FOST E R LE AVE
Fostering support AEU Industrial/Research Officer Mika Tippins illustrates how assisting individual members can achieve policy changes for all.
96th, 97th and 98th birthday. When she passed away the kindergarten children formed a guard of honour at the funeral.
Continuing the journey COVID threw a spanner in the works but the regular ongoing ‘joint sessions’ have continued with the Roseview residents. The current Executive Officer, Director of Nursing and Midwifery at Southern Flinders Health, Crystal Brook Hospital has decided that the program is so valuable that he has scheduled regular meetings with kindergarten staff to make it work. Eleven children have had their flu vaccination so that they can continue to visit and meet the requirements for aged care visiting. But to be inclusive, when weather permits, they meet on the hospital grounds. The children involved in the original project are now working with a new batch of kindy kids for the next stage of the project. The kindergarten has also received quite significant funding as a result of lobbying local politicians for beautifying the footpath and making it a space where they can all engage. Local MP Geoff Brock and Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan have both supported the kindergarten in their lobbying. They received $15,000 from the Department for Education and through a grant application to Country Arts SA, sponsored by the Crystal Brook Community Association, they received another $18,912 to engage a professional public artist to create handmade clay tiles to tell the story and highlight the intergenerational connection between the kindergarten children and
the Roseview residents. As Director, Karena Wilson said in her application: “There is a need to capture this wonderful intergenerational connection within the community. There is a sense of timeless history and voice of the Roseview residents that can be honoured. Beautifying this environment along the garden bed with art will bring love and joy to the community who gather in this space. The art project will weave an incredible intergenerational story into the fabric of the Crystal Brook community.” They are now lobbying for an RAA Regional Safety Grant for 30 metres of hand railing along the length of the footpath to make it safer for the older folk and we hope they get it. I know this is one great example of the type of members we have all over the state making a fantastic contribution to the lives and wellbeing of children and young people through the public education system. Congratulations to Director Karena Wilson, Teacher Cammie Noonan and Early Childhood Workers Olivia Pilkington, Kyra Hogg and Ros Wardle for the fantastic work you are doing. n
PUBLIC EDUCATION AWARDS
You can read more about work of educators honoured in the 2021 Public Education Awards at:
8: www.education.sa.gov.au/ working-us/teacher-initiatives/ public-education-awards
In August this year I was assigned the matter of an AEU member who had acquired the foster care of a baby and subsequently applied for foster carer’s leave from the Department for Education (DfE) on half pay. His application was refused because the DfE, which controlled the policy, did not allow for this. At the time, foster carer’s leave could only be approved up to 20 weeks on full pay. This is despite half pay being an option for adoption, surrogacy and maternity leave under your School and Preschool Education Staff Enterprise Agreement 2020 (EA20). Foster caring is a viable pathway to adoption. Adoptions have steadily declined over the past decades, which led a parliamentary inquiry last year to recommend national law reform which would make adoption easier. Some hold that the current laws make the process difficult to navigate. Some reforms have occurred; for example, same sex couples have been able to adopt children since changes to the Adoption Act 1988 in February 2017. In response to the member’s call for assistance the AEU developed a detailed and legally justified, rights-based argument in a letter to DfE on behalf of the member and his family. DfE was persuaded and the policy was changed to allow successful applicants to take the leave on half pay over 40 weeks in line with other leave in the EA20. This is another example of the AEU working behind the scenes for its members. It’s not wrong to speak up. If you are considering fostering a child then contact the AEU’s Information Unit to make sure you know your rights before starting the process. n
AEU Information Unit: P: 8172 6300 Mondays: 8.15am – 5.00pm Tuesday to Friday: 10.30am – 5.00pm E: info@aeusa.asn.au AEU SA Journal – December 2021 | 1 3
