Challenges of finding good childcare
Finding childcare is not difficult as there are plenty of services and options but the safety and quality of care remains a concern for parents.
Hoping for the best, many parents opt for professionally provided care by a licensed early childhood education service instead of informal care with someone like a neighbour or babysitter.
However, even then, children’s safety can be left up to chance.
The fact that a service is licensed and may have received a positive report from the Education Review Office offers no guarantee that every child will be safe and will have a happy experience.
The Ministry of Education and ERO place a high degree of trust in service operators to at least meet minimum standards of care and education as required by law. But children’s safety is too important to leave to trust.
A case that has just come to light is that of an early childhood centre teacher who perhaps shouldn’t have been given responsibility of taking children home on the same day as a funeral she was attending. She forgot she still had a child in a van when she parked it at her home and locked it. The child, who was still strapped in a car seat, was alone in the van for more than four hours before being rescued by police.
In September 2017 an infant cared for by a home-based educator working for a nationally recognised service suffered brain injuries, a broken arm and detached retinas. At sentencing the court judge said that the educator who inflicted the injuries was immature and working in a job where she was seriously out of her depth. The educator suffered from depression and panic attacks and was experiencing extreme financial pressures.
Another example was the horrible burning suffered by an infant during bathing at one centre resulting in hospitalisation. The water temperature valve was broken or not set at a safe temperature and this was not picked up by the service operator. The parents were not informed of what happened and discovered their infant’s injury later at home.
How well the operator and manager of a service know their staff and if staff can report matters and ask for help when needed are important factors in services being safe places for children.
While this is not something that parents can easily ask, good things tend to go together so that in services that meet other criteria it is more likely that teaching staff are supported and there is a good team culture.
When choosing a service start first by seeking recommendations from other parents. Read online reviews at My ECE and get straight forward information about options, what you can reasonably expect, the rules and regulations services must abide by, and how to tell if a service is not up to scratch.
Then draw up a list of the names and addresses of services you would like to visit.
Some key considerations are:
❚ A service that has nothing to hide will have an open-door policy and allow parents to be involved.
❚ When a service is willing for any prior incidents and complaints to be known and not covered up, this indicates it takes responsibility for children’s safety seriously and is focused on ongoing improvement in quality and what it does.
❚ If teachers or staff appear hassled, overworked, or struggling to cope, then think twice about leaving your child at the service.
❚ The environment should be one that you feel comfortable to stay in for more than an hour or two and, if not, it’s probably not going to suit your child either.
❚ Look and listen to see if children are shown respect and talked to as people, allowed to make choices, and are given privacy if they wish when going to the toilet and changing.
❚ There should not be so many babies or children that it feels over-crowded or too noisy.
❚ No child should be left unattended or not within sight of a member of the teaching staff.
❚ Teaching staff should be actively engaged in and guiding children’s play, and not standing around on the periphery.
❚ Children shouldn’t be left sitting in front of screens or TV. Children should not be made to lie in cots unless actually falling asleep or sleeping and not restrained unnecessarily in highchairs, car seats, etc.
❚ Check on the quality of play space and activities inside and out.
❚ The service should have a health promotion focus, including attention to correct hand-washing and hygiene.
It is not possible to eliminate all risks, but knowing what at least some of the main considerations for quality and safety are and checking out services before choosing care can go some way to giving peace of mind.
A good early childhood service will maintain high standards, be transparent and accountable, and not leave safety to chance.
●➤ Dr Sarah Alexander is a researcher and expert on early childhood education quality, mum of five and chief executive of national early childhood network ChildForum.