Red Nose is proud to announce the launch of its Safe Sleeping eLearning program for early child care industry educators.

The eLearning program has been developed to enable all early childhood education and care services to meet new regulations that require them to have policies and procedures for the safe sleeping of infants and children.

The changes to the National Quality Framework were handed down by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) in October 2017. The changes were prompted by the death of a five month old girl from SIDS in a childcare setting in 2012.
In handing down the recommendation, ACECQA acknowledges Red Nose as a recognised national authority on safe sleeping practices for infants and children.

Red Nose National Scientific Advisory Group Chair, Professor Rosemary Horne, said the safe sleep eLearning program provided child care services with the opportunity to easily ensure their new policies reflected evidence-based safe sleeping recommendations, whilst also providing educators with quality education and learning in an accessible format.

“Red Nose are the experts in safe sleeping practices and national programs have resulted in an over 80 percent reduction in babies dying suddenly and unexpectedly whilst asleep, with 10,000 babies lives saved as a result. This program provides childhood education and care services with evidence-based safe sleeping education to support services’ sleep and rest policies, in line with the National Quality Framework,” she said.

“The eLearning program is in addition to the information sheets and brochures which provide parents and health professionals with the latest scientific evidence for safely sleeping babies. It will ensure that every child care educator who completes the program will be able to sleep infants in their care safely, in line with Red Nose’s evidence-based recommendations for reducing the risk of sudden and unexpected death in infancy, including SIDS and fatal sleep accidents,” she said.

The program, which includes an introduction from ACECQA’s National Education Leader Rhonda Livingtstone, is presented by Professor Jeanine Young, who is a member of the Red Nose National Scientific Advisory Group.

It incorporates easy-to-follow video modules and assessments and covers the key Red Nose recommendations for safe sleeping relevant to a childcare setting, including sleeping baby on their back with head and face uncovered, keeping baby smoke-free in any safe sleeping environment and providing a safe sleeping environment.

The program also covers topics such as communicating with parents about their child’s current sleeping behaviours; and undertaking regular safety checks of sleep and rest environments.

Professor Horne said the e-learning program was an invaluable asset to all childcare educators in Australia.

“There are almost 16,000 child care centres nationally, and 132,000 people working in this sector,” she said.

“By completing the program, child care services and educators can be confident that their safe sleep and rest policies are in line with Red Nose evidence-based practices; and parents can be confident their child is being placed to sleep safely.”

The Red Nose Safe Sleeping eLearning Program for Early Childhood Educators is recommended for use by all early childhood educators and can be purchased from Red Nose for the launch price of $25.00 + GST per user until 15 May.

The program can be purchased from the following link: http://www.shoprednose.com.au/red-nose-elearning-for-early-childhood-educators.html

A promo video of the program can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/260176722