Our Services
“Inclusion supports children’s rights. Every child should be valued as an individual and as a contributing member of their family, community and society. Consistent with the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, inclusive practice in early childhood education and care ensures that every child has access to education ‘irrespective of… race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status’.
ECA Statement on the inclusion of children in early childhood education and care.
How we will support your service
Lady Gowrie Tasmania have a network of Inclusion Professionals across the state to work directly with your service to:
- Provide practical inclusive practice support to educators to overcome specific inclusion barriers.
- Support educators to reflect, acknowledge and identify their strengths.
- Support educators to reflect on their understandings of inclusion and identify inclusion barriers.
- Assist educators and teams to critically reflect on their practice and identify possibilities for change.
- Facilitate access to all Inclusion Support Program (ISP) resources including Specialist Equipment and funding.
- Assist services to develop a tailored Strategic Inclusion Plan (SIP) which documents identified inclusion barriers together with inclusive practices and strategies for implementation at either a whole of service or care environment level.
- Support services to develop connections with relevant community groups, services and organisations to encompass an enriched and informed approach.
Additional Needs
Additional needs may arise for children who:
- Have a disability or developmental delay;
- Are presenting with challenging behaviours;
- Have a serious medical or health condition, including mental health; or
- Are presenting with trauma-related behaviours.
Meeting the needs and requirements of:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children;
- Children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds;
- Children from refugee or humanitarian backgrounds; and
- May also require specific considerations, such as cultural support, to ensure that these children are able to participate fully in ECEC services and experience positive outcomes.
Inclusive Practices
- Every child has the right to experience high quality early childhood education and care, where they can play, wonder, discover and actively participate alongside peers.
- All children are viewed as being capable, competent learners and as active contributors with infinite potential in education and care services.
- Every child’s strengths, interests, and own unique learning trajectory are acknowledged and reflected within daily programs.
- Collaboration and building authentic partnerships with families and communities underpins educator practice.
- Diversity is acknowledged, valued, and is viewed as a resource for learning and growth.
- All educators identify inclusion barriers and learn ways to overcome them.
- The focus is on the whole environment, that is thoughtfully designed to foster a holistic approach to participation, and not just an individual child.
- Educators work as a team and respond through active listening and collaboration, and with a shared vision and goals
Inclusion Support Portal
The Inclusion Support (IS) Portal is a web-based application that is used by ECEC services to interact with the Inclusion Support Program. It provides step-by-step help for services to develop an online Strategic Inclusion Plan (SIP) and apply for funding through the Inclusion Development Fund.
For most existing users, when accessing the IS Portal you should be automatically connected to the IS Portal once you enter your PRODA credentials.
For some users, there may be an additional step of selecting your organisation, role type and requesting access. Once your organisation’s access delegate has approved your access you will be able to use your PRODA credentials to the IS Portal.
Further information on accessing the IS Portal using PRODA can be found in the Inclusion Support Portal access using PRODA Fact Sheet.
Further information on accessing the IS Portal can be found in the Inclusion Development Fund Manager webpage in the Inclusion Portal FAQs.
Once access has been granted, users can log into the portal from the Inclusion Development Fund Manager webpage.
Specialist Equipment Library
The Specialist Equipment Library (SEL) provides specialist equipment and resources to eligible early childhood education and care services (ECEC) services to address participation barriers so children with additional needs are able to actively participate in daily programs alongside their typically developing peers.
Login to the SEL here.
Additional SEL Forms:
Specialist Equipment Request Form
Eligible Services
ECEC services eligible for support through the program are services that have been approved by the department for the provision of the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) under the Family Assistance Law. The Family Assistance Law is the basis for Commonwealth child care fee assistance, which includes the Child Care Subsidy and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS). The Family Assistance Law also provides for the approval of services to administer the Child Care Subsidy on behalf of families.
Eligible services and available support
Centre-Based Day Care; Long Day Care and Occasional Care (except Specialist Services):
- Inclusion Agency support;
- IDF Subsidy for an Additional Educator, for children with diagnosed disability and children with additional needs (under six years of age);
- IDF Subsidy for Immediate/Time-Limited Support, for children with diagnosed disability and children with additional needs;
- IDF Subsidy for Innovative Solutions Support.
Outside School Hours Care; before school, after school, and vacation care:
- Inclusion Agency support;
- IDF Subsidy for an Additional Educator, for children with diagnosed disability and children with additional needs (under six years of age in Centre-Based Day Care, excluding children in Outside School Hours Care);
- IDF Subsidy for Immediate/Time-Limited Support, for children with diagnosed disability and children with additional needs;
- IDF Subsidy for Innovative Solutions Support.
Family Day Care:
- Inclusion Agency support;
- IDF Family Day Care Top Up.
- The child (or children) the service is seeking to include through support from the program must meet the eligibility requirements for the Child Care Subsidy.
For further information on eligibility please refer to ISP Guidelines here.
Feedback Handling Strategy
The Inclusion Support Agency Tasmania Feedback Handling Strategy can be found here.