Let's talk about allied health professionals in the early years education space. Are they a help or a hindrance? Let's unpack some of the things that make Allied health professionals really valuable and supportive in the early years learning environment versus some of the things that just do not work for these spaces.
So as an occupational therapist working in this space for nearly 20 years now, I've spent. A lot of time over the years in early childhood education spaces, and I'm aware of. Probably the most common challenges when I walk into the space is staff shortages, difficulty having time for educators to come off the floor.
The, the growing issue that's happened, probably more so since the NDIS rolled out is the, the vast number. Of allied health professionals that sometimes are entering an early childhood space because, um, if you've got half a dozen kids across that space that have got developmental delays or disabilities and they've each got a different OT, physio, speechy key worker, that's a lot of different people for educators to have to communicate with.
One of the things that we've seen coming out. Since the NDIS is everyone's working in their silos. So you've got the OT working on the OT goals, the speechy working on the speechy goals, um, and not a lot of coordination because sort of gone are the days where we had specialist children's services and um, and scope and some of these larger funded, um, organizations that were using a key worker or a transdisciplinary model where we had.
A really solid care team. And then off that care team, we were having primary secondary consults or a really coordinated approach to what therapy looked like, where everyone was working on the same sort of 1, 2, 3 goals. What we're seeing more and more these days is, um. A lack of time spent on the coordinating the care for the whole care team because that costs money and when families have a limited amount of money and when families are choosing how the funding is spent.
There tends to be, um, a lack of time spent bringing that whole care team together to focus on shared goals. What we know to be true and what the evidence says is that when we're focused on those shared goals, we're so much more likely to get outcomes when the goals are. Child and family focused, and when they're really limited to, um, something that everyone can be working on in the child's natural environment on a daily basis, we're much more likely to get outcomes.
And so when you have educators, um, that are having. Interruptions throughout their day, supporting allied health professionals that are coming into the space. It can be a significant disruption and that can be a hindrance, particularly if the approach being taken is not something that's coordinated either amongst the team, supporting that individual child.
Or in an ideal world more broadly, supporting the whole center and upskilling the whole team and upskilling, um, and, and, and leaving sort of some really measurable impact across the service in a coordinated approach. And I think that when we're talking about what it takes to create, um, helpful relationships with the allied health professionals that are coming into learning spaces, it is.
Being really considered in what are they here for? How is this supporting the goals of the child and the center more broadly, and how do we get the best out of this for everybody? Some of my top tips when it comes to creating really supportive and outcome-focused relationships with the allied health professionals that are coming into your space is to consider some of the following.
Having really good and clear boundaries and expectations around the way that you like to work. So sometimes, um, what we're seeing with, uh, allied health professionals is they're coming in, they're grabbing the kid, and they're working one-on-one directly with that child. Now, that may be a model that really works for you at your center.
Or you may prefer that that time is used sort of supporting and upskilling your team. And so getting really clear about the purpose of their visits, how frequently they're wanting to come, what the, yeah, what the intention is behind that and, and what their, um. The goals are the, and the, the skills that they're sort of bringing into that space.
Um, what strategies they're thinking of, of bringing in, having some of those conversations before they arrive to get a bit of a sense of how they like to work, and also really communicating how you would prefer things look. So getting clear about what you think that needs to look like for you, your staff, your kids, your families.
Where possible taking the time, and I mean, I know that that's a tricky word to share, that word time, because time is something that a lot of us feel like we don't have. I. But when it comes to supporting our kids with additional needs or just any of our kids really across our environment, that investment of time with the child and the family at the start in understanding what their needs are, understanding where their learning and developmental challenges are sitting, recognizing the speaking with the families around what the goals could look like, and then.
Being okay with saying, we need to coordinate this better. We need to be all on the same page with this. If we actually wanna be serious about supporting these kids to achieve these goals, let's pick one or two a term. And really focusing in on that and taking the time to set the expectations of that at the start of each term.
And it. It really probably doesn't take as much time as you think it potentially does the first time when you're getting to know the family for the first time and when you're understanding their needs both within the center and amongst the the team as well as what's happening at home. Understanding who's who in the zoo in terms of the care team that's working with the kid can also be a little bit complex at time times, but that investment at the start and up front, I think will set you up for success from a time management point of view going forward from the expect expectations and boundaries around who's coming when and what the, the, um, what they're doing and who they're supporting, and how they're adding value to your service when they're there.
