CELA publications inform and inspire the early childhood education and care sector

Sample Required Policies

Child Protection

Our service is committed to providing an environment that fosters health, development, spirituality, self-respect and dignity, that is free from violence and exploitation. Under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998, children and young people must receive the care and protection necessary to ensure their safety, welfare and wellbeing.

Sample Required Policies

Transportation of Children

Our education and care service is committed to providing transportation that is carefully planned to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of children at all times.

Resource Templates

Team Meeting Minutes template

The meeting minutes should be circulated to all team members after the meeting. This gives team members an opportunity to recap or catch up on the minutes and actions as well as be able to clarify any follow up questions.

Resource Templates

Team Meeting Agenda template

The agenda should be prepared in advance of the meeting and circulated to all team members so that they know what will be discussed and have time to prepare.

Sample Required Policies

Delivery & Collection of Children

Children are considered to be under the care of an education and care service at the point the service is taken to assume responsibility for their care and wellbeing. At this point the National Law and National Regulations apply.

Sample Required Policies

Sleep and rest for children

All children have individual sleep and rest requirements. Children need a comfortable relaxing environment to enable their bodies to rest. This environment must be safe and well supervised to ensure children are safe, healthy and secure in their environment.

Signs and posters

2025 printable calendars

Download and print this handy A3 sized calendar featuring school holidays and links to important CELA website pages. A separate calendar is available for each state and territory.

Sample Optional Policies

Safe and Responsible Use of Digital Devices

In today's digitally connected world, the safe and responsible use of digital technologies in early childhood education and care is paramount. This policy outlines the service’s commitment to the safety and well-being of children by ensuring technology is used responsibly, effectively and safety in the early education and care service.

Sample Required Policies

Preschool-based Fee Policy

The Education and Care Services National Regulations require approved providers to ensure their services have policies and procedures in place for the payment of fees and the provision of a statement of fees charged by the service.

Rattler

Issue 147 - Dec 24

As 2024 draws to a close, we're thrilled to let you know that our Rattler and Amplify! annual compendium is here. This year's compendium brings together some of the best Rattler and Amplify! stories from this year in one big bundle.

Rattler

Issue 145 - Apr 24

Welcome to the April edition of Rattler. Inside you'll find insightful articles covering a wide range of topics to spark reflection and discussion in your service.

Rattler

Issue 146 - Sep 24

Welcome to the September edition of Rattler. Inside you'll find insightful articles covering a wide range of topics to spark reflection and discussion in your service.

Simple Guides

Approaching difficult conversations with colleagues and managers

In this Simple Guide, we will explore how to prepare for a difficult conversation, key communication skills to employ, how to structure the conversation, and case study examples to show how these skills can be used in familiar scenarios.

Sample Job Descriptions

Educational Leader

This Educational Leader position description is to be used in conjunction with the sample Educator (Diploma) or Early Childhood Teacher (ECT) position description. The Educational Leader position description outlines the additional responsibilities specific to the staff member appointed to this role.

eBooks

Inclusion ebook

This resource includes a wide range of articles, tips and tools to support early educators with implementing inclusive practice.

Practice Tools

Self-reflection on cultural inclusion for First Nations children

This is a simple resource to kickstart your own individual cultural learning journey and a friendly reminder that things are not as easy for a lot of First Nations Peoples across our continent.

Practice Tools

Respectfully connect with your local First Nations community

CELA Cultural Advisor Lisa Walker shares why it's important to consciously consider how you engage with First Nations Peoples, including steps to take and things to consider on your journey.

Practice Tools

Cultural Safety and Equity: Practice prompts

This resource provides educators and educators practice prompts to identify cultural responsive practices in the service context and reflect on how the service setting creates an inclusive and equitable learning environment.

Practice Tools

Creating safe spaces for children

Every child has a right to be protected and feel safe in their early learning environments. Through reflecting on your environments, educators can thoughtfully create spaces that offer children ample opportunities to fulfil a sense of safety and security. This resource provides educators with prompts to reflect on different aspects of the environment that promote a sense of safety for children.

