The ECS e-bulletin is the Department of Education, Training and Employment’s newsletter for services that come under the Education and Care Services Act 2013 and the Education and Care Services Regulation 2013.
Amendment to the ECS Act
The Education and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 was passed by the Queensland Parliament on 30 October 2014.
The Bill amends section 127 of the Education and Care Services Act 2013(ECS Act) by requiring Queensland early childhood education and care approved providers to notify the departmentwithin 24 hours of any temporary closure incident that requires the approved provider to close the serviceor reduce the number of children attending the service for a period.
Previously under section 127 of the ECS Act, approved providers had seven days to notify the department of such matters.
The Bill prescribes a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units for failure to comply with this requirement.
These new reporting requirements are in addition to the existing requirements to notify the department about serious incidents and complaints regarding children’s safety, health or wellbeing within 24 hours.
This change to the Act also aligns with reporting requirements under the National Law.
The timely reporting of these types of matters will enable the department to publish details on its website of service closures or reduced operating capacity in circumstances such as severe weather or unexpected events.
This will in turn enable families to access information in a timely way about the operating status of services where it may not be possible for services to contact them.
More information
- Refer to the Education and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014
- Visit the department’s website
- Email .
Visit our website|Contact us|Subscribe to A to Z of Early Childhood monthly e-newsletter for more information about early childhood education and care initiatives in Queensland. If you no longer wish to receive this email newsletter email us, with ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject line. 10 November 2014