Mobile Types

13 July 2009
Posted in Knowledge Bank - Mobiles

There are several types of Mobile Children’s Service. They work in hundreds of communities with thousands of families and children, in a range of ways, breaking down the barriers of isolation by being responsive to the particular circumstances and needs of the children and families in those communities.

Community Access Mobile Minder Services [CAMMS] supervise groups of children while their parents are engaged in a range of activities put on by other community groups or organised by the parents themselves. These activities include training, self-development, education and recreation. Sessions are held at the premises of neighbourhood centres, Family Support Services, Young Parent Programs, TAFE’s and other community facilities, normally in an adjacent room to the parents. Parent activities generally involve a 10 week program of some sort, with the occasional shorter program or one-off session. The parents still technically have care of the children and must be in the “immediate vicinity”. This is a form of ‘adjunct care’. Attendances are usually under 10 children per session. There are 11 of these services in NSW, each service generally covering one LGA. All services except Albury-Wodonga Mobile Children’s Service are in western Sydney and are funded by DOCS. For example, in one term, Community Access Care Pair [Penrith] provided a service to 264 children and 225 families over 82 sessions in 12 communities in the Penrith Council LGA. CACP also provides afternoon activity sessions for young school age children in the more disadvantaged communities of Penrith LGA. CAMMS contribute enormously to the capacity of the many agencies in local community service systems to work with parents on their life issues. They have become essential components of local community service systems. CAMMS have been particularly supportive of culturally isolated communities. Each LGA should have a CAMMS!

Mobile Preschools operate in rural and urban fringe areas, often outreaching from a regional centre to venues such as community halls in very small towns. Services often travel up to 1.5 hours to a venue and may offer sessions between 3 and 6 hours duration. Services provide their activities at up to four different locations per week or nine per fortnight. As parents are not present, the services have ‘care’ of the children and are licensed by the Department of Community Services. Attendances are usually 10 to 20 children per day, depending on the population density of the drawing area and the capacity of the community halls. There are 35 of these services. Services include a transition to school program in their activities. For example, in one term, Gwydir Mobile Children’s Service [Moree] provided a service to 86 children and 82 families over 45 sessions in 7 communities. They offer structured early childhood sessions for mainly 3 to 5 year old children. They provide a service where there is no reasonably accessible centre based service. Gwydir also offers play sessions for 0 to 5 year olds and their parents.

Mobile Child Care Services are a more recent form of Mobile Children’s Service. They operate in smaller but relatively densely populated agricultural communities and offer care and education for 0 to 5 year old children over a longer day, similar to Long Day Care.  Again, services may travel up to 1.5 hours from their base and may work in up to four communities per week or nine per fortnight. Attendances range up to 20 children per day but are usually limited to under 15 children per day because of the ‘difficult’ nature of the venues and the high care needs of under 3 year old children. For example, in one term, Cowra Early Childhood Mobile Service provided a service to 108 children and 81 families over 49 sessions to seven communities. Children and families do not have reasonable access to another care and education service. These services are particularly appreciated by farm and small business families during BAS week. They are based at Tumbarumba, Cowra, Crookwell, Condobolin, Deniliquin and Albury-Wodonga. 

On-farm Care Mobile Services offer care for children on rural properties – This is currently of a short-term duration, such as one or a few days per week, with no ‘stay-over’ for the carer. There is limited availability of this type of care. These services are being piloted at Hay and Albury-Wodonga and have already demonstrated the demand for, and viability, of the model.

Remote Area Mobile Play Session Services operate in the remote areas of NSW, west of the Newell Highway. They offer structured early childhood sessions for 0 to school-aged children as well as recreational activities for children up to 13 years at community venues and properties. They play a major part in the social and educational infrastructure in remote areas. Services may travel up to 2 hours to a venue and travel up to 40,000km per year. Some services travel to small towns and stay overnight, visiting properties on their way to and from these small towns, on a weekly circuit. Because the parents themselves often travel up to 1.5 hours to get to venues [Often local properties where they take turns to ‘host’ a session], they are usually present at the sessions and parents generally have care of the children. Attendances range from a few children on a property to up to 30 children at a play session in a small town. Plus their parents. Most of these services provide activities for children during community days such as Agricultural Field Days or Gymkhanas. These services are licensed on the basis that they occasionally do have care of children. There are 13 of these services in NSW. They cover vast areas of the west of the state and are often the only local community service. For example, in one term, Paroo Contact Children’s Mobile [Based at Wanaaring, a town of 60 people situated 200 km on the gravel road west of Bourke], provided a service to 119 children and 60 families over 31 sessions in 14 communities and properties in the north-western part of NSW and SW Queensland. Paroo Contact Mobile travels 40,000km per year and covers an area the size of Tasmania. As with the other remote area Mobiles, the toy library is an important strategy at Paroo. These services offer early childhood activities ranging from group work to one on one support as well as assisting parents on child rearing issues.

Urban Area Mobile Play Session Services operate in rural/urban fringe and inner city areas, offering structured early childhood sessions for 0 to school age children at community venues. They are not licensed. The parents have care of the children. Activities are focused on both children and parents. Attendances vary from 5 to 20 children at a suburban play session to 100 children at a community fun day. Some of these services, such as West Lake Activity Van, support independent play groups on a community development basis whilst other Mobiles set up the groups and run the play sessions themselves. They are very important for generating social capital in urban development areas. There are 7 of these services. For example, West Lake Activity Van [Based at Toronto in the lower Hunter] provided a service for 6 to 25 children each session over 40 sessions in one term in 36 suburbs of West Lake Macquarie. The Magic Yellow Bus from Marrickville often has 100 children and 70 parents at its park sessions.

Early Intervention Mobile Services - Disability operate in different ways in the various communities. They usually travel to the smaller and isolated communities, offering play sessions and opportunities for parents to discuss the development of their children as well as offering intervention strategies for children with a disability. Some offer ‘reverse integration’ play sessions as well as toy library. There are 3 of these services.

Mobile Toy Libraries provide parent support and play opportunities for children as well as the loan of toys and equipment. Most services have a regular route, either throughout one or two urban council areas or through several communities in a sub-region. Many Mobile Services provide toy library as a supplementary activity to preschool or play sessions. There are 7 of these services.

Occasional Care Mobile Services provide occasional care for 0 to school age children in community facilities. These three services are licensed. 

Community Development Mobile Services provide a great range of child and family oriented services on an outreach basis to under-serviced communities. Most of these have several outreach or mobile service like projects that are auspiced by one organisation. There are 2 of these services, although quite a few other services also have a specific Community Development role in their very broad briefs.

Early Intervention Mobile Services – Family Support provide structured early childhood playsessions, advice, referral and support specifically to stressed families and communities, where isolation may be caused by geographic, economic, social status or cultural factors. They attempt to provide early childhood expertise combined with family support expertise. There are 3 these services – They require staff with a particular skill set and sponsorship by an organisation that has the capacity to support staff on difficult issues. MCSA believes that a combination of early childhood and welfare skills in such a service is an important way to better support many children & families. This is an expanding service type.

The above are the broad types of Mobile Children’s Services – They all operate in different ways. It should be noted that some services offer a mixture of the above activities such as care, play session and toy library sessions. Some work in the mainstream community, some with stressed communities and some across all types of communities: Whatever the community needs.

This article is an extract from An Introduction to Mobile Children’s Services which may be downloaded here.