Reaching out
Making ‘the KU Difference’ by
supporting the wider community
ISS
The Australia-wide Inclusion and Professional Support
Program is an integrated and consolidated approach to
meeting the inclusion and professional support needs of
child care services. The 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.
In 2008 KU was the ISS Provider for 7 NSW regions. The
KU ISS team received and assessed 1,973 applications.
The team also processed 2,789 ISS claims, and payments
were made to 779 child care services.
In November 2008 KU, in collaboration with Illawarra
Children’s Services and FlowConnect (a software
company) was selected by DEEWR to be the sole National
ISS Provider. KU will transition to that new role from
January 2009, administering the equitable allocation of
$54m of ISS funding across Australia.
ISA
The Inclusion and Professional Support Program 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 2008 KU continued to manage 7 of the
18 ISAs in NSW, supporting more than 2,100 child
care services to create high quality and inclusive care
environments. In 2008 KU employed 45 Inclusion
Support Facilitators who made 10,689 visits to services
(10,364 in 2007), completed 3,633 Service Support
Plans (3,445 in 2007), 1,838 Inclusion Support
Subsidy Applications and 639 Flexible Support Funding
Applications.
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KU Children’s Services
Northern Sydney SCAN
KU manages the DoCS funded Supporting Children
with Additional Needs (SCAN) program in the Northern
Sydney Network and in 2008 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 a unique
on-site support service to community based preschools,
visiting 281 services and funding a total of 679 children
in 82 centres.
During these visits a Special Education Consultant
offers advice on creating positive social and physical
environments which enhance children’s learning and
wellbeing, and reduce the incidence of challenging
behaviour. KU’s Coordinator, Indigenous Programs offers
training on how to create environments and curriculum
that is welcoming and respectful to Aboriginal families.
Consultancy Services
Throughout the year, KU provided consultancy services
to 2 Councils, 3 corporate clients and 1 private client.
KU Solutions
In September 2008 a new initiative, KU Solutions, was
launched by the Minister for Community Services, the
Hon. Kevin Greene MP. KU Solutions offers community
based/not for profit centres the opportunity to benefit
from KU’s expertise and access services, resources and
support similar to those available to every KU centre.
KU Solutions offers online access to a selection of
policies, procedures, resource documents, forms and
other information via a new section of the KU website. It
also offers training and consultancy visits to community