Childcare Search and Factors to Consider

In my quest for a suitable childcare centre to register Larry with, the ECDA's website (Early Childhood Development Agency) provides a very comprehensive starting point. It provides a childcare centre search engine with filter options such as location, fee range, dietary preference etc. and shows the list of childcare centres that matches my selected criteria. Besides this very useful childcare search engine, the ECDA website contains information pertaining to childcare on financial matters like childcare subsidies, baby bonus and financial assistance as well as other useful information.

 

I utilised the ECDA website's childcare search engine to locate all the childcare centres that are in the vicinity of my home. The search engine came back with a list of childcare centres in the area that I selected. It also provided me with further information on the individual childcare centres like their address, contact details, operating hours, current and past license tenure, fees charged, vacancy, health alert issued within the past 12 months etc.

 

After shortlisting a few of the childcare centres from the list, I contacted them to arrange for a centre visit. I tried scheduling my visits to their centre at a time when the children are either having their activities or meals so that I can observe how the centre and their teachers conduct these activities and how the children respond to them.

 

Some of the factors which I had taken into consideration, paid attention to and enquired about during my childcare centre visits are as follows:

Miscellaneous / Incidental Charges

Besides the monthly fee, other charges payable to the childcare might include one-time payments like registration fee and deposit. Some childcare centres might require payment for new mattress and mattress cover. Uniforms for the child might be mandatory for some childcare centres but optional for others. All these will add up to the final total cost for childcare.

 

Are there any other additional optional charges?

Some childcare centres might introduce optional enrichment programs for the children. They might engage teachers from schools that specialises in certain enrichment programs to visit the childcare centre and teach the children. These enrichment programs might be offered as an option and parents will have to pay for them on top of the existing monthly fee that they have already paid the childcare centre if they decide to enrol their child in these optional enrichment programs. Thus, I enquired if all the enrichment classes that the centre has for the children are already included in the monthly childcare fee or do I still have to pay additional for them if I decide to enrol my child for it.

 

Trial Program and Deposit/ Refund Policy

Some centres offer a 2 or 4 weeks trial at prorated fees before confirming enrolment. For me, this is good as I can put Larry at the childcare centre for at least 2 weeks to see if he can fit into the environment. Other centres might offer a free 3 half-day trial session.

Different childcare centres might have a different refund policy as well as notice period for withdrawal. Some require a notice period of 1 month for withdrawal whereas others might require a notice period of 2 months. Some require the registration fee to be paid upon registration for the trial program; others require payment for registration fee only when you decide to enrol in their centre. The registration fee is usually not refundable. Most centres require a deposit of 1 month fee either upon confirmation of enrolling in the centre after or before the trial program. When this deposit is to be paid and if it is refundable in full or pro-rated is again dependent on the centre's policy.

 

Quality Indicators of the Childcare Centre

 

Licence tenure of the childcare centre

The licence tenure issued to a centre by MCYS (Ministry of Community Development) is 6 months, 12 months or 24 months. It is a quality indicator which is reflective on the centre's standards in hygiene, safety, nutrition and health measures. A centre issued with a 24 months licence means that it has a high standard of care while a 12 month licence is issued to a centre that has met the minimum standard. Unless the childcare is a newly opened centre or has a good reason, I will rank a childcare centre with 24 months licence tenure higher on my list.

 

Is the centre accredited with SPARK?

Childcare centres which had chosen to participate and be accredited with SPARK (Singapore Pre-School Accreditation Framework) have been assessed in 7 aspects of preschool education (Leadership, Planning and Administration, Staff Management, Resources, Curriculum, Pedagogy and Health, Hygiene and Safety) and have met the requirements.

Is the centre participating in HECCP (Healthy Eating in Child Care Centres Programme)?

Childcare centres that participate in HECCP comply with the food service guidelines endorsed by the Health Promotion Board. The food service guidelines promotes healthy set meals with no deep-fried and preserved food, regulates the amount of salt and sugar used in meals ensuring that the set meal is balanced from the four main group foods: rice and alternatives, meat and alternatives, fruits and vegetables. I can be more assured that my child will be eating healthily in childcare centres with HECCP.

For more information on the food service guidelines of HECCP, Google "healthy eating in child care centres programme health promotion board"

 

Staff to Children Ratio 

As per licensing agreement, for childcare with children above 18 months to 30 months, the minimum number of staff in charge of this age group of children is 1:8. With para-personnel it is 1+1:12. (If you are wondering who para-personnels are, they are staffs who assist the educarers/ teachers in childcare. The minimum level of training for para-personnels in this age group is "Fundamentals in Early Childhood Care and Education" whereas for educarers/ teachers it is "Certification in Early Childhood Care and Education"). I will enquire on the childcare's staff to children ratio and of course the lesser children to staff the better as the children will have more of the caregiver's attention. I will also enquire if the centre employs part-time caregivers in the event that the staff cannot turn up for work and how they handle such situations when they are shorthanded. I will be concerned if the centre employs part-time caregivers very often (especially part-timers without proper childcare qualifications) as they might not be as committed as the permanent qualified staff.

 

Mealtime Menu

During centre visits, I will enquire about their mealtime menu and activity schedule. Usually the childcare centre will have their current mealtime menu post on the wall. Centres which participate in HECCP or do not serve fried, preserved food (like sausage, ham and luncheon meat) and includes milk in their menu ranks higher on my list. Most childcare employs a chef to prepare the food in their kitchen while some childcare caters their food from a caterer. Not all centres allow parents to bring their own food for their child's mealtime. Centres which offer this flexibility and option would also rank higher on my list as I might wish to prepare my own food for my child to consume at the childcare centre on certain days.

