Policies and financial management

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Jan 9, 2024

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 Topic 9: Policies and financial management Personalizing professional development for teachers by teachers (4 January 2017) <https://Lynda.com> Overview Topic rationale This topic connects to these subject Learning Outcomes:  have the ability to locate and apply the implications of the legislation, government policies and regulations relevant to early childhood services and schools.

 Policies and politics Policies and politics Policies – Statements of intent that can guide decision makers about how to direct resources to achieve an intended outcome Politics – The art and science of government affairs of the state and civics "Public policy can be defined as the authorised rules and regulations by which organisations and bureaucracies function. Policies, in effect, establish the parameters that guide coherent decision making by personnel in organisations…" Source: (Ebbeck & Waniganayake, 2003, p.136) In ECEC, as in schools and other contexts, policy is about shaping actions with clear directions to ensure procedures and courses of action. Public policy refers to the public sector and deals with matters influencing the nation, state or local and should provide direction, intention, position, beliefs and values (Ebbeck & Waniganayake, 2003). Gibbs (2008) provides the following reasons for having written policies so that people working in an organisation have a framework for actions. This helps them to get on with the job they need to do.  So that people in the organisation don’t have to keep on discussing and re-discussing the same issues every time they arise. Decision making is less complicated and more consistent.  So that legal and regulatory requirements can be met. This ensures the service operates within the law (p. 19).  Policies fulfil the values, beliefs and philosophy of the service and provide a "…foundation for a service of true quality and significance" (p. 20).  Policies guide for continuity, and operation.  Policies act as a guide for parents initially selecting a service.  Policies act as a guide for management decision making, reinforcing good practice, and as a tool for conflict management.

 Policies provide an opportunity for evaluative assessment of strengths and needs in a service. Read Required reading Have a read of the following resource about developing early childhood policies. This is an excellent resource with examples of policies and philosophies, templates and tips for avoiding common pitfalls when writing policies. McCormilla, L. (2012). How to develop and update policies successfully: without the stress (pp. 1-28). Child Australia. https://doms.csu.edu.au/csu/file/4c9ce48c-2b3b-4bae-8795- fef7ea5f6181/1/mccormilla-l.pdf ↑ Back to top  Legal issues Legal issues Legal issues (n.d.) <jmcenvironmental.com> As the director of an ECEC service or as an educator, you will be required to attend to a range of legal issues. A really good book for this topic is a small but useful book entitled: Teachers, Students and the Law: A quick reference guide for Australian teachers. This publication provides you with an introduction to a range of issues including your duty of care, discipline and physical contact, provision of educational

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services and welfare, family and crime. While the publication cannot provide definitive answers to all the possible questions you may find this book will serve as a useful guide to you. There are checklists in each section as well as useful resources at the back of the book. When you begin work in a service (anywhere in the world) you are well advised to discuss the legal responsibilities you may have with your employer or professional body. Legal responsibilities will vary in various states and countries and as a professional it is your role to be informed. Being a union member can also be helpful and the union can provide you with useful information. With any legal situation it is really important to be fully aware of the policies of the service and ensure that all staff follow them. Read Required reading Duty of Care is an area that creates a great deal of discussion and consternation amongst professionals. Always ensure that you do know what your Duty of Care is and how a service is interpreting it. Read the following short factsheet to ensure you know what your responsibilities are: Tasmanian Department of Education. (2019). Information sheet: Duty of care for services licenced under the Child Care Act 2001 . https://educationandcare.tas.gov.au/child-care-services/resource- documents/ Also available from your Reading List (left menu on Interact site) Activity - online resources

The collection of children at your service is another legal issue you need to be aware of. Have a look at this resource by ECA on the collection of children. https://search-informit-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/epdf/10.3316/ielapa. 947878862024251 Be aware of your responsibility around child protection: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/health-welfare-services/child- protection/overview ↑ Back to top  Legislation and government policies Legislation and government policies Know the rules (n.d.) <nrmp.org> Leaders and managers must be aware of the legislative context of their work. Often legislation and associated regulations and guidelines are in place to protect the safety and wellbeing of children, families and staff. Children’s Services Regulations establish legally enforceable standards that non-school early childhood programmes have to comply with. These relate to issues such as staff qualifications, numbers of staff, record keeping, building and equipment standards and so forth. The NQF introduced a new quality standard in 2012 to improve education and care across long day care, family day care, preschool/kindergarten, and outside school hours care services. The National Quality Framework that came into law in January 2012 states:  the rights and best interests of the child are paramount  children are successful, competent and capable learners  equity, inclusion and diversity underpin the Framework  Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are valued  the role of parents and families is respected and supported

 best practice is expected in the provision of education and care services Regulatory tools include:  monitoring compliance  undertaking assessment and rating visits and enforcement  undertaking a schedule of visits, announced, unannounced, random, and targeted campaigns  investigating notifications  compliance action. Activity - online resources You must be aware of the legislation and policies covered in the National Quality Framework (NQF). The NQF includes:  National Law and National Regulations  National Quality Standard  assessment and quality rating process  national learning frameworks . Changes to the NQF commenced in 2017 to ensure quality education and care in Australia continues to improve in the most efficient and effective way. Find information and resources designed to support you to understand and implement these changes, including the 2018 National Quality Standard (NQS) . Different service types It is important to be aware that leadership and management structures, as well as policies and legal requirements may be different depending on the types of service (long day care, community based long day care, preschool, family day care), as well as various aspects of the community (metropolitan, rural, remote).

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For example, a community based early learning service generally has these features:  managed by an organisation based in the community through a memberships made of community members, most of whom are parents,  membership elects the management committee and the committee is accountable to the membership,  has a constitution that specifies objectives and rules,  management committee employs a director who is responsible for day to day issues such as staff supervisions,  no profit is distributed to the management committee and any surplus funds are directed to the service. (For more information see https://wwpccc.com.au/media/what-is-community-based-child-care.pdf In a Family Day Care (FDC) Scheme, normally the coordination unit is made up of professionals who operate the FDC on a day to day basis on behalf of the legal operator , which could be local government, a community or a commercial provider. The coordination unit recruits, monitors and supports educators through regular visiting, phone contact, training and networking. This unit also "places" children at different FDC providers and monitors the quality of the provider. Finally, the approved provider is the person legally responsible for the service and is required to meet all of the regulatory requirements (For more information see: https://www.education.sa.gov.au/sites/default/files/family-day-care- standard-service-management.pdf?acsf_files_redirect https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/05_2015/ key_obligations_of_a_fdc_educator.pdf Of course, management structures will also vary depending on whether the service is run out of a state/territory, independent, or Catholic school (preschool or Outside School Hours Care), run for profit, or non- for-profit. You can have a look at this document for more information on the differences in management structures and operational requirements for different types of services. https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-10/Guide-to-the- NQF-4-OpRequirements_1.pdf Remote, regional and rural early education services may also have different management structures and community needs compared to metropolitan services. One recent study found that early education services in remote and very remote areas of Australia have significantly lower ratings on the NQS area 7, leadership and service management. It is likely that there are particular challenges faced by leadership in such communities. (For more information see:

https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-02/OccasionalPaper 5-LeadershipManagementEducationCareServices.PDF ). For a really interesting read about early childhood educators' experiences teaching in rural and remote areas, see https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1638&context=ajte Read Required reading Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (2018). Quality area 7: Using complaints to support continuous improvement . https://www.acecqa.gov.au/media/22986 ↑ Back to top  Operational plans Operational plans Time (n.d.) <mchughco.com> “Operational plans are specific types of plans that show exactly how the organisation or parts of it will achieve the goals set by the organisation. An operational plan is an action plan. It contains details about how the strategic plan will be achieved for the area in which you work. They can be written at divisional, branch, department, section, unit or work-group level. Operational plans convert strategy into

specific, detailed plans for the implementation of the organisation's strategic objectives. To be able to put an operational plan together, you must clearly understand the organisation's strategic objectives. A manager must be able to interpret the strategic plan and then convert that plan into tangible, workable operational objectives and strategies” (Tovey & Uren, 2006, p. 40). Many organisations are increasingly requiring operational plans or business plans. In ECEC it may be wise for directors to be conversant with these and to use them to guide the future planning of the service. You may think ECEC services too small to require or benefit from such a document but it can play an important role in capturing the plans, resources, risks and energies of the unit. We would suggest that the best operational plans are the result of the "team" defining their collective values and then planning their objectives and strategies from this foundation. For example perhaps you could plan to have a Values Day where you and the staff explore what you hope for and have a vision for the service. Carter and Curtis provide some very good ideas for such work in their book The Visionary Director. From these values you can then define what you, your staff, the families and children might hope to achieve. These values are then recorded and strategies for achieving them can then be defined. For example perhaps the values might relate to reaching out into the community to enhance the participation of older people in the program. Imagine what you could do: Goal : Increase extended community involvement in day to day activities. Strategy : Provide invitations to grandparents and older community members to attend morning teas at the service; visit local retirement homes; invite grandparents to participate in reading stories etc. Evaluation : How could you know that you have achieved this goal? Are there risks associated with this goal and how could they be managed? When devising an operational plan you need to be mindful of the potential risks your objectives may incur. Risk management can be defined as the reduction of adverse effects of real, rather than tentative, risks within an organisation….Risk management allows the identification of opportunities as well as recognising the potential for loss or damage Source: (Jones and Wade, 2005, p. 388)

