Hello everyone, good morning.

My name is Emma.

I am a Senior Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

Thank you all for joining the ECE Connect online session on the Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

We can see that the numbers are rising, so we'll just give it a couple of minutes for services to join, work through any technical issues, and then we will get started.

While we are waiting for the others to join, we would love to hear from you and learn which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander country you are on today.

It would be great if you could write your response in the question and answer or the Q&A chat section.

You'll be able to see the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen.

Great, thank you.

Let's jump to the next slide.

Today I am joining from the lands of the Burramattagal people and acknowledge all the various Aboriginal lands you are joining us from today.

I recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the ongoing custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live.

I pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories.

I also acknowledge and pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues joining us today.

We all strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child in NSW achieves their potential through education.

Before we start the session, I would like to go over a few housekeeping items.

This presentation will be recorded and published on the Department of Education website by the end of April.

The published recording will include captions and a transcript.

The microphone, camera and chat functions are disabled during the presentation.

You may ask questions via the Q&A function.

However, we ask that you engage with the presentation as most of your questions are likely to be covered in today's session.

We have a team that will be able to respond directly to as many of your questions as possible.

We are unable to answer service specific questions in the Q&A function today.

We can only answer general questions about the program. Though you're welcome to contact the department using the contact details at the end of the session.

At the end of the session, our speakers will answer some of your questions live.

The Q&A function and the Q&A portion of the session will not be recorded.

We value your input and feedback.

We'll be using Menti during the session to hear from you directly.

Menti allows live collection of information for us all to see.

You can use a mobile phone to participate and we will also put the Menti links in the Q&A function.

Following the session, an information package will be sent to participants.

This will be available separate to the session recording by the end of April.

It will be informed by the questions answered and unanswered and your engagement in the Menti activities.

Once the presentation is finished, a survey will appear.

Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts on today's session so we can continue to develop content that is beneficial to the sector's needs.

For those who've just joined, my name is Emma and I'm a Senior Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

My fellow speakers will introduce themselves throughout the session.

Today you will also hear from Virginia, Em and Ivana.

Firstly, I'd like to introduce you to Peter Harvey, the Director of Sector Programs.

Thanks, Emma and fantastic to be here.

A really beautiful acknowledgement of country there.

So thank you for that and for facilitating today's session.

As Emma mentioned, I'm Peter Harvey, I'm the Director of Sector Programs, which means a fair bit to people inside the building and probably not a lot to everyone out there in the real world.

I have the pleasure of delivering the Start Strong for Long Day Care program as well as the kind of complementary program for community preschools with all of the team that you'll see today and many more behind the scenes.

Really, I just wanted to say, one, thank you for joining us today, but two, thank you for all the work that you do with children every single day to give them the best start in life.

This is so important.

As you know, and as we know, because the research is really clear in this space, it tells us that 90% of a child's brain development happens before they turn 5.

And we know children who participate in quality preschool education programs for at least 600 hours in the year before school arrive at school better equipped with the social, cognitive and emotional skills that they need to learn and to thrive.

And that's exactly what we're trying to do with our Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

And great to see how you're implementing that in quality preschool in your services.

And the Long Day Care team today have been listening to all of your feedback during 2024 and have made some significant improvements to processes and the way that we communicate so that we can better support you.

Today's session is going to cover the most common questions that we've received over the last 12 to 18 months that we think you want to know about and particularly focused around fee relief rules and spending rules as well.

We're always keen to hear more. Em mentioned for a bit of a survey at the end.

Do tell us what you found useful.

Tell us what you want to hear about in the future and we're always happy to learn.

Back to you Em. Fantastic, thank you, Peter.

In today's session, we will cover elements of the 2024 and 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

We will cover the topics that providers and services most commonly ask us about.

In Topic 1, we provide a program overview and highlight improvements we have made.

In Topic 2, we talk about fee relief funding, including spending rules and calculations, and reserved and surplus fee relief funds.

In Topic 3, we cover program funding, including spending rules and unexpended program funds.

In Topic 4, we speak of how you can prepare for the upcoming 2024 Start Strong for Long Day Care financial accountability statement process.

And in the final portion of the session, it will be a question and answer where the speakers will answer common questions posted in the Q&A function.

First, let's provide a brief overview of the funding streams for the Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

Let's jump to the next slide.

Again, thank you.

The Start Strong for Long Day Care program provides funding to deliver affordable, quality preschool education to children aged 3 and above who are enroled in an eligible long day care service in NSW.

There are funding streams.

The funding rates have increased for all funding streams in 2025.

You can see the increase in the annual rate per enrolment from 2024 in the light blue boxes to 2025 in the dark blue.

The Fee Relief Payment and Fee Relief Trial Payment enable services to improve affordability for the families of eligible children by reducing the cost of early childhood education.

The Fee Relief Payment is calculated as an annual flat rate allocation of $2,174 per eligible enrolment and the Fee Relief Trial Payment is calculated as an annual flat rate allocation of $515 per eligible enrolment.

Program Payments support the quality uplift of the service.

The annual rate varies per enrolment.

Loadings are provided for Equity Enrolments.

These are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and/or if the service is located in a geographic area with a high level of disadvantage as determined by the Australian Government.

Approved providers will receive one amount of loading per equity enrolment.

The Program Payment is also scaled for hours of enrolment.

Children who are enroled for 600 hours or more per year will receive a higher rate of funding.

See Section 4 of the program guidelines for the full breakdown of funding rates and calculations.

Later in the session, in Topics 2 and 3, we will explore the fee relief and program funding spending rules in more detail.

The Program Trial Payment has been extended to December 2025.

Let's jump to the next slide again please.

Fantastic, thank you.

Funding allocation emails were sent to providers of eligible services from February 2025.

Instalment 1, which is 50% of the annual allocation, will be paid to the provider from the 28th of March 2025, though please allow 10 business days for the funds to appear in your account.

The remaining 50% will be paid in Instalment 2 from July 2025.

Now let's go over common questions about your funding and payments and let's jump to the next slide.

Perfect, thank you.

How can I check what funding my service is eligible for?

Eligible funding amounts, a breakdown of loadings, and funded fee relief enrolments are all outlined in your funding allocation email.

This email was sent to the approved provider in November 2024 and again in February 2025.

To find the email in your inbox, you can search for the subject line 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care Funding Allocation or search for the sender ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au

If you cannot find your funding allocation email in your inbox, please first check your spam and junk mailboxes before emailing the department.

Another question we receive is I have received a payment, how can I check what the payment is for?

There are three places you can identify what the payment is for.

Let me know if you need any further modifications!

Hi all.

We'll kick off shortly after 10.

Welcome.

We'll get ready very soon.

All right, we've hit 10:00.

It's lovely to have you all here.

I want to welcome everyone who's attending today's session.

As you can see from this slide, we are focusing in on the Australian Early Development Census, on that data and really taking a look at what it means in practice for early childhood education and care and school services across NSW.

Really lovely to have you all here.

Welcome from me and the team.

We've got them working behind the scenes and we'll have a number of really great presenters.

Today I wanted to introduce myself.

I'm Sarah Hurcombe.

I'm the Executive Director for Public Early Childhood Education and Care here in the Department of New South Wales, Department of Education, and the responsibilities for undertaking that ADC in NSW sits within my team.

I'll introduce some of the key members of that team shortly and today we're really going to go through the real value of that data.

But how do we apply it to shaping practice on the ground?

Before we get in, I just wanted to let you know the session will be recorded so that we can share it with people who weren't able to attend today and it will run for an hour, so we'll be finishing at 11:00 as we'd kick off.

I would like to acknowledge that wherever we are today, we are joining from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands.

I'm joining you from beautiful Burramattagal country, which is part of the Dharug Nation here in Parramatta.

And I want to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which I'm joining you from today, the lands that I live on in Bidjigal lands in South Sydney.

But also to pay my respects to the traditional custodians of the lands that you are all joining us from across NSW.

I'd also like to pay my respects to any Aboriginal colleagues joining us on this call today.

Well, we'd like to kick off before I go into the housekeeping with a really lovely video from some of our students at Camdenville Public School Preschool and to hear their short acknowledgement of country.

So thank you, Mary, for kicking us off.

We are Camdenville Preschool High.

Respect to the Gadigal people.

For thousands of years, we say thank you to the elders for sharing this life on which we learn and play.

Thank you to the elders.

Thank you.

We promise to look after it, the Bush, the animals and the people to thank you Mary, and really nice to know that we are starting that message early amongst our early learners across NSW.

So as we kick off today, just wanted to remind you all you've come to the session that is looking at the Australian Early Development Census, the ADC.

So if you're in the wrong spot, jump off now or just enjoy the ride.

It will be a one hour session.

Just a couple of housekeeping before we get into the meat of the session.

We will make sure slides and recordings are available to you after the session, so we'll send an email out with that if you've registered for the session.

Please note that your video and microphone are locked today, but there is a chat function.

So if you've got questions as we go through, please add it into the Q&A so you can see at the top of your screen, there's a little button that says Q&A with a question mark.

That's the place we really encourage you to put those questions as we go through and the team will answer them.

If there's questions already in there that you really want to give a thumbs up to, that'll raise it to the top and we'll make sure that we prioritise those ones.

If there's some common questions across the group, your Q&A button may be at the bottom of the screen.

So just check on your version of Teams and where it is.

Remember that microphone, video and chat functions are disabled during this webinar, but we'll prioritise the questions with the most votes and get back to you if we don't get to all of them.

We'll provide an FAQ piece after the session where we'll share the video and we also encourage you to reach out to us and we'll pop the email address that you can contact the NSW ADC team at afterwards.

So the team will pop that into the chat so you can see that.

For those who'd like live transcripts, please have a look on your screen.

It should be at the bottom of your screen to turn on live transcripts.

You can then move the box out of the space so you can watch that and that'll enable anyone that needs to follow along with that transcript as well.

Don't forget, if you've got problems with the Internet, the best way that we know how to fix that is often to turn off and on, leave the session, come back and join again.

So please do that ahead.

So now I'd love to introduce our presenters for today.

We'll have two main presenters.

First, I'd love to introduce Mary Taiwo.

She's the AEDC NSW State Coordinator.

So across every jurisdiction in NSW, we have someone like Mary.

Mary is our wonderful coordinator in New South Wales.

She works really closely with the Commonwealth department to ensure that the data collection runs smoothly each three years.

But also she is a real expert in our data and can really talk to what the data is indicating and showing.

So we're really lucky to have her here.

Our second presenter will be Shelley Wiffen and she's one of our early years coordinators in our early learners team here in the department.

So she manages the team that does a lot of work around professional learning and development across our public EC services.

She supports our schools as community centres and she helps support the Australian Early Development Census, roll out data collection and then the sharing of information as well.

And Shelley's going to really bring to life some of the practical ways that services across NSW are using the AEDC data to enhance their practice and to consider what they might want to continue to do or adapt moving forward.

I think I'll hand over now to Mary to kick us off and get into the data.

But I hope you enjoy the session and I'll see you at the end to wrap up.

Over to you, Mary.

Thanks, Sarah and I will just share my screen back.

So thanks for the introduction, Sarah and hi everyone.

It's good to have you in the session today.

As Sarah has said, we're going to talk about the Australian Early Development Census, so I'll just go right in to highlight what we hope that you're going to achieve through this session.

We hope that at the end of this session you'll be able to have the knowledge and understanding to engage with the AEDC data and also understand the value of the data for you in your context of practice.

We hope that we'll be able to share some of the professional learning that we have already provided and some of the events information on events that might come up later in the year to support your ongoing engagement with the AEDC data.

So what is the AEDC?

The AEDC is called in full term Australian Early Development Census and in short I'll refer to it as the AEDC all through this presentation just to make it easier.

It's a nationwide data collection that occurs once in every three years and the collection focuses on five main early childhood development domains.

As you can see on the screen right here, you can see that the physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills.

So these are very school-based skills and then communication skills and general knowledge.

So these five domains give a comprehensive overview of what has happened where the child is at when they start school, when they transition into school, but also gives us an idea of what has happened in the first five years of a child's life, which is where you all have the influence as you interact with children before they transition into school.

If you want to learn more about the AEDC domains, we have the domain guides that are available on our AEDC web page.

Some of that link will go into the chat on the page where you can download the domain guides.

But what to be aware of is with the AEDC, each domain has a bit of what we call sub-domain indicators.

