Best Practice Guidelines for planning and development of child care facilities

http://alga.asn.au/newsletter/newsletters.ALGANEWS5July2013#Article10433

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has engaged the University of Technology Sydney: Centre for Local Government, to develop Guidelines to enable local governments to plan better for the future child care needs of their community. These Best Practice Guidelines will be an important tool for local governments trying to expand child care services in their communities.  The Guidelines will provide real examples of successful approaches which could be adopted by other local governments. Families, councils, developers and child care providers will have the opportunity to shape the development of the Best Practice Guidelines by sharing their experiences through a targeted interviews and an open survey. The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete and responses will inform the final analysis and shape the content of the Guidelines. In addition to the survey and interviews, research is being carried out to address: Prioritisation of child care within land use planning; Allocation and use of land and infrastructure; Development approvals processes, including streamlining of processes for child care developments; Size, location and type of services and places offered; Role of state and territory legislation in supporting development of child care services; The inclusion and prioritisation of children's rights and interests in the planning process; and Data required by state and local governments to support effective planning processes for child care. More information about the Best Practice Guidelines for the planning of child care facilities is available at deewr.gov.au. For more information on the project please contact: Roberta Ryan Su Fei Tan Director, Centre for Local Government Senior Researcher, Centre for Local Government Roberta.ryan@uts.edu.au sufei.tan@uts.edu.au Advice from AUSTRALIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION  www.alga.asn.au