The last 12 months have been very busy within the Children Services Unit with a focus on supporting families with the new funding model, increasing attendances at the centres and improving our communication with Parents and Guardians about their child/children’s development.

Within the Children Services we operate the following:

• Playgroup
• Injinoo Child Care Centre – 42 place licenced long daycare centre
• Umagico Child Care Centre – 29 place licenced long daycare centre
• Injinoo OSHC Centre – 29 places licenced after school and vacation care centre
• Umagico OSHC Centre – 30 place licenced after school and vacation care centre

Transition from BBF Funding

Due to a change in government funding, we were required to transition funding models to the new CCS model starting 2 July 2018. This is a significantly different model which aligns the centres to mainstream models used elsewhere in Australia. Over the past 6 months, we have been working closely with parents, guardians and families to support them during this transition through workshops and one-on-one support.

We will continue this support for families in the next financial year to support them with registering for Centrelink and the Child Care Subsidy.

Compliance and Programming

While we are out of scope, at each of the childcare and OSHC centres, we work towards implementing the National Quality Framework, which is the national standard for childcare services across Australia.

Over the past 12 months, we have been focusing on improving the standards at each of the childcare centres. We have implemented an action plan at each of the centres to address any gaps with the National Quality Framework and relevant legislation and staff have been trained in these changes. Each of the centres has a Quality Improvement Plan in place which is aligned to the National Quality Framework and details the centre’s work towards each of the 7 quality areas.

We have also had a focus on aligning programming to the national frameworks for activities within education care. For the childcare centres, the Early Years Learning Framework describes the principles, practices and outcomes that support and enhance young children's learning from birth to five years of age, as well as their transition to school. For our OSHC Centres, we use the MyTime, Our Place Framework for School Age Care in Australia. Staff have been supported with training and mentoring to improve our programming in these areas.

Activities at the centres

• Fine motor/sensory activities e.g. playdough, tools and matchsticks
• Construction / fine motor activity: Zigzag
• Sensory bin: Playdough & wild animal exploration
• Art and craft activity: Allowing the children to be creative & constructive
• Creatively learning the letters of the alphabet
• Scissor skills activity with slime. Preparing them for Pre-Prep.
• Babies exploring with kinetic sand, rocks and animals
• Kindy and Toddler children wearing a ‘Dhari’ (Traditional Torres Strait Islander Headdress) they made for NAIDOC Week.
• Babies exploring with paint, using their hands and fingers as ‘brushes’
• Exploring with musical instruments