They are here.

So these are the various factors that contribute to give us an idea of where the child is in each of the developmental domains.

The data collection process.

So what happens in the AEDC?

It happens in the first year of full-time schooling, once in three years.

And the intention of the AEDC is to give us an overview, a broad overview and a snapshot every three years of how children are growing and developing all across Australia.

So the last collection took place in term 2/2024, but we've had previous collections since 2009.

So the 2024 data collection has given us a 6th collection cycle.

It happens across all schools and public, Catholic and independent schools.

So regardless of the schools where the children from your services transition into, they would have the opportunity to participate in the ADC data collection.

So each teacher, each kindergarten teacher...

Let me know if you need further modifications!

Here’s the transcript with the names removed:

Good morning, everyone.

Hopefully everyone is able to drop through and join us this morning.

I'll get started.

My name is the manager of the triage and customer service team within the statewide operations network. Myself and my colleague, who is the coordinator of the triage and Review team, will be presenting this session to you today.

Firstly, our apologies for the postponement of this session.

We had an illness with our team, but we're really pleased to be with you today to present this information.

Session on how to make effective notifications to the regulatory authority here in New South Wales.

We have quite a bit to get through today, so we'll keep moving.

I'm pleased to join you from Wongle country here in the Ora nation nearby to Guiliani.

The name that local elders advocate for the Cooks River, whose traditional name has sadly been lost due to the impacts of colonisation.

We recognise the ongoing custodians of the lands and waterways where we all work and live together.

We pay respect to elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories.

We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.

A little bit of scene setting, stepping through the focus of today's session with you, we will be talking about what are incident and complaint notifications. We'll do a little bit of a run through of the national decision tree.

We want to talk about the 5W's and how to help you in guiding you with how you actually notify the regulatory authority.

And then we'll go through the specifics of incident notifications and the specifics of complaint notifications.

But we have a little bit of housekeeping to start. As is usual for our ECS connect sessions, the microphone, video and chat functions are disabled on this webinar today.

The Q&A function is available if you have any questions throughout the session. Again, as usual, we will try our best to respond to questions as they come in.

We understand that you may have some questions relating to other topics, including recent media coverage.

About the sector and the parliamentary processes that are underway, we acknowledge the impact that this coverage is having on the sector and understand you may have questions about what this means for you and your service. To ensure everyone can get the most out of this session, our team will be focusing on questions specifically relating to the session content. If you do have any additional questions relating to the other topics, I encourage you to contact the regulatory authority directly through our information and enquiries team.

Automated closed captions are enabled if you'd like to use them.

And lastly, the session is being recorded so that we can publish it on our website for you to share with colleagues or refer back to.

But now I'm going to hand over to my colleague to guide us through this topic.

So what is an incident or a complaint notification?

Notifications provide transparency and accountability and enable serious incidents, complaints and breaches of the educational care services, national law and the national regulations to be effectively monitored, tracked and resolved.

Approved providers have an obligation under the national law to notify the regulatory authority of certain incidents, complaints and changes to information about their service.

Today, we're going to focus only on incidents and complaints.

If you've got any questions in regards to other notification types, your best to go through our information and enquiries hotline to ask any questions around this, but we are specific today on incidents and complaints.

So commonly an incident or a complaint is event-based and it's specific to the children you're providing education and care to.

They relate to your service specifically.

An event is commonly something that has happened where there's been an impact to a child, so these include serious incidents as defined under Regulation 12 circumstances at a service which pose a risk to the health, safety and well-being of children.

Or any incident or allegation that physical or sexual abuse of a child or children has occurred or is occurring while a child or children are being educated and cared for at the service.

So the notification itself serves as a record of the event and any risk elements that staff at the service have faced.

The notification and any associated documents can be used to further guide changes in practices.

And it also allows for ongoing reflection on best practice at your service.

Ongoing reflection of incidents and complaints at your service can reduce the risk of reoccurrence and limit health, safety and well-being issues to children in your care.

So when we look at incidents and complaints and how that can guide practice, consider quality area two and seven, they both underpin the areas of notification.

So if we look at quality Area 2, so under the NQF, there's several elements that focus on children's health safety in relation to preventing and responding to incidents.

So you've got elements 2.1.2 which is effective illness and injury management and hygiene practices are promoted and implemented. Element 2.2.2 plans to effectively manage incidents and emergencies are developed in consultation with the relevant authorities, practice and implemented.

And element 2.2.3 educators and staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities to identify and respond to every child at risk of abuse or neglect.

An incident can happen anywhere, at any time.

It can happen during operation hours and it can include during excursions and transport provided by the service, managing known risks that your service may reduce overall risk factors.

Getting up to an event or an occurrence at an event, it is understandable that some risks are uncontrollable and accidents do happen.

We're talking about children here, so we know that there are some uncontrollable variables there.

It's how you manage those risk factors and report them to the regulatory authority and that's the key point.

So when we look at the types of incidents, there are 11 main incident types starting at the most serious and unfortunately the most risky.

And that is the death of a child.

And that goes all the way down through to a service closure and a number reduction. They all have their own requirements which we'll discuss later in this presentation, and each will have subtle little differences in how the regulation requires things and also what it's looking for.

A complaint is commonly a concern, grievance or a statement about something that is unsatisfactory or unacceptable. Complaints may be made verbally or in writing.

By a staff member, a parent, a child.

Now remember, a child has agency here, so they can voice their opinion here. A member of the public as well.

Let me know if you need any further modifications!

Good morning, everybody. We're just giving everybody a few minutes to jump into the meeting and then we'll get started.
People are still flowing in, so we'll just hold out for a second.
OK.
I think the numbers are slowing down that are joining with us. So, we might get started.
Thank you everybody for joining our webinar for the 2025 Health and Development participation Grant. We are going to chat with you for the next 45 minutes. Just about the grant and how you can spend your money. We might just move on to the next slide please.
Excellent. So, good morning, everybody. My name is Alicia Kenyon, and I am currently the acting manager for the Health and Development Check team at the NSW Department of Education. I am joined today by my team as well, and you'll see a couple of faces come up onto the screen as we go through this morning's webinar.
I'd like to begin our meeting today by acknowledging country, so I am calling in today from the land of the Derek people where I live, work and play.
I'd like to extend my respect to the traditional custodians of the lands that I'm on, but also to the lands that you're all joining from today as well. And I acknowledge that wherever you're dialling in from in NSW, we're joining from Aboriginal land always was and always will be.
I'd like to pay my respects to all of our Aboriginal colleagues that are joining us today as well.
As we gather today and we talk about health and development cheques and we talk about our 2025 grand that can support our littlest learners.
I encourage everybody to keep Aboriginal children and their families at the centre of everything that we do to help children's development, OK.
So thank you all for joining us today. I'm really glad to see so many people have jumped on to hear our webinar today. Congratulations to everybody for receiving a 2025 health and development participation grant. As I said earlier, we're going to go through and just have a look at the different categories of the grant and how we can spend our money.
A little bit of housekeeping before we dive straight in as we go through the content this morning. If you have any questions, you can add them to our Q&A function.
As I said before, our team is here and they're ready to answer questions as we go through. So just pop them into the chat, into the Q&A, sorry, and we will answer them as we go through. If there's anything that you think of after we finish this morning, don't sweat. You can just send us a quick e-mail. The e-mail address will come up on your screen multiple times throughout the morning. So just jot that down. Any questions you have that you want some more information on or anything you think about later, just send us an e-mail.
And we will answer your questions.
OK, so we're here today to discuss how services can best utilise their 2025 grant and we will break it down as we go through into category one, category two and for people that got grants across both categories, if you're unsure which grant which sorry which category your service got a grant from. You should have received this information in your notification of outcome letter and you should have received this via e-mail.
On the 5th of March this year.
If you're not sure, still, after looking at that letter or you can't locate the letter, just send us an e-mail so we can assist you.
We are also going to give you a bit of a brief overview of the rollout of the health and Development check program across the state, how your service can book a visit and what you're reporting requirements will be at the end of this grant process.
OK, so as you can see, there's a slide up on the screen now about our programme. So, we are going to give you now a quick overview of the health and Development check program, so a lot of you probably have heard a bit about this programme already, but we're just going to give you a quick recap and just give you some information about where we're up to. So health and development checks ECEC
Services program is a partnership between NSW Health and the Department of Education, we know that not that many children are missing out on having their four year old check before they go to school, and we know that about two and five children are also starting school developmentally off track, so regular health and development checks give families really important information and crucial insights into how their children are tracking before they start school. And these health and development checks can be found in their blue book.
The health and development check in early childhood education and care builds on the sorry builds on services that already exist already exist.
So parents and carers can access their child's health and development checks from zero to five.
At their local GP at the child's Health and development, sorry, the child and Family health nurse or the local Aboriginal medical service.
The programme aims is to increase the number of children who complete their four year old check.
So that families can access that information that they need to support their child's health and development and seek help when needed before their children start school.
Each local health district across NSW has tailored the program to their capacity and to their community’s needs.
But broadly speaking, this is what a health and development check would look like. So before the health and development check occurs at your service teachers and educators will be asked to support families to complete the required forms, so a consent form and a pre-questionnaire to support families with completing that and then to discuss their visit with children so that they feel prepared and comfortable with what's going to happen on the day of the check.
On the day of the check, the visiting health professionals will conduct the checks in a private room or a private space at your service.
You will need to ensure that a teacher or educator is present at all times and should provide families feedback as to their child's experience throughout the day.
Following on from the checks, we would encourage families to share the results or report with you so that you can best support their child's needs at your service.
You can also ask the local health district for a service summary form and this will provide you with an overview of the key developmental needs of the children in your service.
OK. Just move on to the next slide please.
Thank you very much.
OK, so the health and development check program commenced roll out in September 2023 and it is now available in 14 of our local health districts across NSW with our last local health district kicking off very shortly.
Health professionals from NSW Health, the local health districts will check Children's Health and development.
As you can see on this slide.
The team at NSW Health and our team here at the Department of Education are working hard to support the roll out, so in 2025 you will see us delivering or already delivered things like new and easy information, easy to read information sheets for services for families and we're hoping to do translations of these sheets as well. We have a Culturally Safe Approach Reflective toolkit, which is now online, and we will be having capability uplifts workshops.
We're going to give you a little bit more information about these things as we progress through the webinar this morning because some of these things are these are things that you can use your funding for.
OK, I am going to pass over to Hannah now, who's going to break down the category One, category two and spending requirements. Thanks Hanna.

