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A project of Homestay Management Pty Ltd Working together to build complete homestay solutions. TAFE Directors Australia Conference – September 2008 What is “hot-bedding”? Hot-bedding is where one or more students share a bed for sleeping in shifts Last week, Consumer Affairs Victoria told us of 27 students living in one room and 'hotbedding’!!!! NATIONWIDE Crisis re: shortage of rental accommodation Rapid rising prices of rental accommodation There are a growing number of problems Perhaps the biggest crisis, is that not enough of us are focussed on solving the problem Examples Yesterday I was told of a student who is sleeping in his car and using the shower facilities at the local swimming pool He parks overnight in the driveway of a friend who's renting He had wanted to stay in the house but the students are scared the landlord might find out Welcome to Australia ! Another student was given information and the address of his host family When he was delivered to that home, he was told by the host, 'You're not staying with me' and was directed to another home The new host mother already had ten students and he was now her eleventh The institution only found out about it when the student came to ask if this was 'normal' in Australia Three’s a crowd! Many families host more than three students and tell us 'The Homestay provider/supervisor said it was an emergency and that it would be OK' This contravenes Regulations and raises issues re insurance liability as the home has technically become a boarding house Saving Private Homestay Families are generally not: being oriented made to sign an agreement being formally trained and assessed Being tracked This leads to a variety of avoidable behaviour and issues Please find out what your Homestay Host training process is! Host standards in Homestay All Hosts think they have perfectly suitable arrangements. For example: attic room with no door, only a curtain bungalow with no ablution facilities a bed in the dining room, shielding it with a huge dining table and chairs host mother converting the open plan dining-room into her own bedroom, thus making three bedrooms available for students Confirmation of Appropriate Accommodation and Welfare----CAAW We have heard that: Once Education Fees are paid some education providers are leaving it up to the U/18 student to comply with this DIMA requirement and Institution obligation If an issue arises it is then followed up This is a big concern Australian Homestay Network AHN is a network of: individuals institutions organisations agents and groups associated with ensuring the provision of quality Homestay services in Australia Compliance – Quality/Best Practice 1. AHN has a quality audit trail for any Department reviews relating to National Code/ESOS Standard 6 - Student support services 2. AHN offers a framework for ensuring that the accommodation for a student under 18 is appropriate Standard 5 - Younger students + CAAW 3. AHN has critical incident protocols in place with clear communication lines with qualified professionals Standard 6 (6.4) Homestay Industry Issues (May 07) 1. Need for nationally accredited processes, 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. benchmarks and standards Poor systems / processes Lack of resources for supervisors of Homestay Lack of support staff Supply of trained hosts to deal with these issues Need to educate agents AHN aims to address and resolve these issues Australian Homestay Network WE ARE A FAST GROWING NETWORK WE WANT EVERY INSTITUTION IN AUSTRALIA TO JOIN US WE WANT YOU TO HAVE FREE ACCESS TO OUR DATA WE WANT YOU TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF HOMESTAY WE ALL WANT TO BE PROUD OF THE AUSTRALIAN HOMESTAY EXPERIENCE A project of Homestay Management Pty Ltd Working together to build complete Homestay solutions TAFE Directors Australia Conference – September 2008 Free for Institutions to join David Bycroft 0408 623 790 [email protected] Anthony Fleming 0415 855 232 [email protected]