms of the context of mentors, like, it's like, it's like everything.

You have to have that supportive environment to allow for the mentoring and the one on one conversations to happen.

And I think the challenge if you have like if you, if you don't, you have to establish the strong networks first

And establishing strong networks can sometimes take a bit of time depending on each context, because everyone's context is unique.

Yeah, No, I, I definitely think that that's one of the things we've heard in creating in the previous webinar where we were talking about creating networks of support.

I think one of the questions and the commentary that came through really strongly was around the challenges of making time to build the networks and then maybe more structured mentoring programs could be a means.

So building that network and building the confidence on how to create a network.

And I do, I do also acknowledge that.

And what I've found in my last few eight years working for and supporting the early childhood sector is that as a profession and by nature, early childhood professionals tend to be very generous in giving and focused on the child, but then not leaving much in reserve for themselves.

So I think it's great that you highlight that.

But like sometimes when you need to take the time and sit back and reset, it's worth doing because it benefits everybody.

So I really love that call out as well.

Another question I had for you was like, and I guess the simple way to say is what did you use your mentor for in the sense like what were the types of things that you leaned on your mentor for or went to them for support or to navigate?

Like what are the types of topics of things that you could use a mentor for?

Really there are a number of opportunities that come to mind apart from university study, like particularly if you are building towards, for example, the early childhood teacher qualification.

I think it's wonderful to seek out mentors who often have been in that leadership position for quite some time.

And it allows you to find figure out what practises have worked for them in the past and also how you can apply that to yourself.

And I think it's, it's very important to kind of allow that shared collaboration opportunity to learn because you get, we are always in early childhood encouraging for people to consult all stakeholders in regards to quality education and a true understanding of contexts.

And I think you also need to, when you have those connections with mentors, you have to also seek out their advice and you recognise their strengths as well.

So in a combination of mentor through university, you have access to people who have shared, who share that best practise knowledge, evidence based research with you to help feed on your practise.

And when you engage also with mentors within your own networks and your own service context, that also provides more opportunity to gain a different lens and a different insight into approaching whether it be different situations or whether you're trying to find out more about a particular topic in your studies.

I think it's important to, it's almost like a pedagogy toolbox.

You're kind of you, you're using, you're using different, you're using different practises and different sources of knowledge to gain further answers.

But also it also can provide a catalyst for further reflection.

Yeah, that's awesome.

I think.

Yeah, I think that's really great.

That's so many different angles on what you can engage with your mentor on.

I want to move on to, you know, you mentioned to me previously that you're sort of unofficially kind of mentoring or taking that more senior experienced role.

I really like the idea that and, and we can probably get this into this a little bit more with Andrea and the Q&A as well.

But like mentoring is not like always sign up for this official mentoring program.

Sometimes it's a way to express a relationship that you have with someone that's not necessarily you're not necessarily managing them, but you're establishing an informal unofficial mentoring relationship with them.

And that's something that you've mentioned to me that you're currently exploring further and, and participating in.

So what I really wanted to know as in your role as Ed Leader in that kind of unofficial role, what have you seen with those that you're maintaining in terms of their growth and development?

When I refer to unofficial mentor as educational leaders, you do always have to mentor the people you work with.

But I feel as though the unofficial mentor aspect is kind of regarding the connections you make.

And that's through university study.

I have, you have through my degree in UOW, you have communication networks that are established to allow that kind of consultation and sharing of knowledge.

And I feel that through my collaboration with my cohorts, I have allowed that kind of build up of not only sharing of that knowledge, but also words of encouragement as well.

And we always have an opportunity to build on others.

And I've had wonderful feedback from people who I had one person recently said, oh, you could be Professor Jake in the future.

And that is a huge kind of confidence.

It's a huge confidence booster.

And it is a huge privilege to have that positive impact in people's in people's lives.

And I think that not only is it wonderful to support, to support both people in my cohort and at the, at my, at the place I work, but it's also again, when you connect to all the other professionals through your network, you have to, you have to like, it's, it's great to have that opportunity to not only promote best practise, but also sharing of knowledge, while also you have to remember that critical reflection and thinking about how you are as a leader is an ever evolving process.

We often in my, in my interactions with others, particularly children, I've talked about how you never stop learning, even as they've grown up, you never stop learning.

