centre-based and mobile staff requirements

All children's services staff, in every type of children's service, must be aware of their obligations as mandatory reporters and must have completed the required training. For detailed information on these requirements and the relevant legislation, see DoCS Mandatory reporters page.

primary contact staff

The Regulation refers to ‘primary contact staff’, meaning those staff who are directly involved in educating or caring for children at the service. A full definition is provided in the Regulation.

Requirement	Schedule	Page
Primary contact staff definition	Schedule 2 Dictionary	104

The licensee of a centre-based or mobile service must ensure that each person employed as a member of the primary contact staff, or being considered for such a position, has an understanding of the following principles set out in section 202 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.

The provision of children's services should be based on the following principles:

the paramount consideration in the provision of children's services is the best interests of children
children should receive services that meet their individual needs (including the needs of children with a disability) and enhance their physical, emotional, cognitive, social and cultural development
parents have both a right and a responsibility to be involved in the making of decisions by a children's service in so far as those decisions affect their children.

PLEASE NOTE: Children's services must also have regard to the provisions of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977.
Children’s service staff should have:

an understanding of their responsibilities under the child protection legislation
an understanding that the environment of a children’s service must be safe for children
a basic knowledge of:

the stages of physical, emotional, cognitive, social and cultural development of children
appropriate activities and experiences for children of various ages and stages of development
children’s health, hygiene and nutritional needs

experience in caring for children EXCEPT in the case of trainees.
the ‘required abilities to care for children’ (see Clause 6 of the Regulation)

employment

The licensee of a centre-based or mobile service may only employ as a member of the primary contact staff someone:

who is 18 years of age or older
AND whom they are satisfied is a fit and proper person.

The Commission for Children and Young People Act 1998 requires employers to conduct an employment screening of preferred applicants for certain types of child-related employment, including employment in child care centres.

The Child Protection (Prohibited Employment) Act 1998 prohibits anyone convicted on a serious sex offence from applying for, undertaking or remaining in child-related employment.

Requirement	Part, Division, Clause	Page
Meaning of “required abilities to care for children”	Part 1 Clause 6	10
Employment of staff	Part 4 Division 1 Clause 51	43

staff numbers and qualifications

The Regulation specifies that qualified staff must be employed and that certain ratios of staff to children need to be maintained by the licensee of a centre-based or mobile service. In addition, there are requirements regarding cooking staff, additional staff, supervision by the authorised supervisor and the use of volunteers.

References to the Regulation are provided in the introduction section for:

child number requirements

In addition to the staff-to-child ratios, the Regulation specifies the number of children that may be provide with care by a centre-based or mobile service. References to the Regulation are provided in the introduction section for:

The next page outlines the family day care and home-based services staff requirements.

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