What does licensing and affiliation mean?

State Government legislation sets minimum requirements for kindergartens, childcare centres, family day care and OSHC on basic safety, staff to children ratios, and buildings and grounds.

All C&K services, which are governed by the Child Care Act 2002 and Child Care Regulation 2003, meet Department of Communities licensing standards.

C&K, as noted previously, has set higher standards than those required by legislation.

To become a C&K branch kindergarten,childcare centre, or a C&K affiliate, services must meet C&K operational and curriculum standards, and be managed according to C&K guidelines. In order to access Department of Education, Training and the Arts (DETA) funding, C&K branch and affiliated services are monitored for the quality of their educational curriculum, management practices and community involvement.

C&K childcare centres, OSHC and family day care schemes are accredited through the National Childcare Accreditation Council. This system of quality assurance measures the quality of care provided by the service, and ensures the ongoing provision of successful outcomes for children.

Monitoring quality

Every C&K service has a specialist early childhood education and care consultant. C&K consultants are highly qualified in the field of early childhood. Their role is to ensure your child’s service is providing the highest quality education and care possible.

C&K consultants play an invaluable role by:

• providing a supportive role to our services
• ensuring quality assurance by regularly visiting each service and monitoring compliance with C&K standards
• promoting “wise-practice” early childhood education programs that honour children and ensure our services truly are places where children come first
• designing, advising upon and advocating for aesthetic and creative indoor and outdoor environments that are challenging, dynamic and safe
• taking on an advocacy role in respect to children, families and the curriculum
• supporting, guiding and leading current best practice through resources, workshopping and conferencing
• providing an on-call consultancy service to staff and management committees
• supporting centres with affi liation and/or licensing requirements
• maintaining their own professional development in order to support the ongoing professional development of the centre staff they work with. This includes keeping up-to-date with current practice by undertaking placements in early childhood services.

Consultants also play an active role in the community by sitting on advisory boards for training institutions, universities and government bodies, and building productive partnerships with relevant groups and organisations in the community.

Policies ensuring your child’s wellbeing

Paramount to C&K’s philosophy is the wellbeing of each child. C&K has developed a range of policies to support care and safety in our  services.

Policies include:

child protection, administration of medication, immunisation, exclusion for contagious illness, sun protection, nutrition, workplace health and safety, playground equipment, excursions, emergency and evacuation, and more.

C&K policies reflect best practice as well as mandatory requirements and ensure staff are providing the highest standards of care, health and safety for children. They have been developed with input from relevant agencies including government departments and health offi cials.

C&K policies are continually reviewed and communicated to our services in order to keep up-to-date with best practice. The policies are available from the director of the service you enrol your child in. It is important parents are aware of these policies in order to support the staff and committee in ensuring the comfort, safety and wellbeing of all.