And I think it's important to remember that there's always opportunity to build on practise and establishing those network connections and ensuring that it has that environment to be able to share with others, I think is a wonderful way to do it.

I love that.

Yeah, I do love that.

Jake, my 4 year old always says it's OK, Mommy, we all make mistakes.

And I, I love that.

I think it's so true when I make mistakes.

It's good that he sees it because we're all learning all ways.

And it's a good kind of mantra to go by when we're looking at our professional journey as well.

Thank you, Jake.

That's my list of questions for you in an interview environment, but I want to bring you over virtually into the panel setting or the in conversation setting as we're calling it.

And we're going to start looking at people's questions.

But we while we're doing that, we want to bring Andrea on the screen hopefully and then maybe a lag on tech again.

We'll see how we go with that.

Hang on, she's camera on, she's off mute.

She's on the screen.

Woo Hoo, that's awesome.

Welcome, Andrea.

Before we get stuck into some Q&A questions, I just wanted to so see Andrea, if you'd like to introduce yourself a little bit about your area of study and focus and was it expertise?

Sure, thank you and thank you Jake.

So interesting that story of yours and it really resonates with the research.

So I'm Professor Andrea Nolan, I work at Deakin University in Victoria and I have research mentoring in early childhood nationally and internationally for 10 years now.

It's just such an interesting and impactful thing, particularly for early childhood 'cause there's so many, just the settings that people work in, it can be very isolating work and mentoring is a way to make those networks and feel well supported going forward.

So that's what I'm sort of bringing to the table today.

I guess that's a fabulous intro and so many years focused on early childhood mentoring or mentoring in early childhood.

Just yeah, like you said, it demonstrates that such a rich space to be in, especially if you're an early childhood professional.

I want to do a little bit of a warm up question for both of you.

I did give you a hint about this the other day, so I'll start with Jake.

Can you pick because it's a hard one, your favourite children's book?

The first thing that comes to my mind is Who Sank The Boat.

I basically know that, know that book off by heart.

And when you break it down into different, different contexts, again, that's the mind of the educator at work.

You can see how like people will believe also it's kind of a STEM based learning book.

But when you look at it from a different viewpoint, I see, for example, different a different group of friends who are all unique in their own way and they all you can see they're kind of a hint of hobbies.

Like you can see, for example, the sheep is a knitter and you have the cow and a cow and the donkey and of course the little mouse who even though he's like even the book says he's a tiny little mouse, he's still he has a huge impact on the story.

By the end, he's the one who topples the, the, the boat over.

And I feel as though it's kind of, you could look at it in many angles, but I think it's kind of an example of how every individual, particularly in that book, can have a big impact no matter who they are and, or who they are.

And like they may not be as big as the as big as the others or like they're different, but the impact is there to see.

I love that.

Thank you, Jake and Andrea.

What would you say is your favourite children's book?

It's a hard one.

I I can't go past Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy.

I do also a lot of work in supporting teachers to support children's oral language development.

And it's just a really lovely way for children to start hearing language that and words that they may not hear in their not everyday context and also joining in.

And it's just a really fun way of engaging children in conversations as well about the book and the different characters in the book.

Yes, I think that's a fun tongue twister when you're sleep deprived and trying to deliver a bedtime story.

I love that one too.

And yeah, awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you for the sharing.

I love that.

We do already have some Q&A questions coming through, so I might throw one at you that's been sent through to me.

The first one is around for you mainly Jake, but I'd like to also hear from you, Andrea, about how this connects in with your study and research as well.

They want to hear how Jake's experience within the Community of practise setting, like how that work, Is it a forum to come together for educational leaders or like what was the setting of the Community of practise that you participated in?

The Community of Practise sessions are a weekly session conducted by Zoom meetings and the each cohort that's involved in the study with this ECT degree has a drop in session where they cover different topics each week which are usually involved with the subjects that are being studied and it allows opportunities for reflective questions and the sharing of knowledge in practise.

An example I can give is this week, while my carport and I are doing the subject around advocacy and leadership, we had a chance to explore exemplary practises in a video shared about leaders and what they do in terms of their aspects of leadership.