 

Activity Schedule

Some childcare centres is able to provide a hardcopy of the centre's activity schedule, others have theirs posted on the wall. I would look through the activity schedule, paying attention if the centre's activities meet my child's needs in providing a balanced schedule with sufficient time for learning, rest and play. I would also observe how the children and teachers are interacting. Are the children participating in the activities? How do the teachers get the children interested? Are the children happy and interested in the activities? How do the teachers respond and handle situations where the child is crying?

 

Does the childcare centre provide transportation services?

Some centres offer a one-way or two-way bus service for a fee. For centres which provides this optional bus service, it gives me the option of engaging the bus service for my child so that I can have the convenience and flexibility of not needing to send him personally to childcare every day, thus having more time for myself and not worrying about running late to pick him up. I believe that taking the bus to childcare on his own will also train him to be more independent.

 

Bathrooms/ Toilets and Toiletries

For full-day childcare, most centres baths the children once a day after lunch before nap time so that the children feels clean and naps better. For the minority of those centres that do not provide baths, I would enquire on their procedure for handling children who pooped or dirtied themselves. Some of these centres do have a bathroom where they will wash the child's backside with water if they pooped.

During centre visits, I would request to visit the toilets and bathrooms. I always feel that in order to feel clean after bathing, places like the toilet and bathroom needs to be kept clean and free from odour. Other areas which I will pay attention to are the safety precautions that are in place for both the toilets and bathrooms. Since the floor in these areas might be wet, are there non-slip mats placed on the floor? Are there handles attached to the walls? What is the procedure for bathing, wiping dry and clothing the children? Is there more 1 caregiver to help during bath-time? Are the children wiped dry immediately after bath? What are measures to ensure that the children will be well taken care of and will not catch a cold during bath? I would also enquire on the brand of body soap and shampoo provided by the childcare centre to ensure that it suits my child's sensitive skin or else I would bring his own body soap and shampoo. I would also enquire if the centre provides other toiletries like body moisturisers, diaper wipes etc.

 

Environment

 

Ventilation of the centre

During centre visits, I will observe if the rooms in the childcare centre are well ventilated as it can get quite warm with weather like Singapore's and Larry is quite prone to heat rash. Some questions which I will ask are:
 

- Are the rooms going to be air conditioned the whole day or are the windows opened for fresh air?

- If the rooms are air conditioned the whole day, do they open the windows during cleaning to ventilate the room and let fresh air in?

- If the rooms are not air conditioned the whole day then under what circumstances do they turn on the air-con for the children?

- If there is no air-con at the centre, do they have fans? How do they manage warm days? 

 

Cleanliness of the centre

Besides the condition of air ventilation in the childcare centre, I will also enquire if the centre employs a cleaner to ensure the cleanliness of the place and to be on standby to clean up whenever required (e.g. a child just vomited on the floor). If the centre is big I will also enquire on the number of cleaners that they have. A centre should have sufficient cleaners so that the place can always be kept clean for the hygiene of the children and the educarers/ teachers/ caregivers can focus on taking good care of the children. Different centres vary in their frequency of having the toys sanitized and the furniture and centre cleaned. Some centres sanitize the toys after the children have played with them. Others sanitize the toys once a week. But most of the centres do a thorough cleaning of the place and toys on Saturdays when most of the children do not come in on that day. Some centres do fogging of their centre in the morning to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Children tend to like crawling on the floor and then rubbing their eyes with their hands or putting them in the mouth. Childcare centres always have everyone remove their shoes before they enter the centre so that the floor can be kept clean. During the centre visit, I will observe how stringent the centre is in enforcing this rule.

 

Child safety features in the centre

Most centres have safety gates installed at the doors, staircase, and doorway leading to the kitchen or garden and children's hand bars along the stairs. During centre visits, I will observe if the centre emphasize on leaving the safety gates closed at all times or are they quite flexible in that? Are the staffs making sure that the children use the hand bars when walking on the stairs? I will also observe if the centre's environment is child safe and free from areas which a child might get injured. Thus, I will observe that small objects like beads or peas are not left lying around as a child might swallow them or put them in his ears/ nose out of curiosity.  

 

When will the rental contract of the childcare centre end?

Location of the centre is very important to me as it is our starting point for our childcare search. Thus, I am very concerned that the centre might move somewhere else when Larry is enrolled with them. I always enquire if the place that centre is operating in is owned by them or rented. If it is rented, I will enquire on the tenure of the rental contract and when it is due for renewal. Hopefully, the centre will not move to another location while Larry is with them.

 

Health Alert Disclosure

I will enquire if the centre has any incidents of HFMD (hand foot and mouth disease) or Dengue. To me, the number of HFMD incidents in the centre is an indication of how well the centre handles and isolates children, thus preventing the spread of the illness. If there is more than 1 HFMD incident in a year, I would enquire if the subsequent HFMD is due to the infected child coming into contact with the other children.

 

Policy on handling children who have fallen ill

Naturally as a parent who hopes that her child stays healthy and strong, I am very concerned on whether the centre has an adequate policy in screening for sick children and handling children who have fallen ill and how stringent the childcare centre is in carrying out this policy to prevent the rest of the healthy children from falling sick. Usually childcare centