Reaching out
Making‘ the KU Difference’ by supporting the wider community
ISS & NISSP The Commonwealth Inclusion Support Subsidy( ISS) plays a key role in supporting eligible child care services to include children with ongoing high support needs in quality care. More than 8,000 child care services nationwide are eligible to apply for ISS funding when including a child with high support needs in their service.
In January KU Children’ s Services, in partnership with Illawarra Children’ s Services( ICS), commenced a staged transition process whereby 28 previous Inclusion Support Subsidy Providers from across Australia transitioned to KU as the sole National ISS Provider( NISSP). This was a lengthy and complex process that was completed by the end of June 2009. From this time KU has been administering the equitable allocation of more than $ 50 million of ISS funding nationwide across the 67 Inclusion Support Agency regions. During 2009 KU and ICS assessed 10,616 applications and paid 22,278 claims.
ISA The Commonwealth Inclusion and Professional Support Program( IPSP) aims to promote and maintain high quality care and inclusion for all children in eligible child care services and this is done primarily through the work of Inclusion Support Agencies( ISAs).
Throughout 2009 KU continued to manage 7 of the 18 ISAs in NSW, supporting more than 2,200 child care services to create high quality and inclusive care environments. In 2009 KU employed 45 Inclusion Support Facilitators( ISFs) who responded to over 6,000 requests for support from services. In responding to these requests ISFs assisted services to develop 3,717 Service Support Plans( 3,633 in 2008), complete 2,239 Inclusion Support Subsidy Applications( 1,838 in 2008) and 640 Flexible Support Funding Applications( 639 in 2008). The ISAs supported the inclusion of over 2,000 children from the IPSP priority groups in each six month reporting period.
Northern Sydney SCAN KU continued to manage the NSW Community Services funded Supporting Children with Additional Needs( SCAN) program in the Northern Sydney Network and in 2009 supported 89 preschools( including 28 KU preschools) and 10 occasional child care centres to ensure access to quality early childhood or vacation care, for children with additional needs.
Through Northern Sydney SCAN, KU provided unique on-site support services to community based preschools, undertaking 241 service visits and funding a total of 468 children in 80 centres. During these visits Early Learning Inclusion Consultants offered advice on creating positive social and physical environments which enhance children’ s learning and wellbeing, and reduce the incidence of challenging behaviour.
Additionally, KU’ s Coordinator Indigenous Programs offered training on how to create environments and curriculum that are welcoming and respectful to Aboriginal families. The program also provided a variety of professional development opportunities including a project which sponsored 29 staff members from non-KU Services to attend the KU Annual Seminar.
Consultancy Services During 2009, KU provided consultancy services to 13 clients including Councils, corporate partners, child care providers and universities.
KU Solutions KU Solutions offers online access to a selection of policies, procedures, resource documents, forms and other information via a section of the KU website. It also offers training and consultancy visits to community based, not for profit centres. All services are provided for an affordable fee. The focus in 2009 was for KU Solutions to facilitate training to the wider community, particularly in relation to the Guiding Children’ s Behaviour policy, and build memberships.
8 KU Children’ s Services