Our management team

Shelley Delmo

Centre Manager

About

I was born and raised in Melbourne’s northern suburbs where I lived with my parents and three brothers. When I finished High School I worked as a Manager at a McDonalds franchise for five years before I left to have my first child. I worked part-time managing that McDonalds until the birth of my second child, when l decided to become a stay at home mum for a while. I stayed home with my children for about eight years when l began to pursue a career in aged and disability care. I worked part-time in this field for approximately five years before I switched focus to working with children. I started my career with MCCCC in 2008, working as a Support Worker at Tinning St. I then completed my Certificate III, my Diploma and my Advanced Diploma and successfully completed a Diploma in Management and Leadership in November, 2017. I am working full time in a management role at MCCCC and am thoroughly enjoying working for an organisation that services local families and the community.           

My role:

“As a centre manager, you are responsible for and oversee a multitude of processes and activities. There is the purely operational side of the business (overseeing the waitlist, booking tours and orientations, enrolments and all the associated paperwork, staffing, rosters, scheduling staff annual leave and professional development etc.), then there is the ‘counselling’ component of the role, where you are a sounding board for staff and families to discuss issues or concerns or just general conversations about how children are travelling, upcoming activities at the centres, new programs etc.

Mentoring emerging leaders at MCCCC is something I really enjoy and seeing staff embrace challenges and change with tenacity is very rewarding.

Another important responsibility as centre manager is ensuring strict regulations are being followed and maintained by educators. We need to ensure that the correct ratio of staff to children is in place at all times and that we are following the many regulations in this industry to the letter. Regulations and policies are continually being reviewed and updated so it’s vitally important we keep abreast of these changes.

I regularly liaise with council and attend network meetings with other child care centre directors and managers to discuss any service issues or upcoming changes in regulations. These meetings are also a great way to build relationships and exchange ideas with other early learning services.

Helping coordinate working bees, the Winter Solstice walk, and the many other activities that take place at MCCCC throughout the year is another facet of my role and allows me to work in partnership with our families and educators on a less formal and fun level.

It’s not always easy dividing my time evenly between two of the MCCCC centres, but I’ve been doing it for a number of years now and have it down to a bit of a fine art! Building relationships with staff, families and children, is what keeps me interested and engaged.”