A Strategic Assessment of the Children's Services Industry

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STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT OF THE CHILDREN’S SERVICES INDUSTRYSOUTH AUSTRALIAChildren’s Centres for Early Childhood Development and ParentingChildren’s Centres for Early Childhood Development and Parenting are family friendlycentres designed to improve the health, social, emotional and educational outcomes forchildren and families. The centres have a strong community spirit, where children and theirfamilies feel welcome to visit and participate in activities, or network with others from thecommunity.A wide variety of programmes are offered at Children’s Centres by a range of StateGovernment agencies including:• Department of Education and Children’s Services: long day care, preschool (offeringnew integrated education and care places), primary school and Learning Together (anearly literacy and learning programmes for families with children under four years ofage)• Department of Health programmes• Department for Families and Communities: anti-poverty programmes• Office for Women: Women’s Information Hub. This hub provides access to literature,pamphlets and online material on a range of topics especially for women. Theinformation hub is run and maintained by parents.The first Children’s Centre - CaFE Enfield was established in 2003 as the result of a jointinitiative between the Commonwealth Department of Families, Community Services andIndigenous Affairs (FaCSIA), SA Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS),Children, Youth and Women’s Health Services (CYWHS), Enfield Primary School and localcommunity. In addition to the State Government agency partners involved in CaFE Enfield,there is significant collaboration with non-government agencies. This has resulted in referralsof families and children, programme initiatives, service links, joint grant proposals andsupport for the centre.Three levels of governance arrangements have been established to oversee the operation andmanagement of the centre: strategic, local, and community.Integrated Preschool and Child care Services in Rural CommunitiesThe delivery of cost efficient child care in rural communities that would not support a standalone/independentchild care service has been achieved in South Australia through thedelivery of integrated child care and preschool under two operating models that meet the sizeand needs of the community:-1. Rural Integrated Services (15 – 30 care places), and2. Rural Care Worker Model (7 – 12 care places).Both models were developed under a partnership arrangement between the Australian andSouth Australian Governments. Each of the services have been established in State ownedpreschools with cost sharing arrangements for the capital upgrade and operating subsidies.The Australian Government provides ongoing operational subsidy and Child care Benefit.The South Australian government provides ongoing operational subsidy and manages theprogrammes.61
STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT OF THE CHILDREN’S SERVICES INDUSTRYExtensive consultation was undertaken with each community to determine the need for a childcare services and outline issues of viability. Of particular importance was the need to consultwith the preschool services government council regarding their increased responsibility intaking on the governance for the proposed child care component of the service.A highlight of this approach was the provision of a child care service for families whootherwise were dependent on private/ informal arrangement for the care of children. Ofparticular importance was the positive impact for the community in being able to allow:• professional women (nurses and teachers) to return to the workforce and thusovercome skill shortages in country locations• partners of farmers experiencing drought being able to return to the workforce toprovide an income for the familyAn ongoing challenge is the need to maintain strict budget scrutiny because of the finemargins of viability of these small services. The Rural Care Worker Model cost efficiencieshave been dependent on the establishment of a unique administrative arrangement whereChild care Benefits payments are administered centrally.The services were implemented over two periods. The Rural Integrated Services (15 – 30care places) was established in the early to mid 1990s. The Rural Care Worker Model (7 – 12care places) was established in 2002.Learning TogetherLearning Together is an early literacy and learning programme for families with childrenunder four years of age. It is also a family and community support programme.Learning Together aims to connect and engage with the ‘hardest to reach’ families who arenot using other children’s or family services. Learning Together Coordinators work toconnect with families, build respectful relationships with them, build and support parentsunderstanding of their children’s learning and improve children’s literacy learning. Eachprogramme has developed according to agreed values and principles and operates from astrength-based perspective.It is not an ‘off the shelf’ programme that looks the same in each location. Learning Togetheractivities are developed by Learning Together Coordinators in each location, and inconsultation with families, to meet the needs of families and communities.Each Learning Together programme has developed strong connections with a range ofinteragency partners to enhance their work with parents. Families feel more comfortable toseek advice and support when needed if they have developed strong relationships withprofessionals. Each programme has developed a range of activities for families incollaboration with other agencies such as Children, Youth and Women’s Health Services,Community Health, hospitals and Families SA. Activities include: facilitated playgroups, thedevelopment of take home literacy packs, parent study groups, family outings, healthycooking sessions, library visits, parent education groups, and parent use of digital technologyto make books for and about their children.Staff from other agencies report that working in Learning Together enables them to connectwith families who would not usually access their services. Learning Together Coordinatorssee other professionals (speech pathologists, social workers, occupational therapists etc) ashaving skills and knowledge to support families that they do not have. Families benefit from62
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