Selecting The Best Child Care Centre

If you want to find the best child care centre, you have to do quite a bit of prior research and evaluation of the existing options, before settling on the most suitable one. Take note that the best centres are always in high demand; therefore, you should do your search earlier on so that you don't get left out.

Here are a few useful guidelines that will help you in making the best choice (not every centre has everything that you would like, but you have to take note of the most critical aspects):

1. Does The Centre Have Clear Rules?

A good child care facility would be quite flexible in allowing parents to drop off or pick up their kids at different times. However, this doesn't mean that the facility should go overboard on its flexibility. There are certain aspects, like handling of emergencies and operating hours, which should never be compromised.

Apart from having clearly stated and documented policies, you should be able to see such policies being implemented. If this isn't done, you would have serious questions on whether the facility does value the children who register.

Another key area that the centre should be very strict on is handling cases of sick children. The policies should have clearly stated directions on what type of illness would force parents to keep their children home. This is definitely something you need to know, just to ensure the health and safety of all children within the facility. Furthermore, certain immunization and health check-up requirements would be instituted in order to further safeguard the health and safety of children and staff.

Despite having strict regulations, the centre must always observe an open-door policy, which lets parents become aware and also participate in some of the activities within the facility. That is definitely something you would expect from a centre that really has nothing to hide.

2. Check Out The Staffing

The staff in any facility is a critical component to its success. Therefore, make sure to drop by the centre and see how they actually do their work. For really young kids, close interaction between staff and children is critically important. This is something that you can easily see if the caregivers are involved with the kids during play or holding them on their laps.

Close interactions are what help the very young to develop loving and interactive relationships in adult life. If you find that the staff doesn't display any loving responsiveness towards children, you should really question whether they can offer the best care for your kids.

The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority clearly indicates certain requirements that educators must have in order to qualify as caregivers for young children. Some of these qualities include:

i. In institutions that offer care to less than 25 children, the preschool service centre must have an early childhood teacher available for at least 20 percent of the time.

ii. In cases where 25 or more children are involved, the attendance of an early childhood teacher is required for a period of at least 60 percent of the time (for centres operating longer than 50 hours per week).

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