Experience Now Counts
For long serving child care professionals
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In great news for child care professionals, Child Care Minister Kate Ellis has said that the child care industry cannot afford to lose experienced people who lack formal qualifications and has lifted the ban on centres employing unqualified workers from 2014 for long-standing staff.
Speaking to The Australian Ms Ellis said, "we value the existing workforce, and need to make sure we have in place a rigorous system of recognising the skills that already exist for those who are really qualified, but not so on paper."
"We are very keen to look at maintaining the quality staff already in centres.
"We recognise that it is a passionate and committed workforce – the workers do it because of their dedication and their love for the children, and we don't want to be losing that."
The Minister's announcement will be wholeheartedly welcomed by industry professionals, concerned that older staff members would be forced out by the requirement that they go back and study.
» Read the full article…
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Educator's Guide to the EYLF
Now available online
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The Educator's Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework is now available on the DEEWR website.
Click here to view a copy online.
All child care service providers, including preschools, will receive a copy in the mail in the early stages of 2011.
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Update To Reduce Your Vacancies
Boost your occupancy rates in 2011!
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It's the start of a brand new year, and as you know this is one of the peak times parents search for child care. Maximise your potential to fill any vacancies by keeping your fee and vacancy information up-to-date on the CareforKids.com.au website.
More than one hundred thousand Australian parents visit our website every month to perform searches for child care and to gain information about how the child care system works.
Keeping your information up–to–date and providing approximate wait list times will reduce administrative costs and ensure you fill vacancies as soon as they arise.
So responding to our regular updates on what you have listed on CareforKids.com.au is important.
You can also login to update your listing at anytime. Click here for more information on how to login and update your listing.
Thank you for being part of the CareforKids.com.au community and drop us a line if you have any problems.
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Interview
Rebekkah Figura
Centre Manager
Nipperville Early Learning Centre – ACT
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 Child care professionals share a commitment to improving society by creating dynamic nurturing care environments for Australia's youngest learners.
In this month's Child Care People we speak to Rebekkah Figura at Nipperville Early Learning Centre in Watson ACT.
» Read about Rebekkah…
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 If you or someone you know deserves to be featured in this section drop us a line at editor@careforkids.com.au.
Each child care person we profile will receive a copy of Play School Collection (3 DVD set) for their service.
Courtesy of ABC Kids and Roadshow Entertainment.
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Are Australian Babies Getting Enough Sleep?
Survey findings indicate NO
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A recent study has shown that Australian babies are among the most sleep deprived in the western world with nearly half of babies between 12-24 months surviving on less than eight hours sleep per night*. This is four hours less than the 12 hours of sleep recommended by child and family health professionals.
The survey of 1,000 Australian mothers was conducted by Pampers Nappies and Tresillian Family Care and looked at the extent of infant sleep deficit and its impact on baby development.
The survey showed that infants who have eight or more hours of uninterrupted 'golden' sleep each night are significantly more sociable and eager to play, compared to infants who sleep for five or less hours per night, proving sleep is the key to emotional, physical and cognitive development in infants.
According to Tresillian Chair in Child and Family Health Professor Fowler, parents know the value of sleep in fact the survey demonstrated that 92 per cent of mums believe that sleep is one of the most important things their baby needs to grow and develop.
» Read the full article…
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Are Your Sun Protection Policies Up–To–Date?
Keeping children and staff safe in the sun
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Australia has the highest incidence on skin cancer in the world and over exposure to the sun in childhood is known to be a major cause of skin cancer in later life. With summer upon us, now is an excellent time to review your centre's sun protection policies.
Child care providers are required to have a sun protection policy and to meet sun protection requirements to satisfy the licensing and accreditation standards set by the NCAC.
The SunSmart Early Childhood Program was set up by the state based Cancer Councils to help child care providers devise and implement sun safe policies.
The program can also help child care providers bring out-of-date sun protection policies up–to–date with current recommendations.
The SunSmart Program was designed for all child care providers including family day carers, long day care centres, occasional care centres, preschools, work based services and mobile services and hundreds of providers across the country have already signed up.
According to the Cancer Council a sun protection policy should clearly outline a service's policies and procedures with regard to protecting children and staff at the centre from UV radiation including:
» Read the full article…
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Preschool Depression
Difficult to believe… factors and possible signs to look for
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The idea of a preschooler experiencing depression is difficult to believe but according to news reports from the USA as many as 84,000 of America's six million preschool aged kids may be clinically depressed.
Director of the Mood Disorder Clinic at Children's Hospital Boston Dr Stuart Goldman told MyFoxBoston.com, that in preschoolers the hallmark of depression is a lack of pleasure in day–to–day activities.
"These kids are just not happy. They don't enjoy life the way ordinary kids do. It is the type of sadness that goes way beyond having a bad day," said Dr Goldman.
According to Dr Goldman these are the signs of preschool depression:
- In many cases, these children can't remember the last time they had fun
- They experience prolonged periods of sadness and irritability
- They often act younger than their age
While there's no doubt, kids as young as 2–years–old can have behavioural and emotional issues, some health care professionals are concerned with the actual label preschool depression.
Speaking to MyFoxBoston.com Dr. Lisa Cosgrove a research lab fellow in the Edmond J. Sapher Center for Ethics at Harvard University warned that collapsing children's issues under one name and labelling it depression may deflect attention away from other issues the child may be suffering from.
"They could be the result of a number of factors, such as abuse, trauma, attachment difficulties, poverty, a number of situation and stressors and traumas can certainly cause those kinds of behavioural and emotional difficulties," Dr Cosgrove said.
For now, there is no standard course of treatment for preschool depression. Much of it depends on the severity of the case, and family history of mental illness. Medication, according to Dr. Goldman, is used by most doctors as a late resort.
"I think most child psychologists are not excited about prescribing powerful meds to three to five year olds, on the other hand, they don't want kids to be suicidal and end up in the hospital either," he said.
Article first published in MyFoxBoston.com.
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Featured posts
CareforKids Social
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School hats and sun protection
Child Care Rebate should be paid directly to services
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