05 SepThe crucial role of being vigilant
It’s essential that families know that their children are safe when attending their Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) service. Measures such as active supervision, educator to child ratios, and risk assessments play a critical role in the protection of children. These measures are covered by National Quality Standard (NQS) 2.2 – “Each child is protected” and 2.2.1 – “At all times, reasonable precautions and adequate supervision ensure children are protected from harm and hazard”.
The importance of active supervision
Active supervision is more than just a requirement under section 165 of National Law, it is paramount to ensuring a child’s safety, risk mitigation, child development and for fostering a positive learning environment. An actively supervised ECEC program has a positive impact on a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development and reduces the likelihood of accidents, injuries and serious incidents in a learning environment.
Educator to child ratios are in place to ensure active supervision is achievable, to ensure both safety and quality are maintained within a service.
There are number of things to consider within your service to achieve active supervision. These include but are not limited to:
- teamwork and communication between educators, including their whereabouts, the details pertaining to an individual child and clearly defining their roles and responsibilities
- for younger children it may be essential that they remain in close proximity to the adult responsible for their supervision
- careful planning of rosters to ensure that educators are always available to respond to children
- actively engaging with children to support their learning. Effective supervision requires a combination of observation and engagement
- scanning or regularly looking around the area to observe all children in the environment ensures that all children are actively supervised
- policies and procedures that address supervision clearly.
CLICK HERE for more information about active supervision.
Minimising the risk of harm while maintaining an enriching learning environment
Risk assessments allow for more than safety, but also determine the level of supervision that is needed in different situations, to help educators prioritise their engagement with children during activities. It is vital that services take risk assessments seriously to assure their due-diligence and to prevent incidents from occurring. The Risk Assessment and Management Tool developed by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) aims to help children’s education and care service approved providers, leaders, educators, teachers and staff to understand the importance of assessing and managing risk as an embedded part of quality practice and improvement.
The tool includes a range of resources and templates that can assist your service with risk management. To access the Risk Assessment and Management Tool CLICK HERE to download the tool and check you download folder for the file.
