From the OECEC:
Service Closures to Be Published
Information about education and care service closures as a result of natural disasters will be published on the department’s website to support affected communities and families. The department will compile a list of services which have notified their closure or intended closure by 3pm each day and publish the name and address of each service. This information will be added to the webpage that includes school closures.
Notifying Families and the Department
If your service is affected by a natural disaster, you should always contact parents and staff of the service first to ensure they are aware of the closure or intended closure. As the next step, the department asks that approved providers notify their local regional office as soon as possible when a service closes or is soon to be closed and also advise the department when the service re-opens or intends to re-open. This will assist the department to help you keep families informed. Under the National Law, approved providers must notify the department within 24 hours of any incident that requires them to close a service, or reduce the number of children attending that service (Regulations 175(2)(b) and 176(2)(b)).
Notification of Serious Incidents and Complaints
The National Law sets out the circumstances where services are required to notify the department of a serious incident or a complaint received. All nominated supervisors and staff must be aware of these requirements and the timelines involved. The penalty for failing to notify the department of a serious incident or complaint is $20,000, as QLECS services are classed as an ‘entity’. Ensuring that these are notified to us as soon as possible is very important as it is QLECS who must make the notification to the department and complete the required forms.
An approved provider must notify the department within 24 hours of any serious incident. A serious incident includes:
• an incident where a reasonable person would consider that the child required urgent medical attention from a registered practitioner or where the child attended, or ought reasonably to have attended, a hospital or where attendance of emergency services was sought or ought reasonably to have been sought;
• an incident where a child appears to be missing or cannot not be accounted for;
• an incident where a child appears to have been taken or removed from the education and care service premises in a manner that contravenes the National Regulations; or
• an incident where a child is mistakenly locked in or out of the service premises or part of the premises.
Complaints received:
A service must notify the department within 24 hours of a complaint received alleging:
• the safety, health or wellbeing of a child was or is being compromised while that child is being educated and cared for by the service; or
• the National Law has been breached.
Amendments to the National Regulations
Amendments to support the implementation of the National Quality Framework were agreed to by all state and territory ministers and the Australian Government on Friday 11 April 2014. Ministers also discussed actions to streamline the quality rating process. Changes to streamline assessment and rating are being rolled out immediately and are will be explained in the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) newsletter. Regulation amendments around staffing arrangements, the physical environment of early childhood services and transitional provisions to deal with workforce shortages for early childhood teachers in remote and very remote areas were also agreed to. Further information about the regulation amendments will be provided once the details are final. The department will distribute an NQF e-bulletin to all Queensland providers and services,
explaining these changes when confirmed.
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