Extra No Jab – No Play Requirements in Victoria, from November, 2018

The State of Victoria currently boasts the highest vaccination rate for children under five years of age in the country. According to the latest figures from the Australian Immunisation Register, 95.7% of Victorian five-year-olds are fully-vaccinated.

The No Jab – No Play requirements will be ‘ramped up’ next month.

From 1 November 2018, stronger No Jab – No Play regulations in early childhood education and care services will require them to ensure that parents and carers of children attending their service provide the service with an updated immunisation history statement, which proves that their child’s immunisations are up-to-date, twice a year. This is in addition to the original requirement, which has been in force since January 2016, which requires children, who are enrolling in education and care services, to be fully-vaccinated.

The additional No Jab – No Play regulations require parents and carers to provide the education and care service with evidence that their child’s immunisations continue to be up-to-date, while attending the service, at intervals no greater than seven months.

The Department of Education and Training suggests that early childhood education and care services:

• request this information twice per calendar year,
• send out reminders for parents and carers 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, such as requesting a current immunisation history statement:
  • at census data-collection times,
  • through the service’s re-enrolment processes, or
  • as part of end of financial year activities

Parents’ and carers’ being asked by their education and care service for updated immunisation evidence can serve as additional reminders and prompt them to remember and prioritise vaccination, so that it is not inadvertently overlooked.

The Department of Education and Training, in cooperation with the Department of Health and Human Services, has developed a useful resource to help all education and care service services meet this additional requirement.

The resource consists of an updated, on-line version of the Immunisation Enrolment Toolkit, which includes:

• all relevant information and supporting resources to assist parents and carers with meeting their obligations under the No Jab – No Play legislation,
• templates of example letters to support services’ requesting updated immunisation history statements from parents and carers, and
• scenarios and suggestions for ways to support families in different circumstances, such as families that are experiencing disadvantage and non-Medicare card-holders, for example.

According to the Department of Health & Human Services, the early childhood education and care service should:

• ask parents/carers to provide an Immunisation History Statement from the Australian Immunisation Register,
• assess the statement to determine if the child’s vaccination status complies with requirements; unless the child qualifies for the grace period, they cannot attend the service until acceptable documentation is provided,
• once a child is enrolled, twice a year, ask parents/carers to provide a current Immunisation History Statement for attending children that shows the child is up to date with immunisations,
• ensure that the request specifies that parents/carers only need to provide a new statement if/when a child has received or been due to receive a vaccine/s while attending the service, and
• time the request so that parents/carers can meet their obligation of providing this information at intervals of no greater than seven months.

Sources: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/news/archive/Pages/ecupdate_strengthened_No_Jab_No_Play_regulations.aspx?ID=

https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/public-health/immunisation/vaccination-children/no-jab-no-play/immunisation-enrolment-toolkit/immunisation-and-the-law/what-you-need-to-do