Townsville childcare centres mostly pass government assessment

Most of Townsville’s daycare centres are meeting national standards, with a high number exceeding the standards.

Most of Townsville’s daycare centres are meeting national standards, with a high number exceeding the standards.

It comes as 184 child care centres across Queensland were inspected by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority between January and September 2020.

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. Data reveals most Townsville daycare centres met the standards.

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Australian Childcare Alliance and Educating Kids president Majella Fitzsimmons said no local childcare centres needed significant improvements according to the assessment.

She said two of Educating Kids’ centres exceeded the national quality standards – the Townsville City and Domain centres – while its Kirwan centre sufficiently met the standards.

Ms Fitzsimmons explained the importance of childcare centres, saying they were crucial in developing the minds of young children before school.

“They’re foundations for learning,” she said.

Through play-based learning, Ms Fitzsimmons said children’s development could be broadened.

She said it was a style of teaching that continued in primary school until the age of eight. “We look at children’s strengths and their interests. If they’re really interested, they will learn a lot,” she said.

The number of government inspections of Queensland centres was less than half of what it was in 2019.

Over January to September 2019, 442 centres were inspected. The national Education Council suspended the assessment and rating of centres in a meeting on April 2.

Queensland’s assessors recommenced assessments in June.

An Education Department spokesman said monitoring continued remotely during the assessment shutdown.

“During the suspension of assessment and rating, monitoring of services continued in Queensland, with the health, safety and wellbeing of children continuing to be the prime consideration of the RA,” the spokesman said.

“Where appropriate, monitoring was conducted remotely, via a tele-monitoring process, but wherever a risk assessment indicated that it was necessary to manage a potential risk to a child or children, authorised officers continued to visit services and conduct investigations in person.”

Originally published as Townsville childcare centres mostly pass government assessment