A BRIMBANK childcare centre has failed to meet the standard set by a Federal Government watchdog because a member of staff called a child “sweetie” instead of using the youngster’s first name.
The Mackellar Primary OSHC Program, in Delahey, is one of three centres in Brimbank to miss out on a tick of approval from the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC), in its Outside School Hours Care Quality Assurance.
The Holy Eucharist Out of Hours Program, in St Albans, and Brimbank Family Day Care, in Keilor, were also working towards the accreditation.
Mackellar Primary School business manager Steve Burns said he believed the childcare facility in his school was unfairly treated in the validation process last year.
The school has appealed the decision and is waiting for accreditation approval.
“The procedure was fine, but we didn’t agree with the person who came out and made the decision,” Mr Burns said.
“One area that we failed in was that we did not call every child by their given name all the time. One of our staff members was overheard calling a kid sweetie,” he said.
Holy Eucharist coordinator Anna Shepherd said the centre there received high ratings in every area but one during the accreditation process, and was only a “millimetre away” from passing.
“On our accreditation it was my very first shift here as a coordinator,” Ms Shepherd said.
“I had a week of training, so I didn’t know many of the questions. Because I didn’t have any professional development we didn’t pass on that one.”
She said the school went through a second validation process two months ago and is waiting for a response from NCAC.
NCAC chief executive officer Denise Taylor said services would not miss out on accreditation for single incidents but rather for not meeting a number of quality indicators.
She said services must achieve a composite rating of satisfactory or higher on all quality areas to be accredited, such as:
The survey in the centre’s self-study report;
Survey results from the service director, staff and families;
and the validation report from the moderator.
“Services that do not meet the standards for accreditation are given guidance, support and time to improve quality,” Ms Taylor said.
She said services dissatisfied with their accreditation decision could lodge an application for review with the Accreditation Decisions Review Committee.
Mr Burns said accreditation would not bring major changes to the centre.
“To us it means tightening of our existing procedures but generally, across the board, it would stop centres that don’t necessarily do things by the book, and therefore force them to meet the regulations,” he said.
“It’s just a piece of paper saying that we’re accredited,” Ms Shepherd said.
“It’s not going to change anything to us, and it won’t bring more kids to the centre.”
The Outside School Hours Care Quality Assurance for outside school hours care services began on 1 July 2003.
