The utilisation of Technology within the Childcare Sector in Australia.
The Australian childcare sector is known to be highly regulated which means that there is a huge pile of paperwork that needs to be completed by childcare workers in order to satisfy the governing body’s requirements.
This is thanks to the introduction of a compliance framework (National Quality Framework) introduced in 2013 by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).
To put things into perspective on an average day, a childcare centre staff would go through 12 different checklists and other compliance related documentation.
This was seen as an opportunity by some technology providers with software solutions being designed and developed to meet the requirements of the childcare sector.
Cubsta is a childcare software provider who recently conducted various surveys to understand how technology is being utilised in the daycare sector in Australia to manage their operations including compliance-related tasks.
Here are the Results of the Survey:
82% of the respondents said that they undertake Enrolment using paper-based applications.
65% of respondents said that they filled Daily Sheets using paper.
90% of the respondents use paper to record incidents.
85% use paper to complete checklists at their centre.
Childcare workers said that the main reason for not going digital is that technology can crash.
Paper costs 4 times more per child when compared with the cost of a daycare software.
While there are plenty of childcare software systems available in the market place for close to 4 years now, the Industry has been slow to adopt technology.
What is required is the need to educate the early education workers on how technology can benefit in the long run as it has the capability of reducing the time spent on completing compliance documentation and also creating better efficiencies across the board.
