Staff Shortages in Children's Services: Challenging taken-for-granted discourses

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sumsion
Keyword(s):  
Day Care ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Long Day ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
Practical Tool

This article is concerned with the continuing staff shortages in Australian long day care services. To expand possibilities for addressing this ongoing problem, the article advocates the use of discourse as a theoretical and practical tool for reframing discussions about staff shortages. Drawing on discourses of crisis and professionalism as examples, it suggests refocusing conversations and action around discourses of opportunity and critical professionalism, rather than the gendered professionalism traditionally associated with children's services.

What Can We Learn from ‘Innovative’ Child Care Services? Children's Services Purposes and Practices in Australia's Northern Territory

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Fasoli ◽  
Bonita Moss
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
Child Care Services ◽  
Social Agendas ◽  
Government Initiative

This article explores the diversity of services designed for young children currently operating in Australia in remote Northern Territory (NT) Indigenous communities as a provocation for the renewal and revitalisation of mainstream (typical Australian conventional, Western values oriented and urban-based) child care services. Australian society has accepted a standardised model of child care and conceptualised it as a service designed primarily for parents who work. It has become remarkably uniform in look, nature and purpose, regardless of where it is located. The article refers specifically to ‘Innovative’ Indigenous Children's Services (the term ‘Innovative’ refers to a federally funded government initiative called the ‘Innovative Child Care Scheme’, an initiative stemming from the 1992–96 National Child Care Strategy) as a new kind of children's space in the child care landscape. The authors reflect on the findings of recent research which explored what could be learned from remotely located Indigenous children's services staff, particularly in relation to the important questions the research raised for the social agendas and public policies that underpin development and theory currently shaping mainstream centre-based long day care programs.

“I Have to Rest All the Time Because You are Not Allowed to Play”: Exploring Children’s Perceptions of Autonomy During Sleep-Time in Long Day Care Services

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Nothard ◽  
Susan Irvine ◽  
Maryanne Theobald ◽  
Sally Staton ◽  
Cassandra Pattinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Day Care ◽  
Sleep Time ◽  
Children's Perceptions ◽  
Children’S Perceptions ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Long Day

Delivering change for children

2020 ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
Carl Purcell
Keyword(s):  
Early Intervention ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Youth Services ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
School Autonomy ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Children’S Services

This chapter discusses the implementation of Labour’s ‘Change for Children’ programme following the passage of the Children Act 2004 during Blair’s final years as Prime Minister. Under the new structural arrangements every English local authority was required to merge education and children’s social care services to create a single children’s services department under the leadership of a Director of Children’s Services. However, it is argued that tensions between No 10 and the Treasury over social policy and public service reform in this period served to constrain the implementation of the new arrangements. Firstly, Blair’s prioritisation of greater school autonomy pulled against the focus on the integration of children’s services and accountability to children’s services and children’s trusts. Secondly, Blair’s perspective on youth services and the prioritisation of policies to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, ran counter to the principle of early intervention and the provision of positive activities for young people under the ECM framework.

From Whitlam to Economic Rationalism and Beyond: A Conceptual Framework for Political Activism in Children's Services

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sumsion
Keyword(s):  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Early Childhood Professionals ◽  
Critical Action ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
Political Economic

Thirty years after the dismissal of the Whitlam Government, the Australian political, economic and social landscape is dominated by discourses of economic rationalism. The reification of market forces presents challenges for early childhood professionals seeking to establish a viable future trajectory for children's services that includes universal access to affordable, high-quality centre-based long day care services. This article argues that political activism, grounded in critical imagination, critical literacy and critical action, can assist in addressing this challenge.

scholarly journals Cultural support workers and long day care services

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda G. Miller ◽  
Meg Knowles ◽  
Susan Grieshaber
Keyword(s):  
Day Care ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Long Day ◽  
Cultural Support
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