ACA NSW has received a written response from the Department of Education regarding educator breaks. A summary of their response is below:
- No changes have been made to the general provisions in the National Law or National Regulations concerning the application of the prescribed ratio requirements during Educators breaks. What has changed is the guidance provided in the revised Guide to the National Quality Framework. The reason for the change was to avoid confusion and inconsistency in the understanding of the minimum ratio requirement.
- The intent of the change is to clarify that service must comply with prescribed ratio requirements and to refer services to their Regulatory Authority for advice on jurisdiction specific provisions and/or guidance.
- There are no provisions requiring Educators to be backfilled during toilet breaks and urgent phone calls.
- In NSW, Educator-to-child ratios must be maintained at all times no matter what activity the children or the educators at the service are undertaking. Only Educators working directly with children can be included in ratios (Regulation 122). There are no NSW-specific provisions relating to Educators breaks.
- In relation to ratio requirements, there is flexibility for Educators to take a short break for example for personal hygiene, without being backfilled, as long as the Educator remains on the premises and is immediately available to respond to the needs of the children.
- Services should take a risk-based approach to Educator breaks to ensure breaks are not scheduled during high-risk activities such as sleep and rest periods for children under 3 years of age and outdoor adventurous play.
Further clarification was provided at the Department of Education information session today where it was stated that planned breaks should be backfilled, but unplanned breaks may not need to be backfilled.