Practice Tools

Child Safe Principles Task Cards

These task cards encourage educators, teams and service leaders to reflect on how the Child Safe Principles are evidenced throughout service practice.

Practice Tools

NSW ECEC Child Protection Reporting Tool

This tool has been designed to help NSW early childhood education and care professionals better understand their reporting requirements.

Practice Tools

Critical reflection worksheets

This tool can help guide discussion, promote deeper thinking, and ensure the documentation of the critical reflection. You may choose to focus on only one theory, trying to ‘master’ it as a service, or you may use each of them for different reflections, aiming to find the one best suited to your service.

Practice Tools

Visual communication tool task cards

Embedding the learning environment with visual communication is an essential practice to support the full participation and meaningful engagement of each child.

Webinars

Essential Insights webinar: Cultivating Cultural Safety and Equity

This 30 minute webinar explores strategies to reflect on how your service makes families, children and educators alike feel safe to express their cultural background, beliefs, and values.

Webinars

Essential Insights webinar: Creating a Child Safe Service

This 'Essential Insights' webinar will provide strategies to reflect on and improve current practices to creating child safe environments in accordance with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

Webinars

Essential Insights webinar: Inclusion Using Visual Cues

This video explores how to effectively incorporate visual cues into your routines, discuss various types of cues you can use, and share practical tips to make them work for you.

Webinars

Essential Insights webinar: Positive strategies for guiding children's behaviour

This webinar will provide an insight into children’s behaviours and how educators can support children through co-regulation and guidance strategies.

Practice Tools

Handover booklet: For directors

This handover booklet is to support you in writing down all your knowledge so that you have the peace of mind and ability to delegate tasks. This document will also aid the service in ensuring a more seamless transition during a handover process.

Practice Tools

Child Protection Report Forms

This Child Protection Report form supports educators and service leaders in recording observations and reporting suspicions and/or allegations of child abuse and neglect.

Resource Templates

Committee Induction Checklist

This Management Committee Induction Checklist can be used to check that new (and existing) committee members are aware of key service documents, information pertaining to the committee role, and important channels for communication and support.

Sample Required Policies

Determining the Responsible Person

The National Law requires that a responsible person must be present at all times a centre-based service is educating and caring for children.

Sample Required Policies

Enrolment and Orientation

Enrolment and orientation procedures form the foundation for strong relationships between families and early education and care settings and promote a shared vision for quality experiences of education and care for children.

Sample Required Policies

Participation of Volunteers & Students

Our service is committed to providing a safe environment for all children where their health, safety wellbeing is of paramount importance. In order to remain compliant with regulations and legislation and ensure this is preserved during the engagement of students from universities, TAFE, RTO’s and schools and volunteers, the service will abide by the strategies and practices outlined in this policy.

Sample Required Policies

Sun Protection

We are committed to providing an environment that ensures all children and staff are protected from ultraviolet (UV) radiation during all outdoor activities.

Sample Required Policies

Water Safety

Our service has a responsibility to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of each child at all times. Drowning is a leading cause of death for children aged 0-4 in Australia. While most drowning occurs in backyard swimming pools, it is important to be aware that children can drown in less than 6cm of water.

Sample Required Policies

Excursions

CELA’s draft Excursion Policy supports services to be compliant with the National Law Education and Care Services, National Regulations and Legislative requirements around excursions.

Sample Required Policies

Medical Conditions

Clear procedures are required to support the health, wellbeing and inclusion of all children enrolled at the service. Our service practices support the enrolment of children and families with specific health care requirements. Medical conditions include, but are not limited to asthma, diabetes or a diagnosis that a child is at risk of anaphylaxis. In many cases, if not managed appropriately, these can be life threatening.

Sample Required Policies

Providing a Child Safe Environment

The National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, endorsed by all Australian governments, operationalise laws and regulations pertaining to Child Safe Standards. These principles offer guidance on key actions and performance measures essential for the implementation of these standards in early education and care settings.

Sample Required Policies

Emergency Management

Emergency situations can arise in and around early childhood settings, and emergencies are just as prevalent in education and care environments as in other environments.

