Quality Area 7 – Governance and Leadership

To achieve the best outcomes for children and families, a service requires effective governance and leadership, a skilled and engaged workforce, sound administrative and risk management systems, well documented policies and procedures, and a safe and healthy learning environment for children. Quality Area 7 focuses on effective leadership and governance of the service to establish and maintain quality environments for children’s play and leisure.

Research demonstrates that there is a strong link between leadership and improved outcomes for children. Effective leaders are clear about the purpose of education and care services and have the skills to effectively communicate shared goals and expectations.

Effective evaluation and self-review enables a service to continuously improve their practice, policies and procedures. An ongoing cycle of self-assessment, planning and review, together with engagement with all stakeholders including families, creates a culture of continuous improvement at the service.

Quality Area 7 has two standards that focus on governance and leadership at the service. These standards are crucial to delivering quality outcomes for children under the National Quality Framework because:

effective governance requires a statement of philosophy, adequate management systems and clearly delineated roles and responsibilities to support the effective operation of a quality service
effective leadership establishes a culture of reflective practice to encourage continuous improvement across all aspects of the service, resulting in a higher quality service for children and their families.

Below is the online professional learning designed for NSW OSHC educators that further unpacks key component of Quality Area 7 – Governance and Leadership.

Outside School Hours Care online professional learning

Below is the ECA Learning Hub online professional learning designed for NSW OSHC educators that further unpacks a key component of Quality Area 7 – Governance and Leadership.

The ECA Learning Hub is an online Learning Management System – all your learning will be saved in the one location and can be saved, downloaded and printed for your records.

Developing and Maintaining Quality Improvement Plans for OSHC

Price: Free | Register Today

Duration: 60 minutes

Description: In this module Luke Touhill helps educators understand the legal requirements of a Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) and how to create a useful QIP. It provides advice and examples on how a QIP can support OSHC settings to assess their current performance, recognise what they do well, and plan effectively for future improvements.

Governance and leadership

Elements	Content	Descriptor
7.1	Governance	Governance supports the operation of a quality service
7.1.1	Service philosophy and purpose	A statement of philosophy guides all aspects of the service’s operations.
7.1.2	Management systems	Systems are in place to manage risk and enable the effective management and operation of a quality service.
7.1.3	Roles and responsibilities	Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined, and understood, and support effective decision making and operation of the service.
7.2	Leadership	Effective leadership builds and promotes a positive organisational culture and professional learning community
7.2.1	Continuous improvement	There is an effective self-assessment and quality improvement process in place.
7.2.2	Educational leadership	The educational leader is supported and leads the development and implementation of the educational program and assessment and planning cycle.
7.2.3	Development of professionals	The educational leader is supported and leads the development and implementation of the educational program and assessment and planning cycle.
7.2.4	Leadership	Effective leadership builds and promotes a positive organisational culture and professional learning community.