If you have been a long time member of the site, you would probably have realised that we have had a bit of a face lift.

You would also have realised that things are a little bit all over the place at the moment, but we plan to fix that really soon! Over the coming weeks we will be putting out some more regular content to  try and get all our members more involved.

Remember, the forums are always open and if you have anything at all to say, join up and post a topic!

Regards,

Lucas (ACC Webmaster)

Teachers at a Thornton child care & preschool have won victory to the rights of a 9% backpay.

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It has been reported that ABC has been selling centres to Neighbourhood Early Learning Centres, making people believe they are operated by a different service, seperate from ABC.

However, the centres remain owned by ABC but are run by a company, NELC, with personal business and family ties to ABC’s chief executive officer, Eddy Groves.

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The council has identified five sites it hopes to develop into early learning centres, offering education-driven care and other developmental services such as speech pathology.

More child care services needed

The sites are in Yarraville, Maidstone, Braybrook, Footscray and Maribyrnong.

Maxine McKew, parliamentary secretary for early childhood education and child care, stated that the new centre in Yarraville could still be two years away.

There has been no commitment made on numbers, but the Federal Government has indicated the new centres will have about 50 places each.

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High rises of money

Recent reports are stating that child care fees are rising because of the government subsidies.

Read more….

The Australian state of Queensland is putting into place a strategy to stop bullying. They are implementing this in 750 child care centres across Queensland, in the hope that the number of bullies drop in school aged children. Read more.

It has been reported that a staff member rubbed a dirty nappy in the face of an autistic boy while being cared for at a child care centre in Ipswich, Queensland. The incident happened about two years ago and has only recently become known as an employee finally spoke up about it. ABC developmental learning became owners of the centre just weeks after the incident occurred. Read more

Would you report this to the parents if the service didn’t, risking your job, by breaching confidentiality?

UPDATE: Child carer admits to accusations, read more.

The Early Childhood Education Parliamentary Secretary , Maxine McKew, had a whirlwind visit in Griffith, to talk to community leaders about making more child care places available in the city.

Read the ABC article here.

Do you work in Griffith? Do you feel the visit is necessary?

Child sex abuse reports are becoming more and more common, as stated by heraldsun website. There were 6486 child sex abuse charges between july 05 and june 07. That’s just over 270 reports a month on sex abuse alone.

Click on heraldsun to read the article.

Do you feel we are turning a blind eye to things we shouldn’t ‘ínterfere’ with? or are we stepping up in the world to help children have a ‘voice’, and allowing them the rights they deserve?

Have your say in our discussion forum.

A one year old child was locked inside a centre unattended after hours. The centre closed at 6pm and the father who was picking the child up was running late. The parents tried to call the centre to inform them of his late arrival but no one had been answering the calls made in the hour before the service closed.Read more