Thank you, Alicia. My name's Hannah. I'm the policy officer in our health and development check team at the Department.
So let me break down the grant for you today.
So in 2025.
We designed the grant to support access to the program and to keep children at the centre of our work, so we're aiming for this grant to support uptake of the HDC program.
Especially for services in lower socioeconomic areas, services with high numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse families and all services with a high number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, as well as this we aim to increase capability of teachers and educators in services to implement the HDC program and to embed support for children following the check.
Our goal also is to align with our district equity strategies and their capacity to deliver in 2025, we have had 862 successful applicants.
Congratulations to you all.
So these included across the state, not-for-profit community preschools, not-for-profit long daycare services standalone for profit, long daycare services, Multifunctional Aboriginal Children Services, Aboriginal Child and Family Centres and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.
Let's have a closer look at these categories.
Yep, ready to go to the next slide.
So in 2025, as you would be aware, we have two categories. So category one on the screen there is $1500 for participation in the HDC program, so that includes relief time and overtime payments for educators and teachers to participate in the program. This might include completing administrative tasks, engaging with NSW health staff, and supporting those follow-up conversations that arise after the check.
Category 2 provides $6000 in funding for capability uplift and educational resources.
The intention for category two is to build capacity of ECEC educators to support Children's Health and developmental needs. So, breaking that down that includes professional learning and workshops on Children's Health and development could include, but is not limited to, department-led workshops, which we will be delivering as part of the health and Development checks program.
Or existing conferences or professional development opportunities across Australia.
Allied health professionals in service to support Children's Health and development let me just put myself on the screen. Sorry, here I am.
So that might include, you know, engaging a health professional to come into the service to observe the service in its as you are on your day-to-day and to suggest opportunities to add additional supports into the program or curriculum.
And that funding could also be used for the purchasing of resources that support children's development we encourage you to think about how that could align with Children's Health and development domains, which we will explain later through this webinar today.
We do just want to note that services receiving category one funding have committed to participating in the program in 2025.
Which includes having the district team delivered those health and development checks for four year olds at their service.
Your local health district will be in contact with you when they are able to offer you a service.
Services who've received category two funding are welcome to participate in the Health and Development Check program, but it will not be a requirement of receiving that funding.
Let's look at category one funding in greater detail.
So category one funding can be used to provide relief time, overtime payments or travel costs for educators and teachers to undertake administrative duties related to the checks, which might include assisting families to complete consent forms, meeting with district staff the distribution of reports to families after the check or providing additional support to children during the check.
We just want to make clear funding cannot be used for non HDC program related activities with this category one funding.
So this might so funding cannot be used for things like increasing ratios to provide one-on-one support.
To complete other administrative duties.
So yeah, all working with an individual child. The intention is to support the whole cohort of 4 year old children in receiving those health and development checks.
Services do not need to arrange or pay for their own health professionals to provide the checks the local health district teams will do this for you.
Let's look at category two. So as I mentioned before, we can breakdown category 2 into 3 sub categories so that is ECE, teacher and educator professional development so that covers trouble and relief time costs to enable educators and teachers to attend health and development, check workshops and engage with training resources or related professional learning.
To be engaging allied health professionals, so that includes bringing in an allied health worker or other professionals to support Children's Health and development by providing educators and teachers with professional development, specialised education programs or support to embed suitable cohort wide strategies 2 C.
Is purchasing resources for the program so that includes arranging the provision of resources to support children's development and, as I've already mentioned, resources will need to support cohort-wide engagement.
Let's go to the next slide.
So category two focuses on upscaling educators and teachers in relation to the HDC program, such as preparing to take part of the program or building capacity to support children, support Children's Health and development following a HDC visit.
To determine what may be included under the term health and development, we encourage you to consider the components of the health and development checks program, which includes listening and talking skills, social skills and behaviour, gross and fine motor skills, learning, thinking and problem solving skills and how children's bodies are growing, such as their height, weight and teeth development.
We encourage you to take a look at the Blue Book in particular, the four year old cheque, so that is the basis for the HDC Program in services as delivered by the local health district, so that is forms a great starting point when thinking about how you may wish to use the grant funding in your service.
Let's go to the next slide.
We thought it might prove useful to provide some really tangible examples for how to use the funding. I know that these are merely ideas and is not an exhaustive list you know your service, best, please lean on your experience and your knowledge of the children in your service when choosing how to expend the grant funding. So here are some examples for you, #1.
Would be to arrange for allied health professionals to build educator skills so consider engaging a relevant external provider, such as an allied health professional, to facilitate role modelling and training support to educators and teachers in order to embed strategies into everyday practice and into programs delivered within the service.
#2.
Attend conferences related to early childhood development. An example of a conference you might wish to look into might be the annual ECA conference there are a range of conferences past just that conference to look into.
When deciding what conference or workshop you might consider engaging with, have a close look at the agenda and consider what learnings you could bring back to your service that would support health and development throughout the service as a whole.
#3 engage with professional learning, courses, so consider engaging an online or in person training workshops related to supporting children's development, this might include talking, listening, problem solving skills, social skills and behaviour as per the blue book that we looked at earlier.
We've got a couple of tangible examples on the screen, and I also note that we will the team has developed a recommended professional learning list which we will link in the chat.
#4 would be engage in training delivered by your local health district. Local health districts are regularly delivering training and PL in their areas. We encourage you to reach out to the team and see what they have on offer. A great example.
Would be.
We we've got a great example in northern Sydney Local health district.
They deliver training related to healthy eating and physical activity.
Which is their small bites, big steps, training so that's something to look into there's some great opportunities across the state.
#5 engage with the department's professional learning and tools, which is related to the health and development checks program Alicia mentioned that before, but we will also go into further detail shortly our Connect and Communicate toolkit and our Culturally Safe Approach toolkit.
Let's have a quick look at the next slide. So as I've already mentioned, we have published a list of recommended professional learning it's available through the QR code and we'll drop a link into the chat this list is always being updated as new information comes to light so we will make sure we provide updates as we are aware of new learning opportunities.
Just to note, the list is not exhaustive, you may choose to use funding for other professional learning and development courses, conferences, or workshops, provided that they are linked to and are relevant to supporting Children's Health and development, and the HDC program.
Professional learning can be completed at any time so long as the funds are spent before the 31st of December 2025.
We encourage you to use funding to attend our health and development workshops and engage with the department's professional learning materials related to health and development but again, we also encourage you to consider what works best for your service.
And let's look at the next slide for some more examples as mentioned before, category two can also be used to purchase resources that support children's development. I've listed some examples on the screen there, but I'll just run through some examples here now so examples of resources to assist with children's childhood health and development might include so social, emotional books, self-regulation, teaching resources, role play resources and books, visuals and games to support communication development. You might also consider books to engage in shared reading, which foster language development or books on topics such as emotions to support children to develop their social skills. You might also consider equipment purchasing equipment that supports children's social skills and behaviour such as purchasing resources in order to set up a quiet space for children to visit when they need time away from the group.
You might consider creating visuals that support transitions between routines in order to support children's regulation and socio social emotional development, healthy eating resources, or oral health books.
Such as a toothbrushing model, posters for learning about healthy eating and toothbrushing and role play resources such as food models might also be in consideration for your service.
Gross motor equipment can be purchased such as climbing frames or stepping stones for children's physical development. You might consider purchasing an edible of not purchasing or setting up. Sorry, an edible garden which allow children to learn about different foods and might lead on to additional opportunities, such as assisting in food preparation and developing a positive attitude towards food.
You may also choose to create classroom visuals that encourage an inclusive environment for children with hearing impairments or rearrange your learning environments to reduce hazards and enhance accessibility for those hearing or vision impaired.
As I've popped on the screen there again, you know your service best, so this is not an exhaustive list and we encourage you to consider what might work best in your service and for your cohort of four year old children?
Let's look at the next section, so the boring stuff, I suppose, but the important stuff.
If we go to the next slide, I'll just run through some reporting requirements for the grant, so approve requirements, approved providers are required. Sorry to comply with all financial and data collection reporting and acquittal requirements which are outlined in the program guidelines.
Approved providers must undertake a formal acquittal process by June 2026.
With forms being released in May 2026 through ECCMS, all of that information will be provided at the time for you to be aware of. The acquittal process includes completing a statement which includes reporting on how the funding has been spent approved providers may also be audited from time to time.
This could be part of the department's annual audit or to confirm the accuracy of data provided in an applicant's statement. Therefore, we just kindly ask that relevant records are retained by providers for the purpose of the department undertaking reviews so there's just some information on the screen there, which is also available in the program guidelines for you.
Let's go to the next section. I'm going pass now to my colleague Charlie to talk through our capability uplift activities and tools.
Thank you.

Right. Thank you, Hannah. Hi everyone. My name is Charlie. I'm an assistant policy officer with the health and dev checks team here at education.

Could we go to the next slide, please? All right, we're going start with the culturally safe approach. So, the Culturally Safe Approach for HDC Toolkit was created to help ensure that HDC program remains culturally safe and respectful. It was designed based on feedback from stakeholders who raised three main points: one the support for Aboriginal children and families ensuring their needs are met in an inclusive way.

Two respecting cultural identity, making sure families, cultural practises and values are honoured, and three, adaptability, ensuring the approach works for different communities if each one is unique. The toolkit offers early childhood services practical ideas to create culturally safe environments and meet the cultural needs of families. It aligns with the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards, showing that cultural safety is an important part of quality education I think Hannah has just put the link to the toolkit in the chat. Thank you, Hannah.

To, ensure the toolkit helps services reflect on and improve their approach to be more inclusive, safe and respectful for Aboriginal children and their families before, during and after the health and development check process. So, I would encourage all of you to check out the toolkit and as Hannah said, you can use your funding under category two to engage with the relevant professional learning. Can we go to the next slide, please?

Thank you. So, the Brighter Beginnings Connect and Communicate toolkit has been designed to address a key need for greater speech and language support in the year before school.

Children facing communication difficulties in early childhood are more likely to have ongoing challenges with tasks such as reading, writing, and spelling, as well as challenges with behaviour and maintaining relationships. Early detection and intervention are key to reducing the impact of these difficulties and supporting all children to thrive. For this tool Kit has been designed to be used across the year with short, bite sized pieces of information and strategies to engage with each week.
Each topic includes a theory section providing you with relevant information and evidence-based strategies followed by a practical section to put those strategies into practise. Appendices are provided throughout with different resources you can use within your practise, such as posters, visual routines and games. A summary of each topic is provided as a family fact sheet which you might like to send out to families as part of your newsletter or regular updates. The toolkit also includes a reflective workbook with tasks embedded throughout the topics that provide a space for engaging in deep thinking about pedagogy and practise and critically, reflecting individually and with peers on the learning within the toolkit to generate new ideas and goals, completion of the workbook can also be logged as professional development hours. We are going to have more information on the toolkit at its release very, very soon. So please keep an eye on your inboxes because we'll be sending emails out when that is ready. We go to the next slide, please. Thank you to support the roll out of the connect and communicate toolkit and the culturally safe approach, we'll be delivering workshops across the state in partnership with local health districts, some of you on the call may have attended our first workshop in Dubbo in November last year if that was you hello, this year, we will be visiting 8 LHDs from June to September. We're aiming to visit each LHD by the end of June 2026. The all-day workshops are designed for educational leaders and room leaders and will include an overview of how the HDC Program operates in your district.
A session on typical communication development for four year old children.
Introduction to the culturally safe approach and an opportunity for discussion and reflection on culturally safe practises within the service. An introduction to the Connecting Communicate Toolkit and an interactive let's play session where attendees can explore and practise some of the strategies and experiences in the toolkit with support from speech pathologists and opportunities for discussion, reflection and networking with other services in your local health district.
The services in our participating LHDs will receive invitations to register their interest in attending soon, so please keep an eye on your inbox and again, the department will notify all services of the release of the toolkit via e-mail.
I'm now going to hand back to Alicia.

OK, thank you, Charlie.

OK, so now we're going to have a little bit of a look at what the next steps are.
Awesome. OK. So, we have 15 local health districts, as we said earlier and if you're not sure which local health district your service falls in, you can go onto the interactive LHD map and it will be able to tell you, you can just pop your address in and it tells you which LHC you're in. So, Hannah has just added to the website to the chat for us, but it's also there's a QR code on the screen too, if you want to use that just to pop in and have a look.

Let's go to the next slide, please. Thank you so much. So, as Hannah mentioned earlier, participation in the programme is a requirement when you receive category one funding only. If you received category one funding, your local health district will contact your service to let you know when they're able to offer you the program and they will work with you to find a convenient time for them to come to your service and provide 4 year olds with health and development checks. As we've said before as well, you do not need to arrange your own health professionals to do this NSW Health your local health district will provide the health and development checks for your the children at your service.

If you didn't receive category one funding, your service is still eligible to participate in the program and we encourage you to register your interest with your local health district.

They will contact you when they have availability to provide you a service.
Emails for all of the local health districts can be found on our website, and one of my lovely team, thank you. I'm putting that in the chat for you right now.
So you can go on to this website and there is a list down the bottom of all of the LH Ds find the one that you're in and send them an e-mail to express your interest.

If you have any concerns about booking a checks or you have further questions around that, please feel free to e-mail us at earlychildhooddevelopment@det.nsw.edu.au

OK, just go to the next slide. Thank you. Just a little bit of a timeline for everybody. So, all services should have received the notification letter, and the money should be in your account. If you're a public preschool, that money will be coming shortly.

Services have until the end of December, so the 31st of December to spend their funds in whatever category they received funding for. But if you receive category one, you also have until the end of December, so the 31st
to have a visit completed by your local health district.
And as mentioned earlier by Hannah, you will have until the end of June 2026 to complete your financial reporting or your acquittals process.
OK.

Next slide. So, this is next steps for services if you need more information. This is the slide you need to look back at. So if you want more information about the programme itself, that is the first website and the first QR code on the slide, that will give you an overview of what the programme is and your local health districts.
We encourage all services to re-read the program guidelines, the web page and QR code in the middle will take you to this document if you haven't engaged with this document, please do it's got lots of helpful information in it.

