Last updated: October 2022
Our Early Learning Centre's (ELC) and Outside of School Hours Care (OSHC) services are all open and are operating without any attendance restrictions.
We understand some families may feel concerned about face-to-face learning and care, due to the challenges we have collectively faced over the last couple of years. Our team are here to support you. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your service manager.
This page summarises our services COVID-safe practices and the government’s latest advice for our sector.
Service availability
Throughout the pandemic, we aimed to keep our ELC and OSHC services open to ensure families could continue accessing essential care and minimise learning disruption.
Some of our services are still being impacted by staffing issues resulting from industry-wide shortages, increased illnesses in the community and COVID-related isolation. At times, our services may experience staff shortages. If this occurs at your service, we will utilise our YMCA network to bring in replacement staff; so, you may see some unfamiliar faces from time to time. In extreme cases, we may need to temporarily reduce operating hours. We will give you as much notice as possible and communicate any changes to your daily fees.
The following information was supplied to early childhood education and care services from the Victorian Government:
COVID-19 isolation requirements have changed
The Victorian Government has announced the end of the Pandemic Declaration and associated Pandemic Orders.
The following information, based on advice from the Department of Health, will apply from 11.59 pm Wednesday 12 October 2022.
It is strongly recommended that children:
- who test positive to COVID-19 should stay home and isolate for 5 days
- should not attend Early Childhood Education Care (ECEC) services after 5 days if still symptomatic
- who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend ECEC services.
Parents and carers should advise the service of the child’s COVID-19 positive test result.
Where children become symptomatic at an ECEC service they should:
- be collected by their parents or carers
- undergo testing for COVID-19.
Face masks
- The Department of Health recommends that masks should be worn by a person who is a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 when leaving home.
- Additionally, the Department of Health recommends that masks should be worn by a person who has COVID-19, for at least 7 days after a positive test, when they need to leave home.
Contact us form
If you have any questions about the information on this page, complete the form below and our Customer Service Team will review your submission.
They will respond directly or connect you with a relevant stakeholder.