And then we're provided with questions to allow us to engage with each other and to share that collection of knowledge with others.

And also an opportunity to ask questions of things that people may have could be a challenge with an assessment task or even just not that sharing ideas.

And I think that provides another opportunity to feed into the knowledge that you are gaining.

But again, also other avenues to explore, like if someone shares a particular idea, you might go, oh, that sounds like a really interesting idea.

I might do a bit of research or that or try and implement that in my practise.

Awesome and thank you.

And then so that's much more within the learning setting that these communities of practise have been something, a tool you use.

Is it something Andrea, that connects in with mentoring or how would you say that communities of practise and mentoring can work in tandem?

I think it's about setting the culture.

If you've got a collaborative, vibrant culture where everyone, everyone's positioned as coming in with knowledge, but also a learner as well and learning from others, I think that can start to build a very dynamic place where you can start to really unpick, practise and have those really deep reflective conversations.

And that where there's no judgement made.

And it can be very aspirational space and also really uplifting as well to have those spaces.

So it's important in mentoring to have a space that is a trusting space as well.

So there are definitely parallels.

It depends if you are thinking about a group mentoring type situation or sort of a one to one type mentoring.

Yeah, situation.

All of those different variances would meet different kind of needs and objectives.

That's so true.

I have a really interesting question and it's not one that I like know very much about technically.

So I'm going to start with you, Andrea and Jake, if you have any exposure to this, please feel free to add.

So there's a question from Marie, it says, I'm curious about your thoughts on reciprocal mentoring and opportunities for ECE professionals and their mentor to engage within like a two-way mentoring collaboration.

Wow is that I think, I think it's fabulous.

I think a lot of my research has looked at the contemporary view of mentoring where everyone is a teacher and also a learner.

So there needs to be 4 elements that are there and one is that it needs to be respectful so that there is professional respect between the mentor and mentee.

It's reflective so that mentors actually challenge the mentee to develop their philosophy and to think, think about their teacher identity.

But in doing that, the mentor, the mentor also thinks about their own, their own practise and and they start reflecting on practise as well.

It needs to be responsive because it's not a one size fits all.

And I think this is the element that you're that's being asked about reciprocal, that it is an equal relationship.

You are all professionals in this space.

Yes, someone has more years of experience, but in the research I've done with new graduate teachers, and I've done that across Victoria and also nationally, we see that these new grads bring so much to that mentoring space as well.

And you know that they've just been exposed to perhaps new, new theories, new research.

And so they're coming into the profession with that knowledge and you've got a mentor with years of experience.

And so it's a really lovely coming together and that collaboration and reciprocity there between the two.

So it's everyone learns and everyone benefits.

And the research is very clear that it's win win for both parties in mentoring relationships.

Awesome.

Jake, would you add anything to that?

I think it's wonderful way of thinking.

And when we talk about research, I immediately think about the distributed leadership model like it's kind of feeding into that idea of having that shared opportunity to lead and learn together.

And I think the idea of but of approaching it as both leaders and learners together is a wonderful idea.

I've used an analogy with some of my cohort and other people in that anything to do with structure or leader or leadership, it's like a, it's like a table almost.

You kind of, if you want that structure to stay upright and to be strong, you have to ensure that all the the legs or support networks are working together.

And I love the idea of how, as Andrea put it, how just always having that kind of shared opportunity to learn and work together is, is a wonderful way to do it.

And I think to treat everything as kind of a learning experience and there's always room to build on things is a great way to feed into reflection and practise.

Because when you have that reflective environment, you're able to adapt to changing contexts.

It could be within team or centre itself, like it's a great way to be.

To be to be moving with the change of context and I think it's a wonderful point.

Awesome.

Thank you for adding to that.

Jake, I have a bit of a mechanics.

How can we make this happen in a busy environment type of question.

So the Kindy Kids Five Dock, there's a question in the Q&A and it says as director of an ELC, mentoring is always occurring from the minute we walk in the door.

So true.

And we reflected on that just now perfectly.

A barrier of mind is how to document evidence that is sufficient to showcase that the mentoring is happening, but not burdensome or she's written, however, not time consuming that we don't have to attend to it or I feel like adding it to the list.

I think that's a great and very practical question.

So I'm happy to hear from either of you.