And if you have more questions, please visit our FAQ page that is the one on the right-hand side of the screen and you, there's lots of extra information in there about the 2025 grant.

After you visited all these three sites, read the documents if you still have questions, we are here to help, so please don't hesitate in sending us an e-mail and we will reply to you and provide you with the information that you need. OK. So, I just wanted to say thank you to everybody for joining our webinar this morning. We really hope that we have provided you with some additional information about how to effectively spend your 2025 grant and again don't hesitate to contact us if you need more information. We're more than happy to help.

I think we're keeping up with answering all the questions in the Q&A. My team just give me a quick nod.

Yeah. OK. So, we might just say goodbye and again if you have any questions, just get in contact. Thanks so much everybody.

Rudy, thanks for joining us today.

For this session on child safety in your service as part of our ECU Connect series.

It's great to have you with us.

As always, we appreciate you giving up your time to come along to these sessions.

And now you'll find this session today particularly valuable.

On such an important topic. So thanks very much for joining us.

I'm just going to give it a little bit more time.

I can see the numbers still climbing.

Great that you can be with us today.

I'm going to make a start, so thank you everybody for joining us for this session today on child safety.

In your service I'm the manager of a team at the NSW Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority called the Quality Practice and Regulatory Support team.

We provide advice and guidance to services in NSW to help with understanding the National Quality Framework.

And how to put that into practice.

In your service, I'll be talking to you today about reporting and introducing you to some new e-learning that we've developed that will help you improve child safety.

At your service with me today is my colleague.

Thanks.
Yeah. Hello, everyone.
My name is...
I'm the manager of compliance and investigations.

I look after two teams of investigators within the regulatory authority and also two compliance teams.

I'll be talking to you later in the presentation about the investigations process and will be sharing with you some learnings from my perspective.

About that process.

So welcome.

I'd like to start by acknowledging that wherever we are today, we're on Aboriginal lands.

I'm joining you today from the lands of the Darkinjung people, and I'd like to pay my respect to Darkinjung elders, past and present, and thank them for the continuing care of the lands and waterways where I live and work.

I pay my respects to the elders of the lands that we're all joining from today as the teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories.

I'd like to acknowledge the important work that's taking place.

Across our sector to make early childhood services culturally safe places for all children, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families.

I hope that some of you were able to come along to yesterday's EC Connect session on the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework. If you're interested in finding out more about the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework, take a listen.

To the recording of yesterday's On the Couch session, where three services discuss their experience as an early adopter of the Cultural Safety Framework.

In today's session, we're going to talk to you about the importance of the reporting process, who you should report to and when, and we'll take a look at what happens during an investigation.

This will help you to see the reporting process in some practical context.

Obviously, we hope that you don't have to experience an investigation, but the reality is that incidents happen and it's helpful to know what's involved in an investigation and to understand why it's so important to capture the right information and make the right notifications and reports on time.

We’ll finish off with some useful tips and advice that you can take away with you back to your services.

To reflect on and share with colleagues.

To start some housekeeping, as is usual for our EC Connect sessions, the microphone, video and chat functions are disabled on this webinar today. The Q&A function is available though if you have any questions throughout the session. Again, as usual, we will try our best to respond to all the questions that come in today.

We understand that you may have some questions relating to other topics.

Including recent media coverage.

About the sector and the parliamentary processes that are underway, we acknowledge the impact that this coverage is having on the sector and do understand that you may have questions about what this means for you and your service. To ensure that everyone can get the most out of today’s session, our team will be focusing on questions specifically relating to the session content. If you do have any additional questions relating to other topics, I encourage you to contact the regulator directly through our Information and Inquiries team.

Automated closed captions are enabled. If you'd like to use them.

And lastly, the session is being recorded so that we can publish it on our website for you to share with colleagues and refer back to.

Reporting.

It's important that all staff in early childhood education and care services drive a culture of advocacy for children. If you are concerned or have a suspicion that a child is at risk of abuse, harm, neglect, or ill treatment, you should talk to someone about it. You should refer to your service’s policies and procedures on child safety.

Child protection or complaints handling.

To understand who you can talk to.

It's important that any concerns or suspicions you may have are discussed with an appropriate person.

This might include your nominated supervisor, approved provider, area manager, or a relevant agency.

Once you've discussed your concerns, if you become worried that your concerns have not been appropriately addressed, you should contact a relevant agency such as the Department of Communities and Justice.

NSW Police or us at the Regulatory Authority for more information.

Child safety is our highest priority. As mandatory reporters, we have a legal and ethical duty to act when we suspect a child is at risk.

I'm going to cover the key steps in responding to, reporting, and supporting children and families in the event of an incident or allegation.

Our first priority is always the safety and well-being of the child. If there is an immediate danger, act quickly.

This could include administering first aid, removing hazards or ensuring children are in a safe place. For serious incidents or medical emergencies, call 000 immediately.

Stay calm and follow your service’s response plan.

Everyone working in early childhood education is a mandatory reporter. If you are concerned, you must report it.

This is not optional.

Serious incidents or allegations must be reported to specific authorities within required timeframes.

We'll look at this more closely in a moment.

I want to reiterate that if you report a concern within your service and you are not satisfied with the response, you must escalate the matter.

You can do this by phoning the regulatory authority.

Failure to report child abuse is a criminal offence. Recently, police have charged individuals for not reporting. This is a serious matter that all early childhood staff need to understand.

In terms of informing parents, do this as soon as practical, unless authorities have advised otherwise. If there are child protection concerns, seek guidance before speaking with parents.

Keep communication to parents or carers factual and sensitive.

Explain what happened and the next steps.

Monitor the child and provide emotional support with guidance from child protection agencies.

Work with families and refer to support services where needed.

Ensure staff also have access to debriefing and support.

Finally, after an incident, review what happened and identify areas for improvement, update policies and make sure that staff feel confident in reporting procedures.

Encourage a culture of open discussion and continuous learning.

Reporting is not just a policy, it's a legal requirement.

Reporting isn't just about responding to what happened. Effective reporting prevents future harm.

If you're concerned, report. If your concerns aren't taken seriously, escalate them.

Speaking up can protect a child and prevent harm.

As you've heard, ensuring child safety requires clear and timely reporting. If you suspect a child is at risk, it's essential to follow the correct reporting channels.

I'm going to explain now how to record and report your concerns to the relevant authorities.

First, record.

Document details immediately. Who was there? What happened? What actions were taken?

Stick to the facts.

This helps with accurate reporting.

For serious risk of harm, such as suspected physical or sexual abuse, contact NSW Police immediately by calling 000.

The safety of the child is the priority and police can take urgent action.

The Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority requires approved providers to report serious incidents within 24 hours.

Let me know if you'd like this exported to a document or further refined.

Good morning, everyone.

I can see lots of people still coming in, which is really great.

So we just want to welcome you today and thank you for joining us for our session on assessment and rating.

We are aware of the many commitments that you have and how precious time is. So we're really grateful that you’ve decided to spend some time with us today and we're going to jump straight in and get started so that we can make the most of your time.

Before we move into our discussions today, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands where we work and live. I live and work on Dharug lands and I'm always grateful for the care of the beautiful bush and park lands that has been given over generations that I am privileged to have access to and to call home in my community.

I'd like to pay respects to Elders past and present as teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories and acknowledge any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people who may be with us in this session today.

So today's session is going to focus on assessment and rating, getting a better understanding of the National Quality Standard and what to expect from assessment and rating.

We understand that you may have some questions relating to other topics, including recent media coverage about the sector and parliamentary processes that are underway. We acknowledge the impact that this coverage has had on the well-being of educators in the sector and we understand that you may have questions about what this means for you and your service.

While this is not the focus of today's session, we have published some information on our website to support you on this topic. To ensure that everyone is able to get the most out of this session, our team will be focusing on questions specifically related to the session content.

If you do have any additional questions relating to other topics, you can phone our NSW ECEC Regulatory authority. Our team may support you with your questions and we're going to pop the best contact details in the chat for you to be able to do that now.

Now as we commence, I just will go through a little bit of housekeeping things, but to help you navigate this session. You'll notice that the microphone, video and chat functions have been disabled for the session, but the Q&A function will be available if you have any questions.

So big thank you to my team who are here to support us today and we'll be answering your questions in the Q&A area as they can. We're also hoping to have time at the end of the session to respond to any key questions where we can, including some of those that potentially came through registration.

We do have automated closed captions during the session for accessibility and we will be recording today's session and this will be made available on our website.

So what are we going to talk about today? You can see on your screen here some of the topics that we're going to cover around our education and care services and the importance of quality and early childhood education and care.

Assessment and rating, of course, in NSW, understanding the National Quality Standard, unpacking your practices, the what and the why, how to support your team, assessment and rating visits and support that's available for your services.

I realised that I very rudely didn't introduce myself at the beginning. My name is Vanessa Beck, I'm the hub coordinator of the Continuous Improvement team.

Now it's my absolute pleasure to introduce you to Belinda Wakeford, who is our NSW Lead Assessor and the State Manager within our regulatory authority.

Thanks, Belinda.

Thanks very much, Vanessa, and welcome everyone. Thanks for joining us this morning.

So I'm going to just have a little chat through why quality in early childhood education and care matters and recap assessment and rating in NSW. As we know, participation, early childhood education and care can have a lifelong impact on children and their families.

The recent Australian education research organisation AERO conducted a study linking quality and child development in early childhood education and care. Key findings of that AERO report indicated that the National Quality Standard overall ratings were consistently associated with the AEDC domains.

Children in services rated Exceeding NQS are excellent had lower rates of developmental vulnerability and quality areas 1 educational programme and practice, Area 3 Physical environment and Area 5 Relationships with children have the greatest and most consistent association with these AEDC domains.

Research tells us that high quality ECEC experiences support children's education, well-being and development, providing them with the best start in life and improved outcomes beyond the early years.

And we, as the NSW Regulatory authority for early childhood education and care, are committed to supporting services to uplift their quality and compliance to provide safe, enriching environments to improve outcomes for all children.

So we'll just touch on the quality ratings system and give you a bit of an overview of assessment and rating within NSW. On screen, there's a recap of the seven quality areas that are within the National Quality Standard. These seven quality areas are assessed toward a service rating.

As mentioned earlier, the recent AERO report findings mentioned quality areas 1, 3 and 5 have the greatest and most consistent association with the AEDC domains. The assessment and rating process is one way to measure service quality. This assessment is applied against seven quality areas of the National Quality Standards and while there is often a focus on services overall rating, it's important to look deeper to gain a clearer picture of where a service is at and identify areas for improvement.

Today I'll be joined by Samantha Gillett, who's an authorised Officer in our Continuous Improvement team, and Sam's going to talk to you about how to look deeper into the NQS and get a better understanding of the standards and elements that sit within each quality area. To get that clearer picture for participants who are new to the sector or joining us for assessment and rating in this session for the first time, we as the New Wales Regulatory Authority are responsible for assessing and awarding ratings between Significant Improvement Required and Exceeding.

Where a service receives a rating of Exceeding in all 7 quality areas, they can apply to ACECQA to be further assessed for an Excellent rating. The National Benchmark for service quality is Meeting the National Quality Standard and the A&R process determines a quality rating against the NQS by looking at your service’s strengths or key practices, compliance with the national Law and Regulations and knowledge and use of the approved learning frameworks.

This is done through an assessment and rating visit conducted by one of our authorised officers. Our officers undergo national training and rigorous testing conducted by ACECQA who is the independent national authority that assists governments in administering the National Quality Framework for children's early education and care.

This ensures that our officers apply a nationally consistent approach to the quality rating system, which is designed to indicate the level of quality within that ECE service. The ratings also support families make informed decisions about their child's early childhood education and care, and it's used to improve quality service practice with the intent of improving outcomes for children, as mentioned.

So a quick visual here to give you a look at how we're tracking in NSW. Of just over 6200 services that we regulate in NSW, 5725 have a published quality rating. Those who've not yet been assessed are our newer services who are working to establish their service and practice.

93% of services who've been assessed in rating have achieved a rating of Meeting or above the NQS, which is great and a real celebration and reflection of the great work that's occurring across the sector to uplift service quality practice and improve outcomes for children.

So we've been communicating over the last 12 months about the national improvements to assessment and rating which have been implemented in the phased approach in NSW. This isn't new information, just to recap, for those of you who haven't joined one of our sessions in a little while or haven't been through A&R in the last 12 months. We want A&R to provide reliable information to families about service quality as just mentioned, ensure ratings are a true reflection of everyday practice, promote continuous improvement and make the process of A&R as efficient as possible for services.

So the first change that we introduced was the increased use of partial reassessments. Typically that includes an assessment of either two or four quality areas and services can nominate one quality area for assessment and the authorised officer will select the remaining areas based on a range of factors, for example, the date of your last assessment, your service’s compliance history and sector trends.

The second change to A&R is the five-day notice period which is now in play for all assessment and rating visits within NSW, excluding our ACCO services where further consultation has been occurring. Moving to a 5-day business notice period was designed to help ensure assessment and rating reflects your everyday practice. We continue to listen to feedback from services undergoing A&R with these changes.

Yama Mallya.

Welcome, everybody.

Yama.

Just giving it a few more moments before we start.

I see numbers are increasing as I'm speaking.

All right, I might kick things off.

Yama Mallya.

Hello friends in Gomoroi, the language of my people.

My name is Stacy and I'm a proud Gomory woman.

My family are Duncans and Smiths from Maury, northwest NSW.

I'm currently coming from you from the beautiful, dark and young country.

I am also the manager of the Cultural Safety Team within the NSW ECE Regulatory Authority and the Cultural Safety Team are responsible for the development and the implementation of the first ever Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework for the early childhood education and care sector.

The aim of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and the Early Adopter Experience ECA Connect session is to give you a taste of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework resources so that early childhood education and care staff interested in improving their practice and building their knowledge and understanding can see what's involved with this resource today.

You'll also hear from three services that participated as early adopters of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

They will discuss their experiences and the benefits of implementation of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

They will also talk to you about how they implemented the framework to their particular service needs and their service type and size, and what practices have continued as a result.

Lastly, you'll find out more about what to expect and how to register for the next round of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

Titled the Momentum Builders.

The Cultural Safety team are aiming for 1000 services to enrol into the Momentum Builders Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework programme.

Now, just some quick housekeeping before we begin.

This is a recorded session and can be accessed a week after the event.

A transcript will be added to the recording and then made publicly available on the website.

The question and answer function is available, so please feel free and comfortable to ask any questions.

The Cultural Safety Team and myself will try to answer all these questions.

However, if we are unable to answer any of the questions during this session, you can always reach out to us on the Cultural Safety Team email.

I'm now going to hand to Ron who will acknowledge country for us today.

Thanks, Ron.

Thanks, Stacy.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Ron Timbery.

I'm an Aboriginal man from the LA Perouse Aboriginal community in southern Sydney.

Our traditional name is the Bibigo Clan.

On behalf of everyone joining today, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands where we all work and live, and to pay our respects to Elders past and present.

I'm joining the meeting from the suburb of Botany in southern Sydney and these lands are recognised as the homelands of the Bibigo people of the Sydney Coast.

The Cultural Safety Team in the NSW Regulatory Authority, the RA, will be presenting this session to you.

I'm a Senior Policy Officer in the team and I've been with the team since June 2022.

I've worked in the public service for most of my working career but I've also worked in the community not for profit sector.

Tony Ross, one of our team's policy officers, unfortunately couldn't be with us today.

Tony is a proud Camilla Ray woman who is deeply connected to country, culture and community in Tamworth, NSW.

Tony joined the Cultural Safety Team nearly two years ago as she saw the importance of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and wanted the opportunity to be part of work that could transform educational outcomes for Aboriginal children in their early years of learning.

Now I'm going to hand over to Jazz for further introductions.

Thank you, Thank you Ron Yama everyone.

My name is Jasmine Weldon and I joined the Cultural Safety Team in 2024 as a Senior Policy Officer.

I am a proud Gomeroi woman from Bogabilla, which is located on the Queensland, NSW border.

It has been a great honour to contribute to this groundbreaking work across the ECEC sector in NSW and particularly for my people, and I'll hand over to Nick now to introduce himself.

Hi everyone, my name is Nick Burel and I am a proud Aboriginal ally and have been involved with the Cultural Safety Team since the start of 2024.

I saw this as a chance to make a resonating positive change to the existing educational landscape in my home state, surrounded by a great team as well as a selfless and passionate early childhood sector.

I'll pass it back to Stacey to give some information about the framework.

Thanks Nick.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework was a key deliverable of a Co-design process which was informed by a consultation outcomes report.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework was designed and delivered by Aboriginal people and allies with expertise and lived experience and it was informed by a culturally appropriate and accepted methodology.

This phased approach of the creation of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework has previously been shared with the sector and detailed information on the development can be found on our website.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework consists of Archie's story and five core needs and is written from the perspective of Aboriginal children.

This is intentional and it's a key feature of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and the key resources in the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

Archie's story is one of many stories that illustrate Aboriginal children accessing and participating in early childhood education and care in NSW.

And if you lean in and you listen to our jargon stories, you will hear that Aboriginal children are diverse with hopes, dreams, aspirations and they look forward to their education and care journeys with excitement.

The research tells us access to and participation in high quality early childhood education care sets up Aboriginal children for the rest of their lives.

I'd also just like to take a moment now to give a big thank you to Tammy Anderson, who is a Birapai woman and a principal out of Briar Rd Public School for sharing her knowledge, her wisdom and her family.

Tammy shares Archie, her son, with the ECE sector.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework elevates the voices of Aboriginal children and defines five core needs to ensure cultural safety for Aboriginal children and their families who are participating in early childhood education and care.

Additionally, these five core needs support all children, learn about, value and celebrate Aboriginal peoples, our cultures and our histories.

The five core needs written from the perspective of Archie and Aboriginal children are my language, community and country are known, honoured and cared for.

Building trust and culturally safe relationships is important to me and my family.

My culture is seen, heard and valued.

Your values reflect my people's way of knowing, doing and being, and your policies are designed with my people.

The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework is a 10 week programme and begins with the implementation of the Starter Kit.

The starter kit unpacks each of the five core needs using a Core Need Animation, a cultural chronicle booklet.

This is essentially teaching notes that complement the animation and creates deep discussion about key concepts and a poster that reinforces the learning.

I'm now going to share with you a taster of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework resources so that our early childhood education and care staff interested in improving their practice and building their knowledge of culturally responsive practice and Aboriginal people's histories and cultures can actually see what's involved with the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework.

So you'll begin the week being exposed to one of those core needs written from the perspective of Aboriginal children.

Core need One is my language, community and country are known, honoured and cared for.

Then you're exposed to the shared definition to support your understanding of that core need.

And the shared definition is I need you to value and commit to building relationships with me, my family and my community.

Strong relationships and continual connections to country and community are at the heart of who I am as an Aboriginal.

Jarjam, it is important that you acknowledge and value the contributions of my people, past and present in my learning, including preserving and sharing languages.

So the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework will outline Aboriginal children's and families and communities expectations.

Again a primary feature of the Aboriginal Cultural Safety Framework and this is explicit in the This is what I Need column.

Individuals and teams will unpack, discuss and reflect on the This is What I Need column.

For example, on your screen, .4 of the This is What I Need column states.

My educator recognises Country and Elders as my library.

So this is an expectation directly from Aboriginal children and families and communities.

We want to see this in all early childhood education and care services.

So what does this mean?

Who can support the understanding?

How does that look in your service and how can this be delivered in your service?

So if you're watching and viewing this right now and you're thinking about .4.

My educator recognises country and elders as my library and you're reflecting on those questions...

Let me know if you need further assistance!

0:07
Hello everybody, welcome to our ECE Connect webinar series.

0:15
I'm just gonna wait a few seconds while people join, but I'll be your host for this afternoon.

0:35
OK, I see people joining and coming in, so welcome.

0:38
Just waiting a few seconds to allow for technology and then I'll introduce myself and the topic for this afternoon.

0:52
All right, let's get started.

0:54
Welcome everyone to our third Mental Health and Wellbeing series webinar session.

1[VF1] :01
Within the ECE Connect series.

1:03
Today we'll be talking about mentoring and how it can improve ECEC professionals’ wellbeing.

1:14
Just calling out.

1:15
We're not going to be covering specific mental health topics.

1:20
Our focus for today is specifically on mentoring in the context of how it can improve staff wellbeing and create connection for people.

1:29
These particular sessions’ focus is not about mental health and wellbeing for children and families, but more specifically around the early childhood workforce, early childhood professionals.

1:43
So as we get started, I just wanted to do a bit of an acknowledgement of country.

1:51
So today I'm joining from Dharug land, the land of the Burramattagal people.

1:57
So I wanted to acknowledge the Elders, past and present on the lands that I'm on, the land that I'm coming to you from, and I'd really like to, in my acknowledgement of Aboriginal heritage and history and custodianship, reflect on the topic of mentoring.

2:14
In that context, I look to my learnings that I've undertaken so far personally and professionally about Aboriginal ways of living, being and doing, where from family, community, land, sea and culture and identity are integral as part of health and wellbeing And connection to all these things are so fundamental to Aboriginal ways of life.

2:40
And I think there's such a rich opportunity to learn and build our understanding from that perspective and that lens.

2:48
So I just really value and appreciate the sharing and generosity of Aboriginal communities and what they offer around sharing their culture and what we can learn from that.

2:59
Cool.

2:59
So for those who haven't joined an ECE Connect session before, if this is your first time or if it's your third time on this specific series about mental health and wellbeing for the workforce, I just wanted to run through some quick housekeeping.

3:14
I'm not don't want to spend time on too much time on it because I really want to spend time on the topic.

3:21
But just to clear out that the microphone, video and chat functions are disabled during the webinar, but the Q&A function as distinct to the chat function will be available if you have any questions throughout the session.

3:36
So what will happen is you can start throwing in questions from right now and all the way through in the background.

3:42
My colleagues will be working on answering some of those questions within the Q&A function.

3:48
But we'll also be storing up some really juicy questions to ask our in conversation panel style members later on and I'll introduce them shortly.

4:00
The session is gonna be recorded.

4:03
So if if you have any colleagues who haven't been able to make it today or if you want to share it with colleagues who aren't aware of this session after the fact, the recording link will be uploaded to the website and then you'll be emailed a link after the session, I believe.

4:18
And so yeah, that'll be shareable and rewatchable as well.

4:24
If you require closed captions, if you navigate, if you're looking at the same version of Teams as me to the more triple dots at the top and go to the language and speech options.

4:36
You can select closed captions for yourself with the version that we upload later to the live to the website.

4:46
Sorry, you it will already have like a transcript attached to it.

4:50
So you'll be able to use that as well afterwards.

4:54
Awesome.

4:55
So just now I'm moving into the session outline.

5:01
I just wanted to run through what we're going to be doing today.

5:05
So as I mentioned earlier, this is the third session in the series.

5:10
And what we kind of did was start really broad and now we're getting a little bit more specific as we go.

5:16
The first webinar was Mentally Healthy Workplaces and the next webinar was on building Networks Of Support based on sector feedback and also research evidence.

5:26
We feel that mentoring is one of the most impactful ways for the early childhood workforce in particular to build networks of support in in the service style setting and building networks beyond just your service that you work at.

5:43
We hope you'll feel the same after this session if you're yet to be convinced or that you might have something to share, we have the Q&A function and also a mentee a mentee questionnaire session later on.

5:59
But really what we want to look at is how mentoring can create a supportive nurturing environment to both mentor and mentee.

6:06
And really importantly that this can have a flow on effect on children who benefit from improved practise and improved workforce wellbeing.

6:15
That was a bit of a tongue twister today.

6:17
What we'll do is we'll set the scene and and get a shared understanding of what I'm saying when I keep repeating the word mentoring, but also what its impacts will be, can be.

6:27
Then we'll bring in an educational leader to interview him about his own personal experience as a mentee and aspirations as a mentor.

6:37
And we'll also then add to the conversation by bringing in subject matter expert Professor Andrea Nolan for a discussion about the research base for mentoring in the early childhood context.

6:50
And that's where we will bring out some of your questions.

6:52
So if you have anything that you want to ask someone who's had lived experiences like Jake and I'll introduce him further soon or Andrea, please feel free to think about that context of questions or even questions for myself.

7:07
We'll end with a Menti.

7:08
I know it says slido on the screen, but it's Menti now and where you can where we're going to ask you some questions and then we'll just I'll kind of summarise and narrate your contributions there.

7:22
Cool.

7:22
So as I mentioned, this is the third session and what we will do is I'm not sure that we can put it in the chat as such, but what we will do, if possible, we'll put a link in the chat to our website where the other sessions are visible.

7:38
Otherwise, afterwards when you receive the website link, you'll also receive an info pack.

7:46
And in the info pack, there's a link to our website to access the previous two topics, webinar topics.

7:53
So today we're honing in on mentoring just so we have a shared understanding of what mentoring is we have.

7:59
We want to take you through some of the evidence and research agreed language that we use.

8:04
And what we've got on the screen is how it differs from communities of practise, which is a group setting facilitated by someone with a specific expertise.

8:14
It also differs from peer to peer support because usually a mentor is not at the same stage of career as a mentee, rather a more experienced professional.

8:24
In some circumstances though, you and your mentor may hold the same job title.

8:28
So you may both be, for example, room leaders, but potentially your mentor has about 10 or 15 years experience as a room leader and you may be in your first or second year as a room leader.

8:41
And that's the lived experience in sharing opportunity piece.

8:46
I'm just moving into the next slide and got a quote on the screen, but just to expand on this quote a little further.

8:56
Mentoring should chiefly be a collaborative model of professional learning and individualised support.

9:02
The mentor helps the mentee to grow and they collaborate together on this growth.

9:07
Both the mentor and mentee engage in a mutually beneficial relationship, build on guidance, shared learning and really importantly, trust.

9:15
The mentors also grow in their professional practise because they're actively reflecting on it with their mentee.

9:24
Mentors also experienced increased senses of professional identity as a leader, taking others under their wing.

9:30
So what we're seeing here is that as maybe traditionally viewed, the mentee is the one that stands to gain.

9:37
But in further analysis and unpacking of the situation, actually the mentors gain something here as well.

9:44
A collaborative approach ensures that the mentoring's not just about one person's growth, but also about fostering a connected and supportive professional environment.

9:53
This will this can also be seen to enhance wellbeing for both parties.

9:59
So that's that's why we're pretty passionate about this stuff because there's benefits for all involved.

10:06
Talk about benefits.

10:07
I'm going to move on and break that down just a little further.

10:11
Not a fan of reading words on the slide, but just to add to what you can see there, we know from our research, there are benefits across the sector, including enhanced professional growth, skill development and continuous learning.

10:23
These things lead to improved job satisfaction with reducing attrition, which is great for employers of course, but also importantly, it's for the benefit of children and communities.

10:36
It helps because it fosters collaboration, strengthens leadership and overall quality.

10:43
So what I'm about to do, I'm about to introduce Jake who can speak more about the benefits for the individual, including those that we see, that we see their professional skills, but also crucially wellbeing.

10:56
So I'm very excited to introduce Jake to the screen.

11:01
We're gonna probably take down the slides for a little while and Jake and I are gonna have a bit of a chat for you around his experiences.

11:12
Jake Small is currently completing a Bachelor's degree at the University of Wollongong in early childhood teaching, and he's based in the Blue Mountains.

11:20
Jake's a room leader.

11:21
Sorry, I should get that right - an educational reader leader and we're really excited to have Jake along just waiting to see that he's up on the screen and off mute and then I might dive into my first question for him.

11:37
How are we going Jake with technology?[VF2]

11:39
Are you there?

11:42
I think I brought you on the screen, but I don't know how to take your camera off, so we'll wait for technology.

12:03
And I'm not sure how I unmute you either.

12:05
Oh no, I might just pause and see if someone can help me with the tech.

12:25
Let's see what we can do here.

12:42
I think I'm a bit stuck, but what I'll do is just tell you a little bit of what I've gotten to know about Jake in recent times.

12:53
So Jake participated in a mentoring program as part of his accelerated degree pathway mode of study at the University of Wollongong.

13:05
So in his time as a mentee, he really used that to apply his knowledge.

13:11
I hate to talk on his behalf because his experience is fabulous.

13:13
So if we can't get him on the screen, what we're gonna do as a back up plan is maybe I can record something afterwards and you guys will get an email with a little web video interview of him.

13:25
But what we really wanted to ask him was how the mentor helped in his work and studies, how, how and whether it created changes in his teaching practise and what were the flow on effects that he saw with with the children that he was educating and teaching.

13:46
How is beneficial personally and the challenges that arose for him as a mentee and how these can be resolved.

13:53
Like what are the technical and scheduling and life difficulties that get in the way?

13:57
And we know that's real and relevant in the early childhood sector.

14:02
And what is I want to know about Jake's aspirations because from what he mentioned to me, he's really keen to become a mentor now that he's been a mentee.

14:10
And So what is the motivator for that is something I'm really keen to hear about as well.

14:16
We are still working away on technology.

14:19
But what I might try and do is see if I can try one more time.

14:28
Oh, hang on, I think we've got something.

14:30
I think we've got you.

14:31
Yes.

14:32
Oh my gosh, we've got you.

14:33
Sorry, I just gave away all our questions, but I have got you.

14:36
Sorry about the technological drama.

14:39
That's quite a lot.

14:40
Oh, good.

14:41
So welcome, Jake.

14:43
I'll run back to the start.

14:45
I, I sort of, as you were trying to fix the tech, tell people a bit about your mentoring experience in terms of where you did your mentoring through, which was while studying.

14:54
But I really want want to hear from you around how having a mentor helped you in your work and studies and even if you want to talk about how it affected your teaching practise and the impacts with children as well.

15:08
OK.

15:10
Regarding mentoring, I have through the, through the, my studies at university, I have had the opportunity to connect with multiple individuals regarding those in both leadership positions and aspiring to be leaders.

15:29
And through the program we also have designated leaders that are both combined through community of practise sessions which are weekly online catch ups to check on content that are studying.

15:49
And there's also through my work, we also have systems in place, including an operations manager who overseas myself and other education educational leaders within my organisation.

16:05
And they not only are supporters of ourselves, but also we worked, we worked collaboratively to build on our professional practise through the sharing of knowledge and also through educational leader meetings that happen.

16:26
There's also more opportunity to have that networking.

16:29
And that has allowed for that further collaboration to happen, establishing networks that you have within your profession itself, but also within the context of the university study.

16:46
Yeah, awesome.

16:46
And how about in the sense of how being a participant of that has affected, your work, and particularly your work in regards to the flow on effects with children.

16:59
I see it as kind of a way that goes hand in hand, like as in as professionals within the, within the context of early education, we for best practise, it's required that we have that kind of you're, you're nurturing the child.

17:20
And I think to have that nurturing of the child, you have to have the nurturing of the professionals involved.

17:28
And that can also mean through the sharing of your strengths as individuals.

17:35
An example that I can give for is how one of my passions as a outside of the profession is to do digital arts.

17:44
And through my, my university prac, the children noticed a particular that a particular function through my through the iPad to create digital arts.

17:59
And I felt as though that in turn allowed for a beautiful opportunity to learn through not only your shared expertise, but also through collaboration and supporting the child's inquiry-based learning.

18:17
And I think that feeds into how not only do you have the environment supported to allow your building of professional practise and to share those strengths, but also through careful planning allows you to build confidence and incorporate that into really vital experiences to support children's learning and development.

18:41
Well, I love that.

18:42
I feel like sometimes when we look at professional learning and professional development, it's really feels kind of distinct and separate from the application.

18:50
But the way you've tied that together is amazing.

18:53
And I think that building of confidence and trust in relationships and networks and like fostering, questioning the way things are done and innovation is really fantastic, relevant and applicable kind of insight.

19:09
I really value that comment.

19:10
Thank you, Jake.

19:13
I want to ask a little bit around challenges.

19:16
So as being a mentee and also, as you mentioned, like an informal mentor, what are some of the challenges that arise within the context of working in early childhood and trying to manage that relationship?

19:28
And whether you, whether you have any hacks or solutions or resolutions on how to kind of navigate those complexities or challenges.

19:37
I think part of it is like, like, like many people within the profession we are, you can often experience fatigue or burnouts like it or it like everyone experiences it every once in a while.

19:55
And one of the things that I do think is important to remember is for every leader, while they want, while there are.

20:04
Always wonderful opportunities for leaders to engage in that fostering and nurturing of educators.

20:13
I think sometimes some leaders may forget that they're human too and it's it's important that they look after themselves in regards to their own personal wellbeing.

20:25
And sometimes if things become busy, you do have to take a step back and remember to revitalise yourself as well.

20:37
A second point, though, in terms of challenges can sometimes be where like it's all about when you have a mentor, I feel it's all about ensuring that you make the time as well to have those check insurance and catch ups. Through, through my university study.

21:00
It has, I feel, I feel that in terms of the context of mentors, like, it's like, it's like everything.

21:09
You have to have that supportive environment to allow for the mentoring and the one on one conversations to happen.

21:17
And I think the challenge if you have like if you, if you don't, you have to establish the strong networks first

21:28
And establishing strong networks can sometimes take a bit of time depending on each context, because everyone's context is unique.

21:39
Yeah, No, I, I definitely think that that's one of the things we've heard in creating in the previous webinar where we were talking about creating networks of support.

21:47
I think one of the questions and the commentary that came through really strongly was around the challenges of making time to build the networks and then maybe more structured mentoring programs could be a means.

21:58
So building that network and building the confidence on how to create a network.

22:02
And I do, I do also acknowledge that.

22:06
And what I've found in my last few eight years working for and supporting the early childhood sector is that as a profession and by nature, early childhood professionals tend to be very generous in giving and focused on the child, but then not leaving much in reserve for themselves.

22:24
So I think it's great that you highlight that.

22:26
But like sometimes when you need to take the time and sit back and reset, it's worth doing because it benefits everybody.

22:34
So I really love that call out as well.

22:38
Another question I had for you was like, and I guess the simple way to say is what did you use your mentor for in the sense like what were the types of things that you leaned on your mentor for or went to them for support or to navigate?

22:53
Like what are the types of topics of things that you could use a mentor for?

22:56
Really there are a number of opportunities that come to mind apart from university study, like particularly if you are building towards, for example, the early childhood teacher qualification.

23:12
I think it's wonderful to seek out mentors who often have been in that leadership position for quite some time.

23:21
And it allows you to find figure out what practises have worked for them in the past and also how you can apply that to yourself.

23:31
And I think it's, it's very important to kind of allow that shared collaboration opportunity to learn because you get, we are always in early childhood encouraging for people to consult all stakeholders in regards to quality education and a true understanding of contexts.

23:57
And I think you also need to, when you have those connections with mentors, you have to also seek out their advice and you recognise their strengths as well.

24:10
So in a combination of mentor through university, you have access to people who have shared, who share that best practise knowledge, evidence based research with you to help feed on your practise.

24:23
And when you engage also with mentors within your own networks and your own service context, that also provides more opportunity to gain a different lens and a different insight into approaching whether it be different situations or whether you're trying to find out more about a particular topic in your studies.

24:49
I think it's important to, it's almost like a pedagogy toolbox.

24:52
You're kind of you, you're using, you're using different, you're using different practises and different sources of knowledge to gain further answers.

25:02
But also it also can provide a catalyst for further reflection.

25:10
Yeah, that's awesome.

25:12
I think.

25:13
Yeah, I think that's really great.

25:14
That's so many different angles on what you can engage with your mentor on.

25:20
I want to move on to, you know, you mentioned to me previously that you're sort of unofficially kind of mentoring or taking that more senior experienced role.

25:30
I really like the idea that and, and we can probably get this into this a little bit more with Andrea and the Q&A as well.

25:36
But like mentoring is not like always sign up for this official mentoring program.

25:42
Sometimes it's a way to express a relationship that you have with someone that's not necessarily you're not necessarily managering them, but you're establishing an informal unofficial mentoring relationship with them.

25:53
And that's something that you've mentioned to me that you're currently exploring further and, and participating in.

26:01
So what I really wanted to know as in your role as Ed Leader in that kind of unofficial role, what have you seen with those that you're maintaining in terms of their growth and development?

26:12
When I refer to unofficial mentor as educational leaders, you do always have to mentor the people you work with.

26:23
But I feel as though the unofficial mentor aspect is kind of regarding the connections you make.

26:29
And that's through university study.

26:32
I have, you have through my degree in UOW, you have communication networks that are established to allow that kind of consultation and sharing of knowledge.

26:47
And I feel that through my collaboration with my cohorts, I have allowed that kind of build up of not only sharing of that knowledge, but also words of encouragement as well.

27:01
And we always have an opportunity to build on others.

27:05
And I've had wonderful feedback from people who I had one person recently said, oh, you could be Professor Jake in the future.

27:14
And that is a huge kind of confidence.

27:17
It's a huge confidence booster.

27:19
And it is a huge privilege to have that positive impact in people's in people's lives.

27:25
And I think that not only is it wonderful to support, to support both people in my cohort and at the, at my, at the place I work, but it's also again, when you connect to all the other professionals through your network, you have to, you have to like, it's, it's great to have that opportunity to not only promote best practise, but also sharing of knowledge, while also you have to remember that critical reflection and thinking about how you are as a leader is an ever evolving process.

28:04
We often in my, in my interactions with others, particularly children, I've talked about how you never stop learning, even as they've grown up, you never stop learning.

28:14
And I think it's important to remember that there's always opportunity to build on practise and establishing those network connections and ensuring that it has that environment to be able to share with others, I think is a wonderful way to do it.

28:30
I love that.

28:30
Yeah, I do love that.

28:31
Jake, my 4 year old always says it's OK, Mommy, we all make mistakes.

28:35
And I, I love that.

28:37
I think it's so true when I make mistakes.

28:38
It's good that he sees it because we're all learning all ways.

28:41
And it's a good kind of mantra to go by when we're looking at our professional journey as well.

28:47
Thank you, Jake.

28:49
That's my list of questions for you in an interview environment, but I want to bring you over virtually into the panel setting or the in conversation setting as we're calling it.

28:58
And we're gonna start looking at people's questions.

29:04
But we while we're doing that, we want to bring Andrea on the screen hopefully and then maybe a lag on tech again.

29:10
We'll see how we go with that.

29:12
Hang on, she's camera on, she's off mute.

29:15
She's on the screen.

29:16
Woo Hoo, that's awesome.

29:18
Welcome, Andrea.

29:19
Before we get stuck into some Q&A questions, I just wanted to so see Andrea, if you'd like to introduce yourself a little bit about your area of study and focus and was it expertise?

29:35
Sure, thank you and thank you Jake.

29:36
So interesting that story of yours and it really resonates with the research.

29:41
So I'm Professor Andrea Nolan, I work at Deakin University in Victoria and I have research mentoring in early childhood nationally and internationally for 10 years now.

29:53
It's just such an interesting and impactful thing, particularly for early childhood 'cause there's so many, just the settings that people work in, it can be very isolating work and mentoring is a way to make those networks and feel well supported going forward.

30:10
So that's what I'm sort of bringing to the table today.

30:13
I guess that's a fabulous intro and so many years focused on early childhood mentoring or mentoring in early childhood.

30:22
Just yeah, like you said, it demonstrates that such a rich space to be in, especially if you're an early childhood professional.

30:30
I want to do a little bit of a warm up question for both of you.

30:33
I did give you a hint about this the other day, so I'll start with Jake.

30:39
Can you pick because it's a hard one, your favourite children's book?

30:45
The first thing that comes to my mind is Who Sank The Boat.

30:48
I basically know that, know that book off by heart.

30:53
And when you break it down into different, different contexts, again, that's the mind of the educator at work.

31:02
You can see how like people will believe also it's kind of a STEM based learning book.

31:09
But when you look at it from a different viewpoint, I see, for example, different a different group of friends who are all unique in their own way and they all you can see they're kind of a hint of hobbies.

31:23
Like you can see, for example, the sheep is a knitter and you have the cow and a cow and the donkey and of course the little mouse who even though he's like even the book says he's a tiny little mouse, he's still he has a huge impact on the story.

31:40
By the end, he's the one who topples the, the, the boat over.

31:45
And I feel as though it's kind of, you could look at it in many angles, but I think it's kind of an example of how every individual, particularly in that book, can have a big impact no matter who they are and, or who they are.

32:00
And like they may not be as big as the as big as the others or like they're different, but the impact is there to see.

32:09
I love that.

32:09
Thank you, Jake and Andrea.

32:11
What would you say is your favourite children's book?

32:13
It's a hard one.

32:15
I I can't go past Harry Mccleary from Donaldson's Dairy.

32:20
I do also a lot of work in supporting teachers to support children's oral language development.

32:26
And it's just a really lovely way for children to start hearing language that and words that they may not hear in their not everyday context and also joining in.

32:35
And it's just a really fun way of engaging children in conversations as well about the book and the different characters in the book.

32:43
Yes, I think that's a fun tongue twister when you're sleep deprived and trying to deliver a bedtime story.

32:51
I love that one too.

32:52
And yeah, awesome.

32:54
Thank you.

32:54
Thank you for the sharing.

32:55
I love that.

32:57
We do already have some Q&A questions coming through, so I might throw one at you that's been sent through to me.

33:05
The first one is around for you mainly Jake, but I'd like to also hear from you, Andrea, about how this connects in with your study and research as well.

33:15
They want to hear how Jake's experience within the Community of practise setting, like how that work, Is it a forum to come together for educational leaders or like what was the setting of the Community of practise that you participated in?

33:31
The Community of Practise sessions are a weekly session conducted by Zoom meetings and the each cohort that's involved in the study with this ECT degree has a drop in session where they cover different topics each week which are usually involved with the subjects that are being studied and it allows opportunities for reflective questions and the sharing of knowledge in practise.

34:04
An example I can give is this week, while my carport and I are doing the subject around advocacy and leadership, we had a chance to explore exemplary practises in a video shared about leaders and what they do in terms of their aspects of leadership.

34:25
And then we're provided with questions to allow us to engage with each other and to share that collection of knowledge with others.

34:35
And also an opportunity to ask questions of things that people may have could be a challenge with an assessment task or even just not that sharing ideas.

34:48
And I think that provides another opportunity to feed into the knowledge that you are gaining.

34:54
But again, also other avenues to explore, like if someone shares a particular idea, you might go, oh, that sounds like a really interesting idea.

35:04
I might do a bit of research or that or try and implement that in my practise.

35:10
Awesome and thank you.

35:12
And then so that's much more within the learning setting that these communities of practise have been something, a tool you use.

35:19
Is it something Andrea, that connects in with mentoring or how would you say that communities of practise and mentoring can work in tandem?

35:28
I think it's about setting the culture.

35:31
If you've got a collaborative, vibrant culture where everyone, everyone's positioned as coming in with knowledge, but also a learner as well and learning from others, I think that can start to build a very dynamic place where you can start to really unpick, practise and have those really deep reflective conversations.

35:55
And that where there's no judgement made.

35:58
And it can be very aspirational space and also really uplifting as well to have those spaces.

36:06
So it's important in mentoring to have a space that is a trusting space as well.

36:12
So there are definitely parallels.

36:14
It depends if you are thinking about a group mentoring type situation or sort of a one to one type mentoring.

36:21
Yeah, situation.

36:23
All of those different variances would meet different kind of needs and objectives.

36:29
That's so true.

36:30
I have a really interesting question and it's not one that I like know very much about technically.

36:35
So I'm going to start with you, Andrea and Jake, if you have any exposure to this, please feel free to add.

36:41
So there's a question from Marie, it says, I'm curious about your thoughts on reciprocal mentoring and opportunities for ECE professionals and their mentor to engage within like a two-way mentoring collaboration.

36:53
Wow is that I think, I think it's fabulous.

36:58
I think a lot of my research has looked at the contemporary view of mentoring where everyone is a teacher and also a learner.

37:06
So there needs to be 4 elements that are there and one is that it needs to be respectful so that there is professional respect between the mentor and mentee.

37:15
It's reflective so that mentors actually challenge the mentee to develop their philosophy and to think, think about their teacher identity.

37:25
But in doing that, the mentor, the mentor also thinks about their own, their own practise and and they start reflecting on practise as well.

37:35
It needs to be responsive because it's not a one size fits all.

37:39
And I think this is the element that you're that's being asked about reciprocal, that it is an equal relationship.

37:46
You are all professionals in this space.

37:49
Yes, someone has more years of experience, but in the research I've done with new graduate teachers, and I've done that across Victoria and also nationally, we see that these new grads bring so much to that mentoring space as well.

38:05
And you know that they've just been exposed to perhaps new, new theories, new research.

38:12
And so they're coming into the profession with that knowledge and you've got a mentor with years of experience.

38:20
And so it's a really lovely coming together and that collaboration and reciprocity there between the two.

38:28
So it's everyone learns and everyone benefits.

38:31
And the research is very clear that it's win win for both parties in mentoring relationships.

38:39
Awesome.

38:40
Jake, would you add anything to that?

38:42
I think it's wonderful way of thinking.

38:46
And when we talk about research, I immediately think about the distributed leadership model like it's kind of feeding into that idea of having that shared opportunity to lead and learn together.

39:01
And I think the idea of but of approaching it as both leaders and learners together is a wonderful idea.

39:11
I've used an analogy with some of my cohort and other people in that anything to do with structure or leader or leadership, it's like a, it's like a table almost.

39:22
You kind of, if you want that structure to stay upright and to be strong, you have to ensure that all the the legs or support networks are working together.

39:31
And I love the idea of how, as Andrea put it, how just always having that kind of shared opportunity to learn and work together is, is a wonderful way to do it.

39:45
And I think to treat everything as kind of a learning experience and there's always room to build on things is a great way to feed into reflection and practise.

39:57
Because when you have that reflective environment, you're able to adapt to changing contexts.

40:05
It could be within team or centre itself, like it's a great way to be.

40:11
To be to be moving with the change of context and I think it's a wonderful point.

40:15
Awesome.

40:16
Thank you for adding to that.

40:17
Jake, I have a bit of a mechanics.

40:20
How can we make this happen in a busy environment type of question.

40:24
So the Kindy Kids Five Dock, there's a question in the Q&A and it says as director of an ELC, mentoring is always occurring from the minute we walk in the door.

40:34
So true.

40:34
And we reflected on that just now perfectly.

40:37
A barrier of mind is how to document evidence that is sufficient to showcase that the mentoring is happening, but not burdensome or she's written, however, not time consuming that we don't have to attend to it or I feel like adding it to the list.

40:50
I think that's a great and very practical question.

40:52
So I'm happy to hear from either of you.

40:55
Maybe Jake, you want to start and then we'll move to Andrea about your insights from that perspective.

41:02
There are different ways I fail to approaching this.

41:05
And again, it's all about the the context of the centre.

41:09
But one thing that could come to mind could be having those regular meetings with, say, it could be when you have educational leaders or directors meeting together, or you have the one-on-one opportunity to catch up monthly with other educators.

41:30
You kind of use you use reflective frameworks to help you in guide that discussion.

41:38
And I've been exposed to multiple practises, including the CIGAR framework, which is around breaking down the situation by like the current situation, the current goal and it took it guides you through steps on how to achieve that through a series of questions and reflective ways of thinking.

42:02
I think it's important to to share different ways of reflecting and applying that in the context that works.

42:13
Like if you have, you will have, you will have different people who will respond well to those really in depth questions and really kind of expansive array of things to ask.

42:24
And then there'll be others who wish to be more straight, more kind of straight to the point.

42:30
And what I mean by that is you have, like you say, if you have people who are willing to say in a survey, ask 12 questions, there might be some will be more benefited to five questions.

42:42
And it's all about choosing, selecting the right questions and what works for the for the individuals as a team.

42:49
Yeah, awesome.

42:50
Thank you, Jake.

42:51
I think that adaptive aspect is really important and what's achievable and relevant as well when it comes to documentation.

42:59
Andrea, do you have any insights as well from your research around that burden of documentation?

43:04
Well, I think it's also the issue of time that comes through again and again and again and has done so since when I started researching mentoring.

43:16
And I think this is where the sector needs to really stand up and say mentoring needs to be valued and it needs to be recognised as part of the workload, not something that's tacked on at the end.

43:31
You know, as we're saying before, you know, teachers are so generous in in what they what they do, their work is complex.

43:41
So really this time needs to be carved out, it needs to be valued, recognised, this is time for this.

43:50
And so in the literature sometimes it's called protected time, which I really like that.

43:56
It really shows how important it is going forward.

44:00
I think with documentation, if you're following the principles of really strong professional development, it will be something that is situated and really relevant to the mentee or to the service.

44:15
And so it would be work that would be ongoing anyway, and it's really just trying to document that reflection.

44:22
Some people will use like an action research model.

44:25
However, when I start talking about that, eyes do close over because people think, oh, that sounds like, you know, university research.

44:33
So I flipped it and said it's a reflective practise project.

44:36
And like Jake said, you, you just can go through the process of what is the issue?

44:41
What evidence do I have about that issue?

44:43
What am I thinking about the issue?

44:45
What are ways that I could solve that issue, etcetera.

44:50
And it's all done in consultation and it sort of gives some shape, I guess to this time that the mentor and the mentee together.

44:58
But because it's very relevant to the here and now, it's work that would be happening anyway.

45:05
Thank you.

45:05
Teachers always document what they're doing and their reflections, and this is just a way of doing it.

45:10
And what it can't be is something extra because it's not going to get done.

45:15
Yeah, I love that point.

45:17
So it's like, how can you embed it with what you're within, what you're already doing and just add it as part of the existing reflective practise, which is something I thoroughly admire the capability of early childhood professionals, capacity to undertake reflective practise as well.

45:34
There are questions a little bit are coming through around the framework that you mentioned, Jake and Andrea, you mentioned.

45:39
So what we might be able to do after today is if you've got any like little framework images or documents, Jake or Andrea, maybe we can put them into our little resource that we email out to people afterwards.

45:52
So I'll just leave that as a side action for us because I think, yeah, having the structure sometimes takes some of the work out and you just then you know how to fill it out.

46:01
So I'll, I'll check in with you afterwards about that if possible.

46:06
I see a question in here and I think it's a really interesting lens.

46:09
I want to ask, It's Monique's question, can you elaborate on the role of encouragement within mentoring?

46:15
Sometimes I make great, capable, skilled educators, however, often they lack in confidence in their own abilities.

46:22
So for me, it's more around reassurement, reassurance, encouragement, empowerment, those sorts of aspects.

46:27
So maybe Andrea, you want to start about what the research says around how what the role of the mentor can be in that space?

46:35
Yes, definitely, because really it's all about the mentoring relationship, right?

46:41
That really needs to be those four aspects that I talked about and good mentoring relationships.

46:47
It builds professional knowledge, it instils confidence that's really shown up time and time again in the literature, this notion of confidence.

46:56
It develops competence, ability to function independently, improves practise and it develops this collegial in in them to function independently.

47:06
However, in the work that I've done, particularly across Victoria, there's a lot of educators out there that lack that confidence in themselves.

47:17
And it's at both ends.

47:18
It's mentors as well as mentees.

47:20
When we did a call out for experienced teachers to come on board as mentors, I just thought, oh, this will be easy.

47:27
We'll have so many volunteers.

47:28
Well, we didn't because a lot of them thought, well, you know, who am I?

47:33
I'm just, I've just been doing this role for so many years and what do I have to bring?

47:39
So it's really recognising your own strengths.

47:43
And I think on the other side with mentees, it's developing that trusting relationship where your mentee can say to you, I'm really struggling with this or I really don't know how to handle this.

47:55
And then it's the mentor doing that reflective listening and feeding back so that a mentor doesn't solve all the problems of the world.

48:03
That's far too much, far too much demand on a mentor.

48:08
But it's really just perhaps giving alternatives or bringing out the understandings that are already there in the mentee who may not really, really understand that.

48:18
Yeah, they actually do know a lot and they just need that that other person who believes in them, who really wants to support them, to listen to them and say, you know, that's a fantastic idea.

48:30
So it's really trying to develop their agency going forward.

48:36
I love all of that so much.

48:38
Thank you, Andrea and Jake, would you add?

48:42
No, I'm, no, I'm so up to highlight Andrea's point like that culture again, is, is important and I have been reminded through others that cultures have to be nourished and they have to be cared for and you to establish that you have to main to maintain it.

49:04
And it is, yeah, to to have that kind of active listening mentality and also just to have like to have to know like that to have no, to have no judgement, but just to kind of promote that kind of curiosity based kind of approach.

49:22
Like when you approach others to help in mentoring them, you the way you the way you, it's like how you interact with children, you have to show positive engagement.

49:34
You have to show positive body language and, you know, genuine interest.

49:38
And I think that applies to mentors as well.

49:42
I think.

49:44
Thank you so much, Andrea.

49:45
Yes.

49:46
Oh yes.

49:46
Look, I'd love to yes, sorry, you're good for it.

49:50
I'd love to just share something with mentors or people that feel they would like to mentor.

49:56
And that is, you've got to ask yourself what legacy would you like to leave behind and what would you like your mentees to say about you in the years to come?

50:05
Because I think that really starts to make you think about the impact you can have.

50:11
And this really also picks up on this continuity as well.

50:17
So to support the workforce.

50:21
And we know there's issues with the workforce shortfall, for example, and retention, etcetera, attrition.

50:30
So, you know, to start as a mentee and be really nurtured in that and understand the culture and become part of that really supportive culture where professional growth just keeps being the centre and everyone feels empowered.

50:47
And then that mentee then becomes a mentor so that it's this and like Jake's story as well, you know, starting as a mentee and then taking on board some of those qualities and then you become the mentor.

51:02
So this, those questions, I think are really important for people to think about the legacy and, and how would they like to be described, because it does make you think about what personal qualities you bring.

51:12
And they're important to think about when you're when you're thinking of being a mentor.

51:18
That's awesome.

51:19
I and I love bringing that together.

51:21
I love the legacy and the journey as well.

51:23
It's definitely something that we've heard and learned about.

51:27
And I think he's a really rich source of like continuity in this sector in Australia, in particular in NSW.

51:35
Unfortunately, we're out of times for the for any more questions today, but I think some really, really, really rich, great questions have come through.

51:45
And I really appreciate the experience and insights and, and research that you have both done and brought to this session.

51:52
I think it's been really fabulous.

51:54
I've learned some stuff that I'm going to come back and re listen to later.

51:58
And I think there's some really great questions in there about how do you kind of build community?

52:03
There's people acknowledging the importance of that legacy, wanting to know more about the framework.

52:08
We will send the email that I keep promising with a few more resources and links.

52:13
And so hopefully that can get you all on your journey.

52:16
But if you've felt like you've gained something today, I'm so happy.

52:22
And it seems like there's been some really great engagement.

52:24
So thank you.

52:25
What we're gonna do is thank Jake and and Andrea for like joining us.

52:31
But then also, now it's time for you to contribute and we're gonna move into the mentee session.

52:36
So what you'll see on the screen is a QR code.

52:39
I'm gonna follow the steps, so then I can talk you through the instructions in real time.

52:44
Basically use the QR code.

52:46
Otherwise you can go to that.

52:48
I think it's like mentee dot.

52:50
It is the website mentee.com.

52:54
Yeah, mentee.com.

52:56
And then you'll see that there's already, there's no code required if you just use the QR code, no code required.

53:04
And then you'll see our first question up on the screen.

53:07
So we'll wait a few more seconds for people to steal the QR code.

53:12
Otherwise you might be able to.

53:17
There we go.

53:17
Copy the link below.

53:18
If you look in the Q&A, there's a link there that'll take you straight to the Menti.

53:22
So if we want to take the slide down now and maybe throw up the Menti. results that are coming through, yeah, there we go.

53:34
So the first question, I think the code's mildly in the way, but that's OK.

53:39
The first question is, what do you like about the idea of mentoring?

53:43
I'm gonna give you a bit of a narration.

53:46
So I think we see a lot around collaborating, sharing that it's informative and interesting, someone to share with again.

53:55
So it's that relationship.

53:57
I don't know what ZPD is, but maybe my expert will be able to help me.

54:02
A space to walk alongside someone to prompt thinking and improvement.

54:06
I love that reflection on Andrea's last comments as well.

54:09
Personal connection, shared learning, zone of proximal development.

54:14
Thanks Macaila.

54:17
That's what ZPD is.

54:18
Thank you being able to support others and uplift the profession.

54:23
And I love that comment around uplifting the profession.

54:25
It aligns with the comments around legacy and that future pace around where is the sector going in NSW and in Australia.

54:32
I think that's such a fundamental and like core pace around why we're so passionate about mentoring in particular.

54:42
It's a sharing experience and shared learning, reflective platform.

54:46
Love all of that.

54:47
Let's move to the next question only because I am very conscious of how we are going for time.

54:55
What challenges do you think mentors might have?

54:58
Time, time, time, I know it's so true.

55:01
Time constraints, time allocation confidence I think is another one that came out today, which is something that I find really interesting.

55:12
We've been looking into how we can get our mentors prepared to be mentors, and I think, yeah, the confidence piece would be something to look at further.

55:23
Recording documentation, mental health confidence, again, whether others want to be mentored.

55:31
I love that.

55:32
That's so true.

55:33
And multitasking, I mean, I say that early childhood professions are the professionals are the kings and queens of multitasking.

55:42
I absolutely admire that capability.

55:47
Cool.

55:47
We'll move to the next question.

55:56
So what are the barriers that mentees in particular might experience?

56:00
Confidence, time, burnout, space and affordability, physical space to go somewhere to have a private conversation.

56:07
It's such a real thing.

56:09
Unhappy workplaces being willing to ask for time.

56:14
And I think that's such a well phrased statement because it's like, like, I know my colleagues are already time poor and now I want to ask for time off the floor.

56:23
How is that fair?

56:25
I can definitely see how that would weigh on an early childhood professional in a setting.

56:32
Language barriers and culture differences undervalued by management, Personality differences.

56:37
Yeah, they're all very real, very relevant.

56:40
Current barriers.

56:44
Let's look at, I think the next one's around.

56:46
Barriers for mentors maybe.

56:49
I've muddled that up.

56:55
I think that's the one I did before.

56:56
Sorry.

56:57
To get involved in mentoring or being a mentee, whose support would you need to have?

57:02
Your director, management, your workplace?

57:05
You need the support to have time to reflect on practises and professional development, the whole workplace.

57:12
I like that.

57:12
Again, referring to my previous comment around your colleagues and the impact that that would have on them.

57:19
You need everyone's support really.

57:20
And that's, that's really a genuine complexity.

57:26
All stakeholders.

57:27
Yeah.

57:28
And I think it's that education piece perhaps around how do you get that support.

57:32
And you get that by demonstrating the value and the benefits and the impacts that we went through today earlier and, and really understanding and, and I think the other comments around embedding it into your professional practise would probably be a response to some of those comments as well about how do you gain support.

57:52
Oh, I think we have one more question.

57:57
There we go.

57:58
So if you can't access mentoring today currently, what alternatives would you could you use?

58:04
What are the things you're trading off?

58:07
I'm either gonna do mentoring, be a mentee or something after online mentoring, after hours.

58:14
Community networks, other networks, professional development and online webinars.

58:19
Your peers, talking to a peer, networking communities of practise and networking professional platforms.

58:30
I know early child professionals are fans of a Facebook group and I think that's also a really great way to share and connect and I know that's quite popular.

58:38
Sharing information via alternate media, peers, professional platforms like Kinder Loop, looking outside your centre, your colleagues within the sector.

58:51
And I think that's a really useful space where you get that little bit of distance, but the shared experience in terms of working within the same sector, but you're sharing with someone who's a little further away and going.

59:01
Is this normal?

59:03
This is what I'm going through.

59:05
Is this the same in your place or what are the things you do differently that make that not be a problem for you?

59:10
And that shared learning and interchange can really be rich for innovation as well.

59:17
Oh, do we have one more question or am I forgetting something?

59:21
I think that's it.

59:26
Awesome.

59:27
Yes, it is it.

59:28
So I will use the last one minute to do a wrap up.

59:30
I've promised a few times to send something through, and I will give us a little bit of time to get the webinar saved and transcribed.

59:39
And I don't want to promise a week.

59:42
But maybe in around that time frame we will be sending you all out an email with a bit of a resource list, some information about Andrea's research, and maybe some tools around those frameworks or some links to some pages where those frameworks can be accessed.

1:00:01
But yeah, awesome.

1:00:03
I've had a really fabulous time.

1:00:05
I really, I really value you taking the time to join this session today, taking the time out of your work day to join.

1:00:12
And yeah, thank you again to Andrea and Jake for their generous sharing and their experiences and for your really great questions.

1:00:20
I hope you all have a lovely afternoon.