Why are SA parents not confident sending their kids to Out of School Hours Care?
Oh, The Advertiser. You’ve done gone published an inflammatory article about the OSHC sector once again..
OSHCsa facilitate and support four OSHC hub groups and coordinators in South Australia- the North-East Hub, Western Hub, Rural Hub (north/mid-north/online), and the best hub- the Southern Hub! Hub groups are a great way to network and form collaborative partnerships with other children’s services professionals.
OSHC leaders from their respective perspectives meet regularly to discuss important matters and tidbits and such. Natalie and I hosted and chaired last week’s meeting (20/06/23) at our service and we discussed a number of things, namely a certain recent article published by The Advertiser, and both the supervision and medical management issues that were raised by the Social Policy Editor, Lauren Novak.
The article published on June 12, 2023 is titled Why SA parents are not ‘confident’ sending their kids to Out of School Hours Care, and is both poignant and maddening at the same time, as it paints all SA OSHC services with the same dirty brush. Here is a link to the article online, I’m sorry that it’s behind a subscription paywall.
This article needed some visual interest..
The title and sentiment of the article is a shame. It’s key points are:
Parents are not confident in South Australian OSHC services
There is an increasing demand for OSHC services from families
The OSHC sector is a poor cousin to other education and care services
There are emerging and current risks at Department for Education OSHC sites
There is variability and inconsistency across OSHC services
Inadequate supervision and poor management of medicines
OSHC educators are not paid much
More investment is needed to improve a qualified OSHC workforce
Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care, lead by Julia Gillard- interim reports indicate more funding is needed for the Education Standards Board to provide assessment and rating to services every three years
Our service was last assessed by the Education Standards Board on November 30, 2018 and received the overall rating of Meeting the National Quality Standard. We believe that families should feel confident in sending their children to our service and we wish to reassure them that we are constantly working towards making improvements.
There are however services out there who are underperforming. If you check out the most recent snapshot data from ACECQA, you will see that the OSHC sector in South Australia is trailing long day care and preschool/kindergarten in terms of assessment and rating results, against the National Quality Standard. It does appear that where OSHC services struggle the most is where other children’s services also struggle, namely educational program and practice, children’s health and safety, and governance and leadership.
It must be noted that according to the snapshot data, 78% of South Australian OSHC services are meeting or exceeding the NQS, leaving 22% rated as working towards. Are SA parents really not confident sending their kids to OSHC? Perhaps, but surely only some, and certainly not all.
It’s clear that most services are doing things right. Hey, The Advertiser, why are SA parents not confident sending their kids to OSHC again?
It is unfortunate that there have been incidents at OSHC services that have resulted in serious risks to the safety and wellbeing of children, and this is not okay. If inadequate supervision and poor management of medicines in the OSHC sector is the case, why is that? Is it by accident that these things have happened? Is it plain negligence? Are there systemic issues within services and schools? What do you think?
To maintain confidence from our community we had initially responded to reports of those serious incidents by reviewing our supervision and medical management policies and procedures and since the article was published, we have collaborated with the Southern Hub, the ESB, and with the OSHC Principal Program Officer at the Department for Education.
Natalie and I have already picked up a few nuggets of wisdom from our hub group and I’ve been assured that the DfE will soon provide a useful resource that will clear up what is expected as far as these matters are concerned. Stay tuned!
After further consultation at our next hub meeting, we’ll share our reviewed and ratified work in this blog and on our website. I’m hoping that families will appreciate the transparency, other OSHC leaders will have another resource to consider, and that The Advertiser and ESB might see that yes, there are issues we face in the OSHC sector, and there are many of us who are working on it. Work with us people, not against us!
In the meantime, if you’re an OSHC leader, know that the ESB has prioritised adequate supervision, medical management, and other things for assessment and rating, and you can read about that here. Do some reading, engage in critical reflection, review your processes, and reach out and share with others.
Go a step further and invite your school principal, governing council member, or an OSHC parent to a staff meeting, hub group get-together, or for your OSHC Educators Day afternoon tea this July 26.
If you’re a parent or caregiver, get to know your OSHC providers or join your OSHC committee. Build those relationships and increase understanding, people!
This article has been written to broadly appeal to both OSHC educators as well as families from our community. What do you make of the key points raised in the article? Please leave a comment below!
And check out this excellent episode of The Early Education Show that showcases Forrest OSHC from the ACT who in 2018 achieved the excellent rating: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3jlfbkzyOtcHp8DWzgYSdW
Aaron