Mission Statement

The primary purpose of the Wellington Community Childcare Association ( WCCCA ) is to represent the interests of early childhood centres and to promote the provision of quality early childhood education services.

Goals of the Organisation

We are committed to providing a range of services to the early childhood sector that enhance the quality of children's experiences in early childhood settings in Aotearoa/NZ. To this end we will:

General Membership Services

General membership entitles members to access to:

• Teacher Registration support;
• REACH – WCCCA’s Reliever Scheme;
• WCCCA courses;
• Written resources and information;
• Telephone advice and support;
• One-off centre visits or attendance at Management Committee meetings;
• Access to WCCCA website which contains information on current WCCCA activities and events and sector news.

Other current WCCCA initiatives

SKIP Project
Over the last 2 years WCCCA has received funds from the Ministry of Social Development to provide families with information, strategies and support with raising their children in a caring, supportive and non-violent way. WCCCA runs workshops and provides resources for parents.

OSCAR Initiative
WCCCA is currently in the process of carrying out a feasibility study looking into the provision of management support services for OSCAR programmes, and also into the possible establishment of OSCAR programmes

WCCCA Management Support Scheme

WCCCA’s Management Support Scheme continued to grow this year. WCCCA now provides management support services to 19 early childhood centres in the Wellington region.

Some of the services we currently provide in centres are:
Finance

• Day to day administration of accounts – bills, fee invoicing, banking, PAYE, GST etc
• Human resources administration – payroll, leave records etc.
• Budget management – keeping records of income and expenditure, comparing against budget, forecasting income and expenditure, preparing budget, etc
• Grant applications.

Staffing

• Recruitment and appointment of staff –placing advertisements, managing appointment process, job descriptions, employment agreement, etc
• Staff support – managing staff appraisal process, working with staff to develop professional development plans, registration process;
• Provide Management Committee with information on interpretation of collective employment agreement, and re-negotiation process;
• Supervisor mentoring – meeting with Supervisor on a regular basis to assist with planning, problem solving etc;
• Act as impartial mediator between staff and parents when needed;
• Assist Supervisor and Management Committee to deal with complaints against staff, disputes, grievances, and carrying out disciplinary procedures;

 Compliance

• Assist staff to comply with the centre’s health and safety policy and the Health and Safety in Employment Act through Health and Safety Hazard checks, assisting with emergency preparedness.

Information Management:

• Assist with review of centre documents – policies, constitution, new family induction booklets, new staff induction booklets;
• Manage maintenance and updating of daily operation information - the parent phone list, emergency contact list, immunization register, collecting and distributing mail, stock inventory and maintenance, filing, typing and photocopying
• Co-ordinate collection of items for newsletter, prepare for print and distribute.

Parent Management Committee :

• Attend Management Committee meetings when required to provide information and advice on current issues in the early childhood sector and assist with analysis of implications for the centre;
• Report to the Committee on operational issues and financial position and assist with decision making;
• Provide resources and assistance to individual Committee members to enable them to carry out their role competently;
• Advice on good employer practice;
• Act as impartial mediator between staff and parents when needed.

The WCCCA Management Support Scheme also provides some one-off, or short term services for centres, e.g

• Manager/Senior Teacher relieving;
• Project management and co-ordination, eg. a one-off building project, or staffing restructure process;
• External supervision or mentoring for Manager/Senior Teacher;
• Manager staff appraisal;
• Preparation for ERO Reviews.

Centres that are interested in finding out more about the Scheme should call WCCCA on 04 385 8116