Regardless of how the centre is managed and how guidelines are interpreted, an essential part of the operation is the development and implementation of policy for the community of children, families and staff who share the life of the setting.
Policies and Policy Development
At Children’s Services Central we receive many enquiries asking how to develop and implement policies. Here are a few tips and resources that may help.
Support
Contact us on our Toll Free number 1800 157 818 to ask about developing policies in your service or alternatively email your queries to info@cscentral.org.au.
All of our Project Officers have experience in Centre Based Care, Family Day Care and Out of School Hours Care
Information
Same and Different – The Policy Planning Process
Where are you in the process of policy development? Are you a new service or scheme with no policy, or an existing service needing to review policy? Are you a service attempting to adapt a set of policies? Is your service a part of a larger organisation or sponsored by a regional council? Are you an independent service under private ownership or community management with an established charter of policy? Or is your centre part of a corporation working with a standard set of policies?
Regardless of how the centre is managed and how guidelines are interpreted, an essential part of the operation is the development and implementation of policy for the community of children, families and staff who share the life of the setting. This chapter provides a broad overview of, and introduction to, the planning process and some initial considerations to be made.
Why have policy?
What are the compelling reasons to work through a comprehensive process resulting in a ‘living’ productive environment? There is a plethora of reasons for developing and implementing policy within a children’s service, ranging from simple, common sense reasons to more complex, comprehensive motives.
Some of the basic reasons for having written policy are:
- 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 rediscussing 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.
- Policies support the fulfillment of the service philosophy. The service reflects values and beliefs and these serve as a foundation for a service of true quality and significance.
- Policies act as a guide for continuity in centre management and operation. Policies developed by the service community reflect the principles and desires of the community and will be enacted with a detailed charter of policies.
- Policies act as a guide for parents in initially selecting a service, then in understanding what they can expect of the service and finally in understanding what the service will expect of the parents.
- Policies provide a guide for management in decision making and reinforcing good practice. They can be used as a tool for conflict management – promoting objective, fully informed resolution.
- Policies provide an opportunity for evaluation assessment where the service is functioning well and where improvements can be made.
The overarching drive for policy which takes into account some of the aforementioned reasons, is that policy is the most effective tool for managing and improving quality within the service. For example:
A vision, philosophy and mission statement allow the people of the service to ask “what are our values and beliefs and how will we take the steps to fulfill these?”
Policies compromised of background, goals, strategies, and evaluation allow the people of the service “how can we translate our values and beliefs into practice? How will we know when we have been successful?”
Written policies provide the evidence of aspirations for quality practice and wellbeing of the community. “Checking in” on policy serves as a reminder of where services want and need to be.’
This is an edited extract from the publication Policy Development in Early Childhood Settings: From idea to evaluation, (2008) by Leanne Gibbs, published by Pademelon Press.
Training on Policy Development
Children’s Services Central training sessions on Policy development can be located at: www.cscentral.org.au/training. Download our professional development calendar and book online.
Here is the support material from a recent phone link up session run by Contact for Children’s Services Central.
Policies
It sometimes helps to have an example of a policy as a starting point for your own policy. Here is a list of currently available policy documents:
Other policies can be accessed on the Community Child Care member's only website.
‘Policies need to be adapted rather than adopted and, just as in the policy development process, a number of steps will help to review and reform policy to suit the individual needs of a service. The first step will be to review the policy and check for whether anything simply does not apply. Terminology may need to be changed – for instance a policy may refer to a director but this position may be referred to as a co-ordinator in another service. This set of questions may help in guiding a review of intended policy.
- Is the policy consistent with the philosophy, mission and goals of the service?
- Does the policy apply to the service type and management structure?
- Does the policy take into account the legislative and regulatory mandates that specifically apply to the service?
- Does the policy conform to the format used for other policies?
- Does the policy include some form of rationale, goals, strategies and information and does apply to the background of the service?
- Are there particular community needs or conditions of funding that must be considered and differ markedly from the original source of the policy?
- Has the policy been introduced to the service community and the process of development explained?
Once these questions have been considered, the policy subcommittee will find revising the existing policy more straightforward.’
This is an edited extract from the publication Policy Development in Early Childhood Settings: From idea to evaluation, (2008) by Leanne Gibbs, published by Pademelon Press.