In the ever-growing digital world, parents and carers are given more access to their child’s day in care than ever before. But what impact does this have on families looking for a deeper connection with their ECEC service, and how do we help them get the most out of this experience?
1: Easier access to their child's information
As information becomes easier to attain in all forms of life, it's essential that you have access to your child's information while they're not in your care.
With daily information around your child's eating, sleeping, toileting and more, we're equipping you - parents & caregivers - with the tools you need to understand your child's daily routines. On top of this, centres can post text, photos and videos to show the activities that your child has been taking part in.
This will give you peace-of-mind knowing they're getting the education and enjoyment they need, as well as informing you of what kinds of activities they like. Caregivers can also use this information to inspire the child's learning and fun at home.
2: Diversified ways of communicating
Every child, parent and family is different.
Maybe you don't like posts and comments to be seen by everyone, or maybe you like to give a lot of feedback to your centre.
OWNA allows you to do exactly that.
By diversifying the way in which you can communicate with your centre, OWNA is building a platform that allows families to have a say, however they like.
OWNA allows you to communicate with your centre through private messages (via locked posts), providing feedback on programs, filling out open-ended forms and questionnaires, and creating your own posts.
The possibilities for communication in OWNA are expanding all the time, and this is vital to getting the most out of your child’s early education service.
3: Being involved in the process
Forms and feedback aren't just there for the means of increasing communication. They're there to improve communication, which in turn improves the service your child receives.
By being able to give feedback through the app, OWNA allows you to be part of the process.
It's a requirement under the National Quality Framework (NQF) that centres should involve families in the practices of their centre, so by providing feedback, you can be sure that you're making a difference to important things such as programs and policies.
The knock-on effect of this is that you get a service that you, as an expert in your child's life, know your child will get the best learning experience from.
4: Increased transparency
Ever wanted to know something about your centre, their policies, programs etc.?
Before apps like OWNA, you'd probably have to ask to see a folder when picking your child up or dropping them off, wait while the educator fetches said folder and finds the page. Now it's at the click of a button!
By increasing transparency into the goings-on of the centre, OWNA gives you the means of finding out information you may otherwise worry about. Increased transparency has also been proven to improve relationships in any aspect of life.
Improving relationships between parents and educators is what we strive for at OWNA, and we hope to achieve that every day.
5: Understanding CCS
Let's face it. Childcare isn't cheap. That's why government subsidies are such an important part of giving families access.
In order for you to get the most for your money, we must make sure that you get the maximum rebates possible. And to do that, you need to understand how much you're entitled to.
OWNA has it's own CCS calculator, that you can use to find out your entitlements, and our invoicing system uses something called carry-over balances, which allows you to see how much you owe to - or are owed by - the centre.
Both of these let you know how many hours of care you can get and how much money you have to spend when it comes to care for your child. This is particularly important for getting the most value for your money when it comes to early education.
To recap, OWNA helps improve the relationship between educators and families through increased access, communication, involvement and transparency, as well as helping families get the most out of their CCS entitlements.
We like to think that this creates a better experience for families, potentially at a lower cost. By helping centres, OWNA is helping families through our all-in-one childcare app.
Moving to a centre that uses OWNA? Download the parent cheat sheet!