The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has released Staying healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services - 6th edition (Staying healthy), a best-practice resource that provides simple and effective ways for education and care services to help limit the spread of infectious diseases among children.
Infections are common in children and often lead to illness. At home, children are reasonably well protected from infectious diseases because they do not encounter as many people as they do when attending education and care services.
Following best-practice principles and maintaining high standards of hygiene helps to reduce transmission of infectious diseases and promotes good health and safety practices in any setting.
Launched by the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, The Hon Ged Kearney MP, at Annie Dennis Children's Centre in Melbourne on Friday 9 August 2024, Staying healthy aims to assist all staff in education and care services in leading by example to ensure that educators and other staff, children, visitors and families remember to practice effective infection prevention and control.
Assistant Minister Kearney pointed out that whether it's a tummy bug, the flu or COVID-19, it's easy for our kids to catch something at early childhood education and care services. This guide will help keep young ones healthy and happy.
'Staying Healthy is one example of how the Albanese Labor Government is prioritising childhood health, supporting early childhood workers, and targeting our investments to deliver better health outcomes for young Australians and their families,' said Assistant Minister Kearney.
The Assistant Minister was joined at the launch by members of the Staying Healthy Advisory Committee (the Committee), the expert body that governed the development of the updated guideline.
Chaired by paediatric infectious diseases physician Professor Christopher Blyth, the Committee comprised of members with expertise in child health, infectious disease, microbiology, public health, general practice, environmental health and the administration, regulation and staffing of the early childhood education sector.
Staying healthy- 6th edition combines new evidence and perspectives from the past 10 years to inform the update of the guidelines. General service practices remain unchanged between editions, but additional guidance has been updated and expanded throughout to capture new evidence.
As well as the overall guidance in Staying healthy, the guideline contains 5 key practice recommendations on specific issues. Each recommendation should be considered together with the accompanying information and advice.
Specific real-life scenarios have also been added and updated to align with new advice and to help service providers implement the guidance. Fact sheets on symptoms and diseases have also been added to the new guideline following community comments and enquiries received by NHMRC on the previous edition.
Professor Blyth said that Staying healthy has been the key resource for the sector for 30 years, providing guidance about infection and infection prevention in early childhood education and care services.
'To ensure we have provided evidence-based but also implementable guidance, we have brought infection and public health experts and representatives from the early childhood education and care sector together, from around the country,' said Professor Blyth.
Professor Blyth also noted that all aspects of the guideline have been reviewed, ensuring contemporary knowledge and best-practice principles inform the guideline.
'We all know the essential role that early childhood education and care services play for children, for families and for the community at large. We have developed this resource so that we can reduce the risks of infection in the sector, ensuring children, parents and staff are well, happy and able to benefit from the learning and socialisation inherently associated with the early childhood education and care environment,' said Professor Blyth.
Staying healthy has considered all quality areas outlined in the National Quality Standards within the National Quality Framework developed by the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority. The guideline has continued to meet the NHMRC standard for guidelines.
NHMRC's Chief Executive Officer, Professor Steve Wesselingh said that Australia is a world leader in developing high quality guidelines for many purposes, including clinical practice, public health, environmental health and ethics.
'There is no single solution for preventing infection in early childcare education and care settings - it requires a collaborative approach,' said Professor Wesselingh.
Staying healthy equips childcare providers, families and children with evidence-based advice to help limit the spread of infectious diseases and keep children healthy.
'I am proud of NHMRC's long history in developing this vital resource, and I am so pleased to welcome the launch of Staying healthy - 6th edition,' said Professor Wesselingh.
The downloadable and accessible version of Staying healthy- 6th edition, together with the fact sheets, posters, and technical reports are available on our Staying healthy webpage.
