The Department of Education and Training (DET) with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) consulted closely with early childhood education and care services regarding the amendments to the No Jab No Play legislation to determine the best way to implement requests to parents and carers so there is minimal impact on services while still working towards the shared goal of maintaining high immunisation rates.
These regulations have now been set and from 1 November 2018, early childhood education and care services will be required to ensure parents and carers of children attending their service provide an updated immunisation history statement twice per year.
This is in addition to the original requirement, introduced by law in January 2016, which requires parents and carers to provide evidence of their child’s up to date immunisation in order to initially enrol in an early childhood education and care service.
The No Jab No Play regulations specify that parents and carers must provide the service with evidence that their child continues to be up to date with immunisations while attending the service at intervals of no greater than seven months.
It is suggested that services request this information twice per calendar year, timing reminders to comply with the maximum seven month interval, and where possible, aligning requests for evidence with existing processes for maintaining up to date details for families and children. This could include requesting a current immunisation history statement at census data collection times, through re-enrolment processes, or at end of financial year activities.
These requests for updated evidence will act as additional reminders and assist parents and carers to remember and prioritise timely vaccination in the face of competing life pressures.
DET has been working with the DHHS to develop practical resources to support all early childhood services with this requirement. This includes:
Victoria currently has the highest vaccination rate for children under five years of age in Australia, with the latest figures from the Australian Immunisation Register showing that 95.7 per cent of five-year-olds are now fully immunised in Victoria. This is due in part to the key role that early childhood education and care services play in implementing No Jab No Play requirements. Further information can be viewed on the DET website here.
Claire Tobin, Principal Medical Advisor, DET
tobin.claire.l@edumail.vic.gov.au | 03 9097 1153
Date published: 18.10.2018
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