The NSW Department of Education recently released their proposed Mandatory Eligibility Criteria designed to provide a minimum standard for eligible tenderers for future out-of-school-hours-care services on public schools’ sites. This scheme is intended to replace the process established by the NSW Department of Education in July 2016 even though its formal status remains unclear.
In principle, the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW supports such a scheme if it is transparent, consistent, and has adequate external and independent review processes.
That said, ACA NSW President Lyn Connolly and the NSW Executive Committee are unclear on which legislation and/or regulation the NSW Department of Education is relying on for this pre-qualification scheme to operate under. And due to an apparent low level of awareness by many existing OSHC service providers of the proposed scheme as well as existing approved providers of early childhood education and care (ECEC), it may be appropriate for additional sector consultation to ensure proper understanding of the obligations of and consequences for future tenderers.
Moreover, the proposed scheme, framed as a self-exclusion process, also has the following issues that ACA NSW has raised with the NSW Department of Education:
- an absence of a publicly transparent, external and independent review mechanism so that decisions under this scheme can be challenged by any tenderer, competing tenderer or any interested party;
- no reassessment process articulated because of the self-exclusion process;
- no requirement for tenderers to satisfy eligibility criteria based on minimum standards on their existing operational experiences (if any) on customer satisfaction, complaints, child protection, work health and safety, as well as ECEC and operational capabilities, including financial and insurance coverage;
- no time limits on when the pre-qualification would automatically be required to be reviewed; and
- standing of any pre-qualification from other Australian jurisdictions appears not be allowed to be considered and is silent on how it is consistent, compatible to and interoperable with all other Australian states’ equivalents.
Although well-intentioned, this flawed regulatory proposal could restrict 24%-44% of the OSHC market from being able to tender for the provision of OSHC services on public schools in the future.
ACA NSW will keep members informed of any progress with the NSW Department of Education as they emerge.