Maybe Jake, you want to start and then we'll move to Andrea about your insights from that perspective.

There are different ways I fail to approaching this.

And again, it's all about the context of the centre.

But one thing that could come to mind could be having those regular meetings with, say, it could be when you have educational leaders or directors meeting together, or you have the one-on-one opportunity to catch up monthly with other educators.

You kind of use you use reflective frameworks to help you in guide that discussion.

And I've been exposed to multiple practises, including the CIGAR framework, which is around breaking down the situation by like the current situation, the current goal and it took it guides you through steps on how to achieve that through a series of questions and reflective ways of thinking.

I think it's important to to share different ways of reflecting and applying that in the context that works.

Like if you have, you will have, you will have different people who will respond well to those really in depth questions and really kind of expansive array of things to ask.

And then there'll be others who wish to be more straight, more kind of straight to the point.

And what I mean by that is you have, like you say, if you have people who are willing to say in a survey, ask 12 questions, there might be some will be more benefited to five questions.

And it's all about choosing, selecting the right questions and what works for the for the individuals as a team.

Yeah, awesome.

Thank you, Jake.

I think that adaptive aspect is really important and what's achievable and relevant as well when it comes to documentation.

Andrea, do you have any insights as well from your research around that burden of documentation?

Well, I think it's also the issue of time that comes through again and again and again and has done so since when I started researching mentoring.

And I think this is where the sector needs to really stand up and say mentoring needs to be valued and it needs to be recognised as part of the workload, not something that's tacked on at the end.

You know, as we're saying before, you know, teachers are so generous in in what they what they do, their work is complex.

So really this time needs to be carved out, it needs to be valued, recognised, this is time for this.

And so in the literature sometimes it's called protected time, which I really like that.

It really shows how important it is going forward.

I think with documentation, if you're following the principles of really strong professional development, it will be something that is situated and really relevant to the mentee or to the service.

And so it would be work that would be ongoing anyway, and it's really just trying to document that reflection.

Some people will use like an action research model.

However, when I start talking about that, eyes do close over because people think, oh, that sounds like, you know, university research.

So I flipped it and said it's a reflective practise project.

And like Jake said, you, you just can go through the process of what is the issue?

What evidence do I have about that issue?

What am I thinking about the issue?

What are ways that I could solve that issue, etcetera.

And it's all done in consultation and it sort of gives some shape, I guess to this time that the mentor and the mentee together.

But because it's very relevant to the here and now, it's work that would be happening anyway.

Thank you.

Teachers always document what they're doing and their reflections, and this is just a way of doing it.

And what it can't be is something extra because it's not going to get done.

Yeah, I love that point.

So it's like, how can you embed it with what you're within, what you're already doing and just add it as part of the existing reflective practise, which is something I thoroughly admire the capability of early childhood professionals, capacity to undertake reflective practise as well.

There are questions a little bit are coming through around the framework that you mentioned, Jake and Andrea, you mentioned.

So what we might be able to do after today is if you've got any like little framework images or documents, Jake or Andrea, maybe we can put them into our little resource that we email out to people afterwards.

So I'll just leave that as a side action for us because I think, yeah, having the structure sometimes takes some of the work out and you just then you know how to fill it out.

So I'll, I'll check in with you afterwards about that if possible.

I see a question in here and I think it's a really interesting lens.

I want to ask, It's Monique's question, can you elaborate on the role of encouragement within mentoring?

Sometimes I make great, capable, skilled educators, however, often they lack in confidence in their own abilities.

So for me, it's more around reassurance, encouragement, empowerment, those sorts of aspects.

So maybe Andrea, you want to start about what the research says around how what the role of the mentor can be in that space?

Yes, definitely, because really it's all about the mentoring relationship, right?

That really needs to be those four aspects that I talked about and good mentoring relationships.

It builds professional knowledge, it instils confidence that's really shown up time and time again in the literature, this notion of confidence.

It develops competence, ability to function independently, improves practise and it develops this collegial in in them to function independently.

However, in the work that I've done, particularly across Victoria, there's a lot of educators out there that lack that confidence in themselves.

And it's at both ends.

It's mentors as well as mentees.

When we did a call out for experienced teachers to come on board as mentors, I just thought, oh, this will be easy.

