The Early Childhood Educator for Certificate III

Walker and Miller

Work within a relevant legal and ethical framework

Student Activities

ELEMENT 1

Activity 1: Find a definition for the following terms connected with the legal system: statutory laws or statutes; precedent; indictable offences and felonies; summary offences and misdemeanours; tort law; injunctions; legal aid; plaintiff and custodial sentence. Discuss with a peer or your supervisor how these will apply in your role as an educator.

Activity 2: Find out more about each of the statutory or regulatory requirements connected with education and care services outlined in the table above. Discuss with a peer or your supervisor how these will apply in your role as an educator.

ELEMENT 2

Activity 3: Access a standard operating procedure for a workplace task in an education and care service (you may need to ask your trainer or supervisor for a sample). Read it and make notes about anything you are unclear about. Write a series of questions you will ask a supervisor or a work colleague in an education and care service to support your understanding of how to successfully complete the task.

ELEMENT 3

Activity 4: Access the Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics and consider how you, as an educator, will implement the statements in your everyday practice. Select statements from the code that you will use to develop your own philosophy. Ensure that this personal philosophy aligns with desirable codes of conduct and, if you work in a service, with the service's code of ethics (sometimes referred to as a code of conduct).

Activity 5: A family member approaches you and insists that her child be allowed to have peanut butter sandwiches at lunchtime as that is all her child will eat at home. How will you respond to the family member?

ELEMENT 4

Activity 6: Conduct a library or internet search on advocacy services in your local area. Investigate the reporting mechanisms for each service.

Activity 7: Access a complaint handling policy and procedure from an education and care service or ask your trainer or supervisor for an example. What will be your role, as an educator, in the procedure? Is it clear when an ombudsman would be contacted and who would do this? How will an ombudsman intervene?

Activity 8: Discuss with a peer, your trainer or your supervisor how you, as an educator, would manage the abuse of a child or a family member who attends an education and care service. Would the strategies you use be different if you became aware of a colleague suffering abuse? Write the step-by-step processes you would follow for different situations.

Review questions

1. What are the main components of the Australian legal system?

2. What are the key principles and practices for upholding the rights of the children and other clients?

3. How would you describe the principles of ethical decision making?

4. What are the reporting mechanisms for the suspected abuse of a client?

5. What strategies would you use to manage the abuse of a client?