Sample Required Policies

Dealing with Infectious Diseases

The way that children interact with each other and with adults in education and care services means that diseases can quickly spread in a variety of ways. Whilst it is not possible to prevent the spread of all infections and diseases, minimising the risk can be enhanced by implementing appropriate measures.

Sample Required Policies

Complaints Handling

Under the Education and Care Services National Regulations, an approved provider must ensure that policies and procedures are in place for dealing with complaints (regulation 168) and take reasonable steps to ensure those policies and procedures are followed (regulation 170).

CELA's draft Complaints Policy can support services to cover each requirement.

Sample Required Policies

Administration of First Aid

Our early education and care service provides an environment that promotes the health, safety and wellbeing of all children. Policies and procedures for the administration of first aid ensures prompt and appropriate first aid treatment and care in the event of illness, injury or medical emergency.

Sample Required Policies

Acceptance and Refusal of Authorisations

The Education and Care Services National Regulations require approved providers to ensure their services have policies and procedures in place in relation to the acceptance and refusal of authorisations. These procedures ensure that required authorisations are obtained and kept in the enrolment record an help to ensure that the health, safety, wellbeing and best interests of all children are met.

Sample Required Policies

Interactions with Children

This sample policy outlines goals and strategies for interactions with children including children's rights, listening, reflection, role modelling and behavioural management, and the roles and responsibilities of different members of staff.

Sample Required Policies

Privacy Collection Statement

This statement outlines the type of personal information collected by this service and how information is acquired, used and shared. We will not sell personal information to any third parties. See our full Privacy and Confidentiality policy for detailed information.

Sample Required Policies

Professional Standards and Ethical Conduct

Our education and care service is committed to a code of professional conduct, upholding ethical principles and professional standards that guide decision-making and practice at the service.

Sample Required Policies

Privacy and Confidentiality

Our education and care service recognises and respects the importance of privacy and confidentiality as an individual right and a basis for building partnerships.

Sample Required Policies

Incident, Injury, Trauma and Illness

The National Regulations require an accurate Incident, injury, trauma and illness record to be kept and stored confidentially until the child is 25 years old. Under the national legislation, an education and care service must record details in the Incident, Injury, Trauma and Illness Report.

Sample Required Policies

Nutrition, Food, Beverages and Dietary Requirements

From December 2024, under the Australian Food Standards Code, Standard 3.2.2A child care services are now a Class 1 and Category One food premises. Child Care services are identified as a category one business who handle unpackaged, potentially hazardous food that is ready to eat. These businesses must implement all three food safety management tools (food safety supervisor, food handler training and evidence), to strengthen their management of hazards known to contribute to foodborne illness.

Sample Required Policies

Governance and Management

Governance is the system or process by which organisations are directed, controlled and held accountable to ensure that the right decisions are made. Our education and care service recognises the importance of having a framework of rules, relationships, systems and processes within, and by which authority is exercised and controlled in the organisation. We view good governance and management as essential to our provision of quality education and care.

Sample Required Policies

Fees - Child Care Subsidy Services

Our service has a commitment to ensuring our fees are as affordable as possible and that all families have access to any subsidies that are available to reduce these fees. The setting and payment of fees takes into account all requirements of the Education and Care Services National Regulations, Australian Tax Office, Privacy Act and the guidelines contained within the Child Care Provider Handbook. All records held at the service will be maintained in accordance with the service Confidentiality and Privacy Policy.

Sample Job Descriptions

Nominated Supervisor

The Nominated Supervisor is responsible for managing all day to day aspects of the service’s operations and provide leadership ensuring high quality education and care provision.

Practice Tools

Communicating Roles and Responsibilities: Risk management tool

It is vital that everyone understands their responsibilities in ensuring compliance and managing risk. This communication tool can be used to identify who is responsible for each operational requirement at your service.

eBooks

Behaviour and co-regulation eBook

This resource aims to provide early educators with a wide range of articles, tips and tools to help them support children's behaviour and co-regulation.

The pdf includes a range of articles, tools, tips sheets and infograhpics in one handy eBook.