We'll have so many volunteers.

Well, we didn't because a lot of them thought, well, you know, who am I?

I'm just, I've just been doing this role for so many years and what do I have to bring?

So it's really recognising your own strengths.

And I think on the other side with mentees, it's developing that trusting relationship where your mentee can say to you, I'm really struggling with this or I really don't know how to handle this.

And then it's the mentor doing that reflective listening and feeding back so that a mentor doesn't solve all the problems of the world.

That's far too much, far too much demand on a mentor.

But it's really just perhaps giving alternatives or bringing out the understandings that are already there in the mentee who may not really, really understand that.

Yeah, they actually do know a lot and they just need that that other person who believes in them, who really wants to support them, to listen to them and say, you know, that's a fantastic idea.

So it's really trying to develop their agency going forward.

I love all of that so much.

Thank you, Andrea and Jake, would you add?

No, I'm, no, I'm so up to highlight Andrea's point like that culture again, is, is important and I have been reminded through others that cultures have to be nourished and they have to be cared for and you to establish that you have to main to maintain it.

And it is, yeah, to to have that kind of active listening mentality and also just to have like to have to know like that to have no, to have no judgement, but just to kind of promote that kind of curiosity based kind of approach.

Like when you approach others to help in mentoring them, you the way you the way you, it's like how you interact with children, you have to show positive engagement.

You have to show positive body language and, you know, genuine interest.

And I think that applies to mentors as well, I think.

Thank you so much, Andrea.

Yes.

Oh yes.

Look, I'd love to yes, sorry, you're good for it.

I'd love to just share something with mentors or people that feel they would like to mentor.

And that is, you've got to ask yourself what legacy would you like to leave behind and what would you like your mentees to say about you in the years to come?

Because I think that really starts to make you think about the impact you can have.

And this really also picks up on this continuity as well.

So to support the workforce.

And we know there's issues with the workforce shortfall, for example, and retention, etcetera, attrition.

So, you know, to start as a mentee and be really nurtured in that and understand the culture and become part of that really supportive culture where professional growth just keeps being the centre and everyone feels empowered.

And then that mentee then becomes a mentor so that it's this and like Jake's story as well, you know, starting as a mentee and then taking on board some of those qualities and then you become the mentor.

So this, those questions, I think are really important for people to think about the legacy and, and how would they like to be described, because it does make you think about what personal qualities you bring.

And they're important to think about when you're when you're thinking of being a mentor.

That's awesome.

I and I love bringing that together.

I love the legacy and the journey as well.

It's definitely something that we've heard and learned about.

And I think he's a really rich source of like continuity in this sector in Australia, in particular in NSW.

Unfortunately, we're out of times for the for any more questions today, but I think some really, really, really rich, great questions have come through.

And I really appreciate the experience and insights and, and research that you have both done and brought to this session.

I think it's been really fabulous.

I've learned some stuff that I'm going to come back and re listen to later.

And I think there's some really great questions in there about how do you kind of build community?

There's people acknowledging the importance of that legacy, wanting to know more about the framework.

We will send the email that I keep promising with a few more resources and links.

And so hopefully that can get you all on your journey.

But if you've felt like you've gained something today, I'm so happy.

And it seems like there's been some really great engagement.

So thank you.

What we're going to do is thank Jake and Andrea for like joining us.

But then also, now it's time for you to contribute and we're going to move into the mentee session.

So what you'll see on the screen is a QR code.

I'm going to follow the steps, so then I can talk you through the instructions in real time.

Basically use the QR code.

Otherwise you can go to that.

I think it's like mentee dot.

It is the website mentee.com.

Yeah, mentee.com.

And then you'll see that there's already, there's no code required if you just use the QR code, no code required.

And then you'll see our first question up on the screen.

So we'll wait a few more seconds for people to steal the QR code.

Otherwise you might be able to.

There we go.

Copy the link below.

If you look in the Q&A, there's a link there that'll take you straight to the Menti.

So if we want to take the slide down now and maybe throw up the Menti. results that are coming through, yeah, there we go.

So the first question, I think the code's mildly in the way, but that's OK.

The first question is, what do you like about the idea of mentoring?

I'm going to give you a bit of a narration.

