Sydney Uni study reveals ‘excessive’ admin tasks distracting early childhood educators

A survey has revealed how much time childcare educators are only spending each day with kids, as researchers warn about factors contributing to safety risks in the sector.

A national research survey of more than 500 early childhood educators has revealed childcare staff have fewer than three “quality” hours with kids each day. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Childcare educators are only spending 2.5 hours of “quality time” each day with the kids in their care, as researchers warn distractions like daily diaries for parents and “excessive” paperwork are contributing to safety risks in the sector.

A national research survey of more than 500 early childhood educators by University of Sydney academics has shed light on how unsustainable workloads and unpaid hours are impacting the quality of care provided to young children.

The study found educators work an average of 6.87 unpaid hours per week, and only 30 per cent of their work day in “undistracted and uninterrupted contact time with children”.

Almost three in four agreed that their “non-contact workload requires them to spend too much time away from children”.

Lead author Dr Erin Harper, herself a former early childhood educator, said staff are consistently dealing with “multiple competing demands and interruptions” during their ‘contact time’, from answering phone calls to preparing meals all while supervising their kids.

Dr Erin Harper is an early childhood education and care researcher at the University of Sydney, and a former childcare educator. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“All these kinds of things mean that they’re not actually able to be putting in quality time with those children,” she said.

“It’s diminishing the quality of care that our children are receiving.”

Those distractions “absolutely” have flow-on effects on child safety too, Dr Harper warned.

Educators frequently cited concerns with unnecessary and “overly cumbersome” administrative tasks, she said, including applications for inclusion support funding which are so time-consuming that “some services just won’t do it at all”.

“Educators also talk about having to do excessive documentation for families – some services are doing daily journals, sending out a photograph of every single child every day, and in some instances this isn’t (requested by) parents, it’s actually coming from centre management,” Dr Harper said.

“It’s a very difficult situation for families at the moment, especially with so many concerning safety stories coming out.

“But the reality is, having hourly photo updates of your child is not really telling you that much about how safe or well or happy your child is.”