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Activity - online resources Have a look at the following websites for some templates and ideas about how to construct operational and business plans.  https://images.template.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Child- Day-Care-Business-Plan-Template.pdf  Child Care Business Plan Template [Updated 2023] (growthink.com)  https://www.examples.com/business/plans/child-care-business- plan.html ↑ Back to top  Financial management Financial management Financial management (n.d.) "Directors of childcare centres must be as effective at managing money as they are at caring for children. This lesson, had it not been learned too late, would have saved a local nursery school. This school provided a wonderful environment for children – the staff were creative and nurturing, and the parents loved the experiences their children were having. However, the school was closed shortly after the original director left. Her replacement was an outstanding curriculum planner, but she was totally unable to

come to grips with managing money. After a few minor financial crises, the school was forced to close its doors" Source: (Neugebauer, 1986) This story demonstrates how important it is that early childhood professionals not only be pedagogical leaders, but also be efficient at financial management. Neugebauer suggests some pitfalls that many of us encounter:  an unrealistic budget that presumes that the centre will be filled to capacity  ‘penny-pinching” on small items instead of examining the whole situation  putting effort into fundraising without first doing a cost-benefit analysis  controlling finances simply by watching the cheque book rather than a full accounting system. A Realistic Budget  Is based on values  Sets realistic fees  Is affordable for clients  Is calculated on realistic enrolments "The focal point of a budget should be the service’s values, mission and priorities. Some of the priorities might be competitive wages, provision of healthy food for children, well-equipped classrooms, an aesthetically-pleasing environment and professional development for staff." Source: (Whitehead, 2003) In addition to the budget, we need to look at the fees, which must be related to the quality of the care, as well as the budget for the proposed families. You will need to have some understanding of the demographics of the community in which the service is placed. For example, is it a new family area or are the majority of children growing up? What is the financial climate like? Are families working? Is there a strong number of professional women? Will the service be catering for the professional people or more for the lower-income families? It is important to decide to whom you are marketing.

Look at the examples below Children's childcare centre A Fees at CCC A were the highest in the area but that did not matter because there were two other “cheaper” centres that catered for that niche of the market. CCC A decided to cater for the children of professional parents who wanted more provisions and were happy to pay more. These parents had long working hours and had made conscious decisions to ease the burden in their family life by paying for some parental duties. Cloth nappies and all linen, creams (nappy and sun) and hot nutritious meals were provided. A large budget allowed for high quality resources and a good parent library. The parent club perused the budget and made suggestions. Children's childcare centre B Fees at CCC B were the lowest in the area. CCC B decided to cater for the children of stay-at-home mothers/fathers who sent their children to part-time childcare purely for educational reasons. These parents were time-rich and finance-poor. They were happy to provide their own food, nappies etc. and also fundraise for extra resources. We also need to look at the number of children we can expect to be enrolled. Older centres will have past records to help them but newer centres will have to make estimates and it is best to be conservative. Better to be pleasantly surprised than be in debt at the end of the year. Now we will look at the budget process . A typical budget may include:  weeks open in the year  numbers of enrolments expected  expenditure on various aspects  wages, including relief staff  staff rosters  superannuation  equipment  consumables  staff development  maintenance and repairs

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Activity - resource Have a look at the Excel budget template in Resources. Notice the difference some small changes make to the expenditure or the income. For example, having two fewer children in the nursery over a year makes the income go down by approximately $17,000.. Using a program such as Excel enables us to “play” with the figures until we get it right. So we suggest that you look at using a program like this to assist you in preparing a budget. Read Required reading Waniganayake, M., Cheeseman, S., Fenech, M., Hadley, F., & Shepherd, W. (2017). Money matters. In Leadership: Contexts and complexities in early childhood (2nd ed., Ch. 13, pp. 241 - 259). Oxford University Press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/CSUAU/detail.action? docID=5199525 ↑ Back to top  Topic Summary

Topic summary Now you are ready to complete your 3D Management Test Questions. You can access these through the Assessment 3 link on the Interact site. References For a list of all the materials we've covered in this topic, visit 'Reference list' in the left-hand site menu. Remember to check that all references and citations are in the correct APA style before you use them, particularly for assessment items.

Policies and financial management

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