Hansard debates

Mr MERLINO (Monbulk—Minister for Education) (10:19:52): I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I ask that my second-reading speech be incorporated into Hansard. Incorporated speech as follows: Objectives This Bill aligns the Children’s Services Act 1996 with the National Quality Framework, where appropriate, to ensure a consistent and contemporary regulatory framework for all Victorian early childhood services, regardless of which regulatory regime applies to that service. Most education and care services in Victoria are regulated under the National Quality Framework, or NQF. The NQF is a jointly governed, unified regulatory framework covering long day care, family day care, preschool and outside school hours care services. The remaining services, primarily occasional care services, are regulated under the Victorian Children’s Services Act. Currently about 350, or 8 percent of services in Victoria are regulated under the Children’s Services Act, or CS Act. The main feature of these services is that children attend for short periods of time, for example occasional care at a Neighbourhood House or a sports and leisure centre. These services are operated by a range of providers such as local government, not for profit, for profit, or community organisations. Quality early childhood education is important for early childhood development, educational outcomes, and whole-of-life achievement. Occasional care services play an important role in providing access to flexible and affordable care, particularly for regional and rural families. It is important that services in this part of the sector are underpinned by a quality, contemporary regulatory framework. The first major review of the NQF by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) was completed in 2017. This review considered, but decided against, bringing the remaining out of scope children’s services within the scope of the NQF, largely due to the complexity of bringing a diverse range of services into the NQF. This decision presented an opportunity to update the Victorian children’s services law to better align it with the NQF, particularly because the regulatory regimes are similar but not consistent. This can cause confusion and administrative burden for services operating under both regimes. It also provides an opportunity to improve educational outcomes for children in all Victorian education and care services, by helping to drive quality in the children’s services sector. The Bill better aligns the two regimes to simplify regulatory arrangements and ensure more consistent minimum standards. Aligning the regulatory regimes will realise a number of benefits for services and the regulator, including: • reducing red tape and the risk of confusion for providers and services • ensuring there is a robust, contemporary regulatory framework for all early childhood services in Victoria • achieving greater consistency for families accessing services • establishing greater equity across operational requirements and offences • making available a more comprehensive suite of enforcement powers • enabling potential efficiencies for the regulatory authority. A key area where alignment is not proposed is that children’s services will not, under the CS Act as amended by the Bill, be assessed and quality rated against the National Quality Standard as services are under the NQF. This is because it would be too burdensome for services operating for limited hours, and would require significant additional regulatory investment. The Bill is not expected to impose burden or cost on service providers. It will simplify matters for providers. The Bill aims to reduce red tape, for example by streamlining licensing processes and allowing services to be transferred between approved providers. Transitioning to the new licensing regime will require minimal action on the part of providers. The Bill will automatically convert licences to the new approvals, and declare key personnel to hold the equivalent roles. The Department will provide support and guidance on the new requirements, at an individual provider level if necessary. The Children’s Services Act and the National Law set out the architecture of the licensing frameworks, whilst the operational requirements for services such requirements for staffing and premises are in the Children’s Services Regulations 2009. The Bill does not affect these requirements. However, the Regulations will also be reviewed and remade before they expire in May 2020. Consultation on the amendments to the Regulations will occur later this year. Summary of Bill The Bill will align the current children’s services licensing regime in the Act with the provider and service approval regime in the Education and Care Services National Law (National Law). The Bill adopts the relevant objectives and guiding principles in the National Law. These focus on quality educational and developmental outcomes, and the safety, health and wellbeing of children. The Bill retains the term 'children’s service’ so that it is clear that these services are separate to NQF education and care services. Other terminology in the CS Act will be aligned with the NQF, for example, licensees will become approved providers, and licences will become service approvals. The licensing structure and approvals processes will be aligned, so that fixed term licences will be replaced with ongoing service approvals. An approved provider will be able to operate multiple services under the CS Act, under a single provider approval. Service approvals will be transferrable between approved providers (subject to approval by the regulatory authority), which will increase flexibility for approved providers. Furthermore, under deeming provisions, approved providers under the NQF will be able to operate services under the CS Act without going through an application process for a separate provider approval under the CS Act. The basic requirements to operate a children’s service will be aligned with the National Law. For example, new approved providers under the CS Act will have to appoint nominated supervisors and persons in day-to-day charge of services. While these roles are fundamentally the same as the existing roles, there will be more explicit requirements about what the approved provider must consider when appointing these responsible persons. Currently, the CS Act requires an educational or recreational program that is based on the developmental needs, interests and experiences of each child, and which is designed to take into account the individual differences of those children. This requirement will be strengthened by aligning it with the National Law requirement to deliver a program based on an approved learning framework (i.e. a learning framework that is already approved for the purposes of the NQF). The program will need to be proportionate and reflect the nature of the education and care provided and how long the children attend. Information and resources will be provided to help services develop programs appropriate for their service. The compliance approach under the National Law gives the regulatory authority more flexible options. The monitoring and enforcement provisions in the CS Act will be aligned with their equivalent provisions in the National Law. This will include the ability to prohibit an individual from working in children’s services if they pose an unacceptable risk of harm to children. The Bill aligns the offences and penalties in the CS Act as closely as possible with those in the National Law. The Bill introduces some new offences, like operating a children’s service without a 'nominated supervisor’. However, other offences will remain the same; for example, it is currently an offence under both regulatory regimes to inadequately supervise children. The CS Act will continue to express penalties in penalty units in accordance with Victorian legislative policy, whereas the National Law expresses them in dollar amounts. Alignment with the National Law will mean that an offence will carry a different maximum penalty for individuals and corporate bodies. In most cases, the proposed new maximum penalties will be lower for individuals and higher for corporate bodies. The approved associated children’s service (AACS) is a service approval model that was devised when the NQF was introduced to overcome the need for a provider to obtain service approvals under two regulatory regimes. It enables an approved provider to operate a service under the NQF and a service under the CS Act at the same location, under a single NQF service approval. The Bill phases out AACSs in Victoria by 2022. This is because once the two regulatory regimes are aligned, there will be no need for the AACS model in Victoria. Approved providers under the NQF will be able to operate separate services under both regulatory regimes. They will enjoy the same flexibility as that offered by the AACS model, such as lower staffing requirements in the AACS and reciprocal recognition of supervisors. To minimise the impacts of the changes for service providers, transitional arrangements in the Bill: • recognise licence approvals in place on the commencement date, so current licence holders can efficiently transition to the new CS Act regime • ensure any service that is exempt from a requirement under the CS Act or Regulations (e.g. staff-to-child ratios) has six months from when the reforms begin to apply for a service waiver in respect of the equivalent requirement under the CS Act (as amended) • provide processes for dealing with licence applications that are in progress when the reforms commence. Conclusion While the Bill is of a largely technical nature, in that it aligns the existing regulatory scheme with the National Law, it will also ensure that all education and care services in Victoria are regulated under a contemporary regulatory regime, with consistent requirements for all providers. This provides a significant opportunity to modernise the regulation of children’s services in Victoria and to drive quality improvements across the sector, which will in turn improve the educational and developmental outcomes of Victorian children. I commend the Bill to the house.