Seeking answers to concerns over Preschool OSHC (POSHC)

August 4th, 2024 Latest News

On 31 July 2024, the Federal Department of Education announced changes extending Child Care Subsidies so eligible children at out-of-school-hours-care (OSHC) services on the same site as preschool services.

In the context of NSW, there are as currently:

3,548 long daycare services;
158 preschools on school grounds;
773 community preschools;
1,859 out-of-school-hours-care services;
1,509 vacation care services; and

... in light of the 100+50 proposed new/upgraded preschools on school grounds by March 2027, ACA NSW has submitted a series of questions initially to the NSW Department of Education (as the local Regulatory Authority) and requesting a formal response:

Will Preschool OSHC (POSHC) services be required to have qualified early childhood educators and teachers?
What will be the infrastructure requirements expected of schools to accommodate preschool children, especially from a child safety perspective due to the higher risks for these younger children?
Will there be two Approved Services on the same site (ie one Approved Service for the preschool, and one Approved Service for POSHC)?
Will there be two sets of regulatory activities, including assessments & ratings?
Which Approved Provider and/or Approved Service will be responsible for breaches/non-compliances that relate to the shared common site?
As the school or community preschool, can the same Approved Provider facilitate fee collection? How will it be collected, given one service is not eligible to receive CCS, but the other service can receive CCS?
Will Regulation 272 also apply to NSW-based POSHC, ie the 0.6-4 ECTs in attendance “at all times” be required?
Assuming Regulation 271 and Regulation 123 applies to the POSHC service for educator:children ratio, then why are schools not applying such ratios for preschool aged children enrolled in kindergarten?
Assuming Regulation 271 and Regulation 123 applies to the POSHC service for educator:children ratio, will the POSHC service be allowed to accept and care for preschool aged children who are enrolled in kindergarten?
Can existing approved OSHC provider and service simply seek to modify their existing service approval so that they can provide POSHC? Or must existing OSHC providers apply to create a new service just for POSHC?
Given the Federal Government’s directive that POSHC services must not provide preschool education and programming, how will Quality Area 1 be assessed for their A&Rs? Will they automatically and structurally be rated as Working Towards?