“It’s our polite nudge in the ribs to help you and your team stay organised and on task.”
This week’s subject is Educator handbook
Have you recently reviewed your Educator Handbook to ensure it reflects current practice, Service goals, and culture? Have you updated the educator handbook to include updates about the approved learning frameworks? In addition to the review of your Service policies and procedures, your Educator Handbook should be reviewed regularly to ensure that it reflects any updates made to policies, procedures, philosophy, routines, practices and regulatory updates.
A thorough, well written educator handbook is a crucial component of an effective staff induction process.Ensure that you allocate time for new educators to review the handbook and sign to acknowledge that they have read and understood its contents. It’s recommended that Services also ensure that all existing employees are provided with the current/updated version of the educator handbook. When updating the handbook, consider highlighting changes to bring to the attention of staff and have them sign the agreement to acknowledge that they have read and understand the information included. Keep a copy of this in their staff file. This will ensure the information contained in the handbook is “top of mind” therefore supporting everyday practice and driving continual improvement.
Information to include in your educator handbook:
-
- Service introduction and information
- Routine/s
- Service management structure
- Service philosophy and goals
- Information on the National Quality Framework: NQS, Education and Care Services National: Law and Regulations
- Approved frameworks; Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF)V2.0, My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia (FSAC)V2.0, Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF)
- Confidentiality
- Code of conduct
- Position descriptions (if not provided separately)
- Staff responsibilities and expectations regarding; professional development, appraisals, determining the responsible person, staff meetings, dress codes and grooming, staff roster, timesheets, procedure for calling in sick, personal mobile phones and compliance.
- Employment conditions, staff wages and payroll procedure
- Information about programming and the cycle of planning
- Information about, copies of or access to relevant policies/procedures including:
-
- child Protection and child safe environment policies
- anti-bias policy
- delivery and collection of children policy
- refusal of authorisations policy/procedure
- medication authorisation and administration
- incident, injury, illness, trauma policy
- social media policy
- staff immunisation policy
- smoke/vape-free environment
- alcohol and illegal substances
- first aid policy
- asthma and anaphylaxis management
- supervision policy and information on effective supervision
- sun smart policy
- nutrition and food safety
- privacy and confidentiality
- student and volunteers
- work, health, and safety
- behaviour guidance policy
- emergency procedures
- working with children and police checks
- grievance procedures
-
Resources:
Staff Handbook- Resource sheet
NQF eLearning modules: for educators new to the children’s education and care sector and existing staff, to support their understanding of their roles within the sector.
Approved Learning Frameworks: “What’s changed?” Fact sheet: EYLF V2.0, MTOP V2.0
Within System7 go to Quality Area 4/Module 12 to submit self-assessment notes and if required, open a QIP issue if you identify any areas of improvement.
The Childcare Centre Desktop has a range of resources to assist services with professional standards. These include a Staff Handbook Template, Position Descriptions, Student and Volunteer Handbook, New Employee Induction Checklist, Code of Conduct Policy and much more.
Resources, NQS Element, Regulation and System7 links:
Childcare Centre Desktop – Childcare Centre Desktop
National Quality Standard – QA 4/ 4.2.2- Professional standards
National Regulations – 168
System7 Module – QA 4/Module 12
If you have any questions send us a note via the Contact page here!
