Dear Gemma
You will not be surprised to hear that we get this question a lot. Since the Queensland Government made changes in 2017 to ‘reduce red tape’ for early childhood services, we have had a lot of queries from assistants being asked to take on the duty of ‘Responsible Person’.
According to ACECQA, a Responsible Person must be either the approved provider or person who has managerial control, a nominated supervisor or the person in day-to-day charge of the service.
Assistants should not be expected to take on this responsibility, particularly as there are no provisions for this under the award or in any agreements that we are aware of.
The person appointed as the ‘Responsible Person’ needs to be someone who is already responsible for the day-to-day running of a program. There may be exceptional circumstances where an assistant may be asked to take this on, but we would not want that to occur without consultation, consent, clear guidelines and compensation.
Should you have any questions about whether or not your employer can ask you to do this, we encourage you to contact our union for advice.
Danielle