THE NATIONAL COMPETENCY STANDARDS ARE CURRENTLY BEING REVIEWED BY CAPEA, AND IT IS HOPED THAT THE SECOND EDITION IS PUBLISHED BY JUNE 2018. PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU WISH TO BE PART OF THE REVIEW PROCESS.
Competency Standards for Childbirth and Parenting Educators were developed by Australian birth and parenting educators and published by NACE (now known as CAPEA) in 2011.
They are the first known Competency Standards in the world specifically for childbirth & early parenting educators. They were largely adopted by NCT, the UK’s largest provider of childbirth & parenting education in 2013.
It is intended that these Competency Standards for Childbirth and Early Parenting Educators will:
- assist women and their families to gain better access to high quality, responsive, learner-centred education during pregnancy and the early parenting period;
- provide a nationally consistent approach for educator’s competency to be assessed;
- provide a foundation for developing and evaluating professional practice;
- assist educators in identifying their practice development and learning needs;
- be dynamic enough to act as a benchmark for assessing competence to practice in a range of settings by the diverse group of professionals working in childbirth and early parenting education;
- be applicable to ‘novice’ and ‘expert’ educators, coordinators or managers of childbirth and early parenting education services.
Printed copies may be obtained by contacting us. A small fee to cover printing and postage will be charged.
Download the complete document for the Standards, Elements, Performance Criteria, Range Statements, as well as the backgound, development and references: Competency Standards for Childbirth and Early Parenting Educators [PDF, 385KB]
Using the Competency Assessment Tool for Childbirth and Parenting Educators
The Competency Assessment Tool for Childbirth and Parenting Educators aims to provide a user-friendly guide to a meaningful, professional conversation between the educator and the assessor or mentor.
Ideally, the childbirth and parenting educator chooses the assessor or mentor to observe the facilitation of a group session and then provide feedback for further professional development, in a similar way to clinical supervision provided in other health professions, unless the assessment is part of completing of a formal education program.
The Assessment Tool aims to assess how well the educator applies the two domains of the Competency Standards, being the professional, legal and ethical and the educational domains, to practice. The assessment cues are generic examples of competent performance (they are neither comprehensive nor exhaustive) and can be adapted to various contexts.
Download the Assessment Tool for Parenting Educators (2016) (220kb)