Workers in OSHC!

I agree with you. My service is in the same position. We are in rural south Australia. We also employ uni students during vac care, but this sometimes does not line up with uni breaks. Fillinf positions can be a night mare. My staff are struggling with the jump from where we were to the new expectations placed upon them, and yes the established staff members are also all saying that they will leave rather than study. many of them were drawn to OSHC because they have fantastic skills working with children but most of them really struggled with formal education themselves. The wealth of new information that they are having to take on and make part of practice is just overwhelming them.

belindam wrote:I agree with you. My service is in the same position. We are in rural south Australia. We also employ uni students during vac care, but this sometimes does not line up with uni breaks. Fillinf positions can be a night mare. My staff are struggling with the jump from where we were to the new expectations placed upon them, and yes the established staff members are also all saying that they will leave rather than study. many of them were drawn to OSHC because they have fantastic skills working with children but most of them really struggled with formal education themselves. The wealth of new information that they are having to take on and make part of practice is just overwhelming them.

Thanks for the reply I thought I was talking to no one
I totally agree my girls have excellent communication skills, interactive skills and patience but they too struggle with formal education. I have been in contact with the local uni and had asked them to RPL their skills but out of all the units compulsory and elective they only received 2 - 3 units. Albeit first aid and something else. I just wish they would leave OSHC alone on staffing qualifications, it's not as if you would employ someone who is negligent. Our families have never complained about staff negligence and they applaud them for doing a great job. I mean staff are with children for a max. of 3 hours, and their not left on their own. I praise my staff everyday for a job well done but that's not going to help me or the service.

My staff have found it really difficult with so little support specific to the OSHC learning environment compared to early years, I realise that much is the same but it would be nice to have resources and support around school aged care so that we don't also have to adapt information to meet the needs of our children for staff.

I know that staff are really capable and have fantastic skills it is just that they are doubting themselves in the face of all the changes.

RPL always sounds good, often we have found that it is almost as much work to meet the requirements to achieve an RPL as if we had just signed up and done the subject itself.

Hi Belinda
I'm glad we're on the same page concerning staff
I know that our talking about the subject helps you and I, but I truly wonder how many other services are in the same boat.
Our OSHC in on school grounds and I had to download provider, service, supervisor etc... forms from ACECQA.
I filled in my part of the forms which believe me was not as simple as you may think and handed the rest to our registrar to fill in their part. My question is why would a service that is run by a school council, on school grounds and has consistently passed NCAC requirements need to provide a declaration of fitness and propriety form among others to be a viable service. Had we not done a great job before?
In my opinion the paperwork required and the running around getting this information and looking for that information, and signatures off this person etc...far out weighs the time and energy you would rather spend with the kids.
I know we have all these newly formed depts. to help us but I do feel that they are great for the early childhood divisions, preschools, ldc and fdc but to find the support needed for OSHC services is scarce!

I couldn't agree more we rarely hear from project officers etc

We are also under the governance of school council

It does seem to be a conflict between a child focused professional practice and the documentation and forms. Our philosophy has always been child focussed, at the moment everyone is so focussed on how to record and document I feel that the children are not getting the best of us

I am new to Child Care and to get experience I started working in OSHC and have been for the past year.

But I agree, it's very tough to get consistent staff, as it is casual work (for the company I work for anyway) and 90% of the staff are uni students, studying to be teachers and the rest are older staff members and a handful are doing the OSHC cert IIII course.

The biggest problem is that it is not full time work, which is what most people are after and once they finish their degrees, diplomas etc, they move on to full time work.

OSHC is looked at as a casual job that students work at until they are qualified. It's not looked at as a career path. Annoying but that's the way it is. And I live in Melbourne and it's hard to find staff. I was always being called up to fill in last minute shifts for the first 7 months working in OSHC.

I know that when I finish my Cert III, the first thing I will do is look for work in a Kindergarten setting.

You are absolutely correct the problem IS "OSHC is looked upon as a casual job" because of it's hours.
My question is WHY can't OSH'S operate without qualified staff, many of my staff members have been working at the service for quite a few years and now they need to get at least cert.III to continue working. I'm talking mature aged members who all have had comprehensive police checks, obtained their working with children cards, but don't have a certificate to say that they are capable of doing the required job in someone else's opinion. I appreciate the EYLF & MTOP frameworks, which are awesome and the staff have recorded and implemented alot of the outcomes that are required. It may not be in "EDUSPEAK" but it is simple and understandable. When you have a service that caters for 150 children with staff that don't have the required papers, is well resourced, have never had a major incident, is complimented by the stakeholders and providers that we are doing an excellent job, and all the children are safe, happy and are always actively involved in the program and interact with staff. I find it hard to see staff members leave because they NEED a piece of paper.