Webinars

Creating an Inspiring Art Space

This webinar aims to help learners reflect and explore the benefits of providing art spaces that are autonomous, creative and inspiring.

Thinking About

The Educational Leader

This document provides questions, ideas and strategies to think through with regard to the Educational Leader.

Simple Guides

Creating a Professional Development Plan

This simple guide provides a step by step approach to preparing an effective professional development plan for your team or yourself.

Simple Guides

Compliance

All centre-based and family day care services must be compliant to a number of laws and regulations that govern their operations. This resource aims to simplify what services need to know about compliance.

Simple Guides

Assessment and Ratings

This simple guide is designed to increase understanding of the Assessment and Rating process under the National Quality Framework for long day care services, family day care services, outside school hours care services and preschools.

Sample Optional Policies

Smoke Free Environment

All workplaces have a regulatory and legislative duty of care to provide a safe and healthy environment that is smoke, drug and alcohol-free. Children, educators and families will not be exposed to the harmful effects of second hand smoke while on education and care service premises.

Sample Optional Policies

Medication and Health Statement

This statement has been developed to provide an overview of the areas of medication and health covered by policies developed and maintained by the education and care service. Maintaining a healthy, safe and inclusive environment for educators, children and families, is paramount for high quality education and care.

Sample Optional Policies

Medication Administration

In accordance with the Education and Care Services National Law and Regulation 92, early childhood services must maintain medication records for each child receiving medication from the Service.

Sample Optional Policies

Hygiene and Infection Control

It is important that educators role-model and maintain positive health practices, and that children are appropriately supervised, assisted and encouraged in their daily health and hygiene routines. Education and care environments must be hygienically maintained to reduce the possible spread of infection and illnesses through the sound hygiene practices of staff and educators.

Sample Optional Policies

Dental Health

Good oral health is vital for overall health and well-being. Early childhood is the optimal time for children to develop lifelong habits that will contribute to their health as adults. A child’s baby teeth play a crucial role in eating and speech development. They help shape the jaw and face and preserve space for adult teeth to emerge. .

Sample Optional Policies

Safe Storage of Dangerous Goods

By maximising awareness of the potential hazards of dangerous goods and chemicals, we reduce the risk of harm to educators, students, volunteers, children, and families. Ensuring that dangerous goods and products are safely stored and their use is minimised in all areas of our education and care service is crucial for maintaining a secure, safe and healthy environment.

Rattler

Issue 144 - Dec 23

As 2023 draws to a close, we're thrilled to let you know that our Rattler and Amplify! annual compendium is here. This year's compendium brings together some of the best Rattler and Amplify! stories from this year in one big, glossy bundle.

Team Resource Kit

Educational Leader's bundle

As an educational leader, you’re responsible for ensuring that educators at your service are learning, growing and reflecting on their practices. This bundle will support you in promoting further in-depth learning with your team around the topics of behaviour, the planning cycle, early childhood development theory, and how to better engage with your Quality Improvement Plan.

Use these resources in staff meetings, in your own practice or as a tool when mentoring with educators.

Simple Guides

Education & Care Abbreviations

In the education and care sector there are many abbreviations which can be challenging to decipher. The following guide is designed to help you make sense of them.

Member News

Member news - Weekly alert

20 May 2024
In latest edition: Advocacy win: Federal Government commits to funding a wage rise for the ECEC workforce • CELA in the news • National Simultaneous Story Time - 22 May 12 noon • Surveys, grants and awards opportunities • News for NSW CELA members and more!

Resource Templates

Management Committee Health Check

The Management Committee Health Check is a tool that comprises of a series of questions that focus on the core areas of Management Committee roles and responsibilities. It is designed to bring to light Committee strengths and areas that need improvement.

Sample Job Descriptions

Educator (Certificate III)

Service Educators are responsible for providing education and care for children enrolled at the service, consistent with our philosophy and curriculum, and according to the requirements of the National Quality Framework.
Educators work in collaboration with other educators, room leaders, the Educational Leader, the Nominated Supervisor and Approved Provider.

Sample Job Descriptions

Administration Officer

As an Administrative Officer, you are expected to be an active team member of a team which provides high quality early childhood education and care to children. This includes all matters relating to administrative and financial nature of the service.

