How government assessors rated every South Australian childcare centre
SA childcare centres have been given a rating by Australia’s accreditation watchdog, but there’s a twist to the findings that may upset some parents.
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The number of government inspections of South Australian childcare centres this year is almost a third of what it was in 2019.
According to the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), between January and September 2020, 67 SA childcare centres were inspected.
Over the same period in 2019, 183 centres were inspected while some had not been inspected in nearly eight years.
Childcare centres are assessed on seven criteria – education, health and safety, physical environment, staffing, relationships with children, partnerships with families and communities and governance and leadership.
They are then categorised on whether they’re working towards national quality standards (NQS), meeting NQS, exceeding NQS or excellent.
Lisa Hannagan, the project and governance officer for the Education Standards Board, said the reason the site visits have dropped drastically was due to COVID-19.
“Site visits were suspended in March 2020 and were unable to resume until the end of June due to the COVID-19 pandemic and physical distancing requirements,” Ms Hannagan said.
“However, during this time, ‘tele-monitoring’ and other forms of digital communication were introduced so we could maintain contact with services and support their compliance with the NQS when visits were not feasible.”
Ms Hannagan said 99 per cent of eligible centres have been assessed and rated.
“To be eligible, an approved service has usually been operating for a period of 12 months,” she said.
“This is to enable the service time to focus on continuous improvement and enable practices to be embedded, a requirement of the NQS.”
All education and care services regulated under the Education and Care Services National Law must meet minimum operating requirements in order to be approved to operate in SA.
Ms Hannagan said the NQS was a quality assurance system that over and above those requirements.
“Families can refer to the ratings as one factor in deciding which service they prefer to provide education and care for their children,” she said.
“Parents can be assured that a service rated as working towards NQS provides a safe education and care program.”
Pennington Children’s Centre is one of many SA childcare centres which is exceeding the ACECQA’s rating system.
Centre director Jessica Dubois said the staff on Butler Ave pride themselves on creating an inclusive space that every child can enjoy.
“We welcome everyone and we really view culture as an asset to our educational program,” Ms Dubois said.
“Our philosophy is really grounded on listening to and valuing the contribution that families and communities make on children's learning.”
Ms Dubois said she was proud of her team for reaching the exceeding rating, but acknowledged it was no easy task.
“Lots of hard work goes into our priorities and the improvement process and the exceeding rating was a celebration of our children centre as a place of learning for all,” she said.
“We hold really high expectations for ourselves as educators and for our children and families that they can access and engage at the highest quality.”