Policies and Procedures for the amalgamated Playcentre Aotearoa are in the final stages of printing and preparation.
A Policies and Procedures hard copy folder will be sent directly to each centre and is expected to be in centres by the last week of August.
Policies and Procedures will also be loaded on the Playcentre website, these will likely be up just prior to that week.
To help everyone get to know the new folder layout and what is included in it we are holding a series of Zoom – online meetings.
Zooms will be held for Centre Admins, Centre Support Workers and Regional office staff on:
Thursday 15th August at 1pm and
Tuesday 20th August at 10am
Links for these will be emailed to employees directly.
Zooms for Centre representatives will be held on:
Tuesday 27th August at 10am. Join URL: https://zoom.us/j/296760186
and
Thursday 29th August at 1pm Join URL: https://zoom.us/j/190659678
We recommend at least one person from each centre attend a Zoom meeting to help ensure you become familiar with the new policies and procedures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we have to use the new policies and procedures?
As from the 1st September Centres, and all of Playcentre Aotearoa, will be required to follow the new Policies and Procedures.
Can we still have our own policies and procedures?
There will be some areas that the Policy and Procedure folder does not cover. In these areas centres can develop their own Centre Practices – as long as these do not go against anything that is within the Playcentre Aotearoa Policies and Procedures, Constitution or legislation.
Is the Policy and Procedure folder complete?
The folder that comes out in August will have all of the policies and procedures required by the Ministry of Education for licensing and a few additional ones.
There will be other procedures added over time.
Why are we getting a hard copy – how will it stay up-to-date?
We are sending a hard copy folder with the new policies and procedures to ensure that centres have something they can easily view within the centre and get to grips with. All of the policies, procedures and forms will also be online and any updates or changes to forms will only be made online. The online version will always be the ‘official’ version. It will be up to centres to keep the hard copy up to date if they wish – we will alert you to changes and new versions in the Bulletin.
What do we need to do with Policy folder when we receive it?
Settle in for a good read! You should look through it as a centre and take time to become familiar with the contents.
There are sections where you will need to enter in specifics for your centre – such as where things are kept, or where you evacuate to. Your Centre Admin will assist you in finding these sections and also in ensuring that the new versions of procedures are up on the wall in your centre.
What if we don’t agree with some of the Policies or Procedures?
There will be a Policy Feedback form on the Playcentre Website, where you can let us know any concerns or suggested changes to the policies and or procedures. Each of the documents will be part of a review cycle, and when we get to reviewing that document we will look through all of the feedback that has been provided and make changes as appropriate. We will also alert you which ones are up for review as they come up.
If we get a lot of feedback on a particular policy/procedure or item, or where there are signficant changes to practice/legislation, then we will consider reviewing it earlier than standard cycle time. If we are unable to change the policy or procedure to reflect the feedback given we will let you know why in the Bulletin.