Future-proofing the early learning sector In June 2025, AnglicareSA’s Autism Services commenced a partnership with TAFE SA to develop and support Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Early Childhood Education and Care qualifications, to ensure it is responsive to the needs of autistic children and their families.
Our Autism Services, which comprises our Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre (ASELCC), a unique offering in South Australia, as well as our Outreach AnglicareSA Therapeutic Services (OATS) program, provide personalised therapy and supports for children, young people, and adults living with disability. Recognised as subject matter experts through the partnership, AnglicareSA will support TAFE to develop autism-specific content for Early Childhood Education and Care qualifications, helping future educators undergoing the qualification to grow their skills in supporting children diagnosed with autism.
Through the partnership, our Autism Services team will also be providing lectures to TAFESA lecturers teaching within the early years qualifications, ensuring that they are equipped with skills and knowledge to teach students and answer any questions they might have. This partnership will strengthen the ASELCC’s reputation as a centre for excellence, build capacity for the early learning sector in neuro-affirming practice, and future-proof the sector, providing a potential pipeline of student placements and educator recruitment for ASELCC.
Diversifying the workforce When three employees from the same team at Daphne Street ASELCC announced they were all going on parental leave within six weeks of each other, an opportunity for an innovative idea arose.
“We had the idea to ask team members from our OATS program in similar positions if they would like to dabble in what we do at ASELCC a few days a week while managing their current workloads,” Clinical Manager, Early Learning, Louise Belperio, said. After receiving many expressions of interest, one speech pathologist and two developmental educators, who all had permanent roles in the OATS team, joined ASELCC a few days a week. Louise said this temporary arrangement gave team members a chance to diversify their skills in a new environment, while providing continuity of service for children at the centre. “They are used to doing more outreach work with a larger age range, from early childhood to adults, at schools or in customers’ homes,” Louise said. “But now, they are coming into ASELCC, which is centre-based early intervention childcare.
They are learning new skills working in a different team and trying something different, while broadening their own knowledge, and having a higher level of job satisfaction.” Currently, the three team members are only filling in on a part-time basis for a year until the employees on leave return, but Louise said similar opportunities could arise in the future. “This type of arrangement could be explored again if other team members go on extended leave, or if someone from my team at ASELCC wanted to work with adults in OATS, we would encourage that and see how we could help them explore that too,” she said. “If you want to be a speech pathologist who works across aged care and paediatrics, you can do that with AnglicareSA, because we can offer that diversity in a caseload experience.”
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