Sample Job Descriptions

Early Childhood Teacher (ECT)

The Early Childhood Teacher provides active leadership to Educators and Room Leaders in the development, implementation and evaluation of a child-focused education and care curriculum ensuring the curriculum is consistent with the service philosophy and according to the requirements of the National Quality Framework.
The Early Childhood Teacher contributes to the management of and supports the professional learning of staff.

Rattler

Issue 143 - Sep 23

Welcome to the September edition of Rattler. It’s been an incredibly busy but fruitful time for our CEO Michele Carnegie, who has represented CELA members at a multitude of significant meetings and round tables across Australia. Find out who's she's met with and what's been on the agenda in Michele's CEO intro.

Team Resource Kit

Time Management

Practical time management skills are critical for early childhood educators, as few of us have enough time to complete the tasks we set ourselves in any one day. Time management is defined as using your time productively and efficiently, which most of us feel we already do.

Team Resource Kit

Speaking About Practices

Being able to speak out about your service’s practices is an integral part of operating an early childhood education and care service.

Team Resource Kit

Running a Staff Meeting

Management, educators and staff work with mutual respect and collaboratively, and challenge and learn from each other, recognising each other’s strengths and skills.

Team Resource Kit

Reflection for Staff Meetings

This resource provides some ideas and topics for reflection during staff meeting times. These suggestions encourage the use of staff meetings for professional conversations and reflection on practices.

Team Resource Kit

Marketing Your Early Education and Care Service

An effective marketing plan assists you to successfully manage your resources and time, and will enable you to budget realistically for marketing activities.

Team Resource Kit

Goal Setting

As early childhood education professionals, it is imperative that we consistently evaluate our practices to ascertain our strengths and areas in need of development. Upon identifying areas for improvement, it is crucial to create a well-structured plan to accomplish these objectives. This is where goal-setting plays a pivotal role.

Team Resource Kit

Establishing Supportive Relationships with Families

Establishing positive relationships is the basis for effective collaboration with families. Building and maintaining these important relationships involves many different forms of communication in addition to routine, everyday contact.

Team Resource Kit

Engaging with Your QIP

The National Regulations require approved Early Childhood Education and Care Services to have a Quality Improvement Plan (QIP).

Team Resource Kit

Connecting with Families

How do we connect with families to ensure our service, educational program and caregiving meets their needs and provides the best start in life for their child?

Team Resource Kit

Opportunities to support you to manage workforce shortages now

CELA has collated some of the programs, scholarship and training opportunities across the country designed to support attraction and retention of teachers and educators.

Thinking About

Management committee meetings

Four things management committees need to do before a meeting.

Resource Templates

Management Committee Meeting Agenda Template

The agenda should be prepared in advance of the meeting and circulated to all members so that they know what will be discussed and have time to prepare.

Resource Templates

Join our volunteer management committee - email / letter template

Promote the benefits of joining your service's volunteer committee with this email template.

Simple Guides

Being on the Committee

This is a simple guide to being on the management committee for NSW long day care services and preschools.

eBooks

Early education leadership ebook

This ebook provides early education and care leaders with a wide range of articles, tips and tools to build leadership skills.

Sample Job Descriptions

Educator (Diploma)

Service educators are responsible for providing education and care for children enrolled at the service, consistent with our philosophy and curriculum, and according to the requirements of the National Quality Framework.
Educators work in collaboration with other educators, room leaders and the Nominated Supervisor.

Simple Guides

Early childhood education theorists

This simple guide introduces you to the best-known early childhood education theorists and how you can further explore new ideas and contemporary theory.

Resource Templates

Join our volunteer management committee - Poster

Promote the benefits of joining your service's volunteer committee with this poster.

Simple Guides

Implementing the Planning Cycle

This simple guide can support educators to understand and implement the planning cycle.

Resource Templates

Employer risk management questionnaire

This risk management questionnaire was developed by CELA partner Guild Insurance as part of a suite of resources designed to support services with workplace health and safety.

The survey is designed to help services identify and mitigate risks to employees.