At a time when the future of Childcare is under a cloud, due to Federal government funding cuts, Glen Eira Council in Melbourne’s south east has every reason to be proud of its performance in this service area.
At a gathering held in September, Pam Regan from the National Child Care Accreditation Council, congratulated Glen Eira for its achievement in gaining the highest possible level of Quality Assurance and Accreditation for each of Council’s five Childcare Centres.
The Centres were commended for their interactions between staff, children and parents, the excellence of the programs they offered, their attention to hygiene health and safety, high levels of organisational and managerial support and their general approach to providing safe, amenable, high quality childcare for residents.
Glen Eira, which has been active in providing childcare for over 20 years, has always been at the forefront in childcare practice. It was one of the first services to set up an integration program for children with a disability and has recently expanded its program to ensure non English speaking residents have access to care meeting specific cultural needs.
The key aim of the Accreditation system is ‘to ensure that children in long day care centres have stimulating, positive experiences and interactions fostering all aspects of their development. The quality system is underpinned by 52 principles covering four major areas. These include Interactions; Program; Nutrition, Health and Safety; and Centre Management and Staff Development.
To gain accreditation, staff and parents worked together to prepare a report on all aspects of the Centre through a self study. This was then referred to a reviewer. Both the reviewer’s report and the self study are then examined by a moderator who reports to the National Child Care Accreditation Council.
To achieve the highest level of Accreditation, a Centre must obtain a high quality rating for at least 42 principles and a good quality rating for the remaining ten.
Glen Eira believes its success is largely due to the emphasis it has always placed on employing high quality staff and ensuring high morale and good communication between staff and management. In addition, it has selected staff from a variety of cultural backgrounds to provide broad language skills and reflect the multi cultural community which they serve.
For further information telephone Catherine Thompson on (03) 9524 3236.
