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Kindergarten service delivery in Cardinia Shire

About

Kindergarten in Cardinia Shire is delivered by the following partners working together:

  • State government – Department of Education and Training (DET)
  • Local government (Cardinia Shire Council)
  • Early Years Managers (bestchance and ECMS)
  • Committees of Management (Beaconsfield Kindergarten, Cockatoo Kindergarten, Gembrook Preschool)
  • Parents and families

While Council doesn’t directly run early years education services, we’re committed to ensuring the services are the best they can possibly be, now and into the future.

  • As the central planner for kindergarten services in the shire, we provide the buildings and manage kindergarten registrations centrally to ensure all children who require a place in our community kindergartens are able to access one. Council engages Early Years Managers to deliver kindergarten on our behalf.
  • The contract with the current Early Years Manager to provide early years education services from Arena Child and Family Centre is set to expire in December 2021. As a result, Council conducted a request for service process in 2021 to appoint an Early Years Manager to provide kindergarten and other associated services from Arena Child and Family Centre.
  • 2 new facilities were also included in this request for service process – Rix Road and Timbertop in Officer (interim names).
  • You can read about the outcome below.

Outcome of the request for Early Years Managers review

Council has selected:

  • bestchance to continue to operate and manage kindergarten services at Arena Child and Family Centre in Officer. bestchance will have a licence agreement for a further 5 years
  • One Tree Community Services to operate and manage the new Rix Road Integrated Child and Family Centre and Timbertop Integrated Child and Family Centre (these are interim names). One Tree Community Services will have a licence agreement for 5 years from when both kindergartens open in 2021.

About the 2021 request process

  • The process fulfilled the Victorian Government statutory requirement to select an early years provider in a fair, competitive and robust manner in the open market. 
  • The process ensured that the very best providers in Australia had an opportunity to express their interest in delivering high-quality services for families in Cardinia Shire.

Enquiries

If you have queries about this process, you can:

  • email this dedicated email address: earlyyears@cardinia.vic.gov.au
  • call  1300 787 624 and ask to speak to our Community Infrastructure and Service Planning Coordinator
  • For queries about your kindergarten service: Contact bestchance on 1300 224 644

 

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