Extensive experience and highly qualified...
Childcare by Design is owned and operated by Dr Brenda Abbey who has extensive experience in early childhood settings including over 15 years in the childcare industry. Her effective working relationships and collaborative networks formed with government and non-government agencies, professionals and other childcare consultants during this time ensure Brenda delivers the best possible outcomes for her clients.
Brenda's experience includes:
- Director of private and community centres
- Validator with the QIAS
- Departmental Officer (licensing, monitoring) with the Queensland Department of Communities (now Office for Early Childhood Education and Care)
- Writer of modules for Diploma of Children's Services and editorials for newspapers
- Lecturer at University and TAFE
- Conference Presenter
Her qualifications include:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Education)
- Master of Education (Educational Administration)
- Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood)
- Diploma of Teaching (Early Childhood)
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
- Justice of the Peace (Qualified)
Brenda was the foundation director of a privately owned childcare centre licensed for 74 children and also foundation director of a centre licensed for 150 children attached to a large independent school.
She was a validator of the Quality Improvement and Accreditation System with the National Childcare Accreditation Council. In this capacity, she travelled interstate and to the far north of Queensland. In addition, she was employed by the Queensland Department of Communities where she licensed and relicensed children’s services and monitored their compliance, and consulted with investors and prospective licensees in the development of new services.
Brenda has also held teaching positions with Education Queensland and lectured in early childhood and children’s services at University and TAFE. She has written, and content reviewed, curriculum for Certificate and Diploma qualifications for students enrolled in Children’s Services at the Queensland Open Learning Institute of TAFE. She has contributed to a variety of early childhood professional journals and authored a regular column in a regional newspaper. She is the author of Managing compliance in childcare services: The essential guide for Queensland practitioners (AusVoc, 2009).
Brenda has a passion for the childcare industry, and is a committed advocate for the early learning years. She specialises in supporting owners/operators in designing and developing high quality services as well as in project management, licensing, and centre operational management.
She has been involved in the setup and management of childcare centres in South-East Queensland including the Sunshine Coast Grammar School 150 place precinct opened in 2006. Her clients include large high profile corporations both within Australia and overseas.
