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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-23 Daily Xml
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FAMILY DAY CARE

In reply to the Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (17 June 2009).

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy): The Minister for Early Childhood Development has provided the following information:

Family Day Care has a total of 20 policies for staff and care providers. These policies are required by the national Family Day Care Quality Assurance system. Family Day Care Quality Assurance requires policies to be reviewed regularly, within a 30 month cycle.

Policies must be reviewed in consultation with families, care providers and staff. It is also essential that information provided by recognised authorities form the basis of policies, in particular those relating to children's health, safety and wellbeing. Families, care providers and staff have a number of avenues for feedback on the policies including email, fax, mail and local consultative meetings. Policy officers are also available to speak with stakeholders at any time.

In 2008 Family Day Care undertook a review of all of the policies. Numbers of feedback sheets received from providers for each policy were:


Safe Practices in FDC 34
Health and Hygiene in FDC 30
Medication in FDC 25
Ultra Violet Radiation Protection in FDC 6
Animals in FDC 7
Smoke Free Environments in FDC 6
Healthy Food Choices in FDC 4
Water Safety in FDC 3
Drugs and Alcohol and FDC 5
Inclusive Practice within FDC 2
Complaints and Grievances for FDC Providers 2
General comments 5


There were also a large number of letters from parents, mostly relating to Health and Hygiene, Medication and Safe Practices.

In March 2009 the Health and Hygiene, Medication and UVR Protection policies were updated and where appropriate changed, taking into consideration the feedback received from care providers. Most of the feedback related to nappy changing, hand washing and medication management for children. Family Day Care has received a small amount of feedback on these new policies and generally, providers are happy with the changes.

The Safe Practices policy is currently being updated in consultation with the Injury Surveillance Unit in Health SA due to the large number of comments about play equipment. It is anticipated this policy and accompanying fact sheets will be implemented in 2009.

Family Day Care has also established a continuous review cycle that meets the requirements of the national quality assurance system. To meet this requirement, four policies will be reviewed every four months. Providers offer feedback through their local consultative groups and are encouraged to provide feedback individually on any policy at any time.

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