So I think we see a lot around collaborating, sharing that it's informative and interesting, someone to share with again.

So it's that relationship.

I don't know what ZPD is, but maybe my expert will be able to help me.

A space to walk alongside someone to prompt thinking and improvement.

I love that reflection on Andrea's last comments as well.

Personal connection, shared learning, zone of proximal development.

Thanks Macaila.

That's what ZPD is.

Thank you being able to support others and uplift the profession.

And I love that comment around uplifting the profession.

It aligns with the comments around legacy and that future pace around where is the sector going in NSW and in Australia.

I think that's such a fundamental and like core pace around why we're so passionate about mentoring in particular.

It's a sharing experience and shared learning, reflective platform.

Love all of that.

Let's move to the next question only because I am very conscious of how we are going for time.

What challenges do you think mentors might have?

Time, time, time, I know it's so true.

Time constraints, time allocation confidence I think is another one that came out today, which is something that I find really interesting.

We've been looking into how we can get our mentors prepared to be mentors, and I think, yeah, the confidence piece would be something to look at further.

Recording documentation, mental health confidence, again, whether others want to be mentored.

I love that.

That's so true.

And multitasking, I mean, I say that early childhood professions are the professionals are the kings and queens of multitasking.

I absolutely admire that capability.

Cool.

We'll move to the next question.

So what are the barriers that mentees in particular might experience?

Confidence, time, burnout, space and affordability, physical space to go somewhere to have a private conversation.

It's such a real thing.

Unhappy workplaces being willing to ask for time.

And I think that's such a well phrased statement because it's like, like, I know my colleagues are already time poor and now I want to ask for time off the floor.

How is that fair?

I can definitely see how that would weigh on an early childhood professional in a setting.

Language barriers and culture differences undervalued by management, Personality differences.

Yeah, they're all very real, very relevant.

Current barriers.

Let's look at, I think the next one's around.

Barriers for mentors maybe.

I've muddled that up.

I think that's the one I did before.

Sorry.

To get involved in mentoring or being a mentee, whose support would you need to have?

Your director, management, your workplace?

You need the support to have time to reflect on practises and professional development, the whole workplace.

I like that.

Again, referring to my previous comment around your colleagues and the impact that that would have on them.

You need everyone's support really.

And that's, that's really a genuine complexity.

All stakeholders.

Yeah.

And I think it's that education piece perhaps around how do you get that support.

And you get that by demonstrating the value and the benefits and the impacts that we went through today earlier and, and really understanding and, and I think the other comments around embedding it into your professional practise would probably be a response to some of those comments as well about how do you gain support.

Oh, I think we have one more question.

There we go.

So if you can't access mentoring today currently, what alternatives would you could you use?

What are the things you're trading off?

I'm either going to do mentoring, be a mentee or something after online mentoring, after hours.

Community networks, other networks, professional development and online webinars.

Your peers, talking to a peer, networking communities of practise and networking professional platforms.

I know early child professionals are fans of a Facebook group and I think that's also a really great way to share and connect and I know that's quite popular.

Sharing information via alternate media, peers, professional platforms like Kinder Loop, looking outside your centre, your colleagues within the sector.

And I think that's a really useful space where you get that little bit of distance, but the shared experience in terms of working within the same sector, but you're sharing with someone who's a little further away and going.

Is this normal?

This is what I'm going through.

Is this the same in your place or what are the things you do differently that make that not be a problem for you?

And that shared learning and interchange can really be rich for innovation as well.

Oh, do we have one more question or am I forgetting something?

I think that's it.

Awesome.

Yes, it is it.

So I will use the last one minute to do a wrap up.

I've promised a few times to send something through, and I will give us a little bit of time to get the webinar saved and transcribed.

And I don't want to promise a week.

But maybe in around that time frame we will be sending you all out an email with a bit of a resource list, some information about Andrea's research, and maybe some tools around those frameworks or some links to some pages where those frameworks can be accessed.

But yeah, awesome.

I've had a really fabulous time.

I really, I really value you taking the time to join this session today, taking the time out of your work day to join.

And yeah, thank you again to Andrea and Jake for their generous sharing and their experiences and for your really great questions.

I hope you all have a lovely afternoon.

[End of transcript]