Targeted compliance campaign yields good results for SA regulatory authority

A recent targeted compliance campaign, an initiative of the Education and Standards Board (ESB), the regulatory authority for South Australia, has been deemed a success by both the ESB and participants in the campaign, with many services welcoming the opportunity for a ‘health check’ of their compliance with the National Laws and Regulations. 

The campaign was implemented by the ESB to ensure the health and safety of children and support education and care services to be better prepared for their next assessment and rating visit. 

Twenty-four services, who had continually received a ‘Working towards’ rating for Quality Area 2: ‘Children’s health and safety’, were visited by authorised officers during February and March this year, with the majority of those services visited having made improvements to children’s health and safety.

Common improvements as a result of the visit included:

• policies were reviewed and updated
• risk-minimisation and communication plans were developed
• supervision practices were reviewed.

Services had time (typically 24 hours) to prepare for the visit; and, because of this, they advised that they felt able to provide more informed responses when compared to unannounced visits.

Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) Director Loreena Pollard was a participant in the program, giving feedback that the experience had “reinvigorated” staff, reminding them of processes and how to find information quickly.

“It was not stressful at all,” she said. “It was completely straight forward and quite a pleasant experience.”

Other participants gave similar feedback, describing the visits as collaborative, and sharing that they felt confident to ask for help in areas they were unsure about. 

The ESB may consider expanding the program based on participant feedback that the approach would be helpful for other quality areas too.

“Targeted campaigns are a way for us to engage with the sector to support continuous improvement and monitor compliance,” an ESB representative said. 

“In the future, more campaigns may be planned in response to intelligence and data received.”

For further information about compliance with the National Laws and Regulations, please see here.