Um. And, and three, they get actually achieving the outcomes with the kids because we are having this coordinated approach where everyone is working on the same thing. And ideally we are working on it in the child's natural environment, which might be the early learning center, it might be home, and we're working on it consistently.
Every day. Ideally multiple times a day. But if we've got too many goals, if the speech has got three or four or five goals and the OT Hass got another three or four or five goals, and the physio's got different goals, and then you guys have your own goals for the learning, your learning setting, then we're just never gonna get anywhere.
So really simplifying back and working on, on a couple of things at a time, I think is, is significant. Um, what I love to see. And I think there is possibly scope for this, and I think we should be starting to have these conversations, particularly as foundation support start to roll out across Australia.
And we're seeing less kids eligible or even accessing the NDIS is, um, getting a bit of a sense in that of who your preferred providers are. Many of these families, whilst it's important that they have choice and control. When they're working with you, they don't yet have their care team set up. And so if there are people that you are, that you are already working with, that you've got great relationships with that provide a really good quality service, then creating that continuity for your families and for your team by working with the same therapists more frequently is going to create better outcomes for everybody.
So, um. Not feeling afraid to, to make recommendations around who your organization works with most frequently. And there's definitely some pilots out there happening as well about looking at what it looks like having allied health professionals employed or connected to the childcare centers or the, um, early learning spaces as well, and having more of, um.
More time of them on the floor to be able to upskill your teams, particularly upskill some of your younger or less experienced staff, uh, across the spaces as well. And that's a great way to create that continuity. Um, something for those of you that, that don't have access to, uh, allied health professionals on the ground or, um, where the cost of that could be prohibitive.
I think that's where our. Educator hub can be a really great solution to that problem because everyone's getting consistent training. We can have some really targeted goals across the center. We can do a really thorough needs analysis of your environment and looking at where the gaps are. We can look at each individual staff member and their learning plans and where the gaps are in their in, in areas that they'd like to be stronger in or.
Um, build their skills and, uh, we can look at the individual needs of some of the kids in your setting as well to make sure that we have a, a consistent approach to supporting everyone weekly live trainings on, um. Topics that are relevant to you as well as, um, the chat group to be able to get real, um, time responses to some of those challenges so that we can keep things moving forward for you.
So there's definitely, um, options out there I suppose, to get to tackle some of those issues that we were talking about earlier where you've got. Allied health professionals coming into the space. You can't get all of the staff off the floor at the same time. So it's difficult to get everyone trained up in the same approach.
And so it's then difficult to have consistency across the space with how people are supporting the, the little things, the ritual is the rituals, the routines, and, and the um, the way that we communicate with the kids, all of those sort of basics. So having. PD that can be accessed on their phone, a, a accessed at any time that suits them whenever they get their release time being, um, own individual logins so that they can come back and, and sort of get started where they left off.
Um, really short, concise trainings that are really targeted to specific skills, um, certificates at the end, sort of individualized programs for each individual staff member. They're all of the things that I think will help to address this problem that I've seen over the years where you, you come into a center and there's a staff shortages and there's behaviors going through the roof on that particular day and the, or the kid that you've come to see is not even there.
And so being able to, um, provide more continuity right across the service to meet these learning needs. For each staff member where they're at and in, at a time and place that suits them rather than trying to coordinate, um, that live, uh. And sort of even like that whole webinar model, we know we all got a little bit burnt out from that, from COVID, but, um, doing it in a way that is, that's more focused, that's shorter, that's a more flexible in how it's delivered.
I think there's still definitely a place for that, for not only cost effective way of delivering, um, intervention, but making sure we're delivering the kind of support. That is most needed to, to the staff members that we're, that we're supporting as well, and, and that we are getting that reach across everyone so that we are, we've all got the same approach and we're doing things the same way, and we can understand the why behind some of these things as well.
So anyhow, they are. Probably my sort of main considerations when looking at how we make allied health professionals more helpful to your service rather than, um, that extra burden of, um, another person distracting you from, from your work on the floor with the kids. And, um, another set of expectations and, and things to do that's adding to that.
That burden of responsibility and, and what is already a very full day. So looking at how we can work smarter, not harder, uh, in our collaborations and in, um, how we roll out sort of simple, consistent, supportive strategies right across our setting that's not just gonna benefit the child that they've come to see, but going to benefit all of the kids and create a, a much more.
Cohesive learning space for everybody. So if you've got any questions you'd like more information about our educator hub or about how, um, to set up expectations with your Allied Health professionals, please reach out. We'd love to share more information about this to help you get some really great outcomes for you, your team, your families, and the kids that you're working with.
