Two interactive Good Practice forums held recently for services from the Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) sector focussed on discussing, exploring and promoting a focus on continuous improvement and good practice.

Achieving high ratings against the National Quality Standard (NQS) is an ongoing priority for ECED and staff from the department noted and appreciated the high level of participation and positive feedback received during the two forums.

Senior Policy Officer Samantha Gray said presentations were given by a range of high-performing services to showcase the elements of good practice and management styles.

"Presenters reflected a range of management structures," Sam said. "Their showcases allowed for attendees to hear first-hand about a variety of approaches to staffing, programming and connecting with children's families and their local communities."

ECED recognises the OSHC is large and diverse, that there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach for achieving high ratings against the National Quality Framework (NFQ).

"Forums like these provide opportunities to share good practice to improve the delivery of quality early childhood education," Sam said.

Support for good practice

Guidance on good practice can be accessed from a range of sources.

• The approved OSHC learning framework is My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia.
• Under the NQF services are required to base their educational program on an approved learning framework.
• The Educators' Guide to the Framework for School Age Care in Australia, available on the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) website, is a key tool to help OSHC services to ensure that the My Time, Our Place Framework informs service practice.
• The Early Childhood Resource Hub * is a central source of Australian early childhood resources, quality standards, support and forums.

*Registering with the Early Childhood Resource Hub is free and provides access to over 300 digital resources and an innovative discussions area. The hub contains easy-to-use resources relevant to the National Quality Standard seven quality areas to support educational leadership and programming, self-assessment, critical reflection and inform implementation of quality improvement within services.

A Good Practice webinar will be hosted by the department in the future to allow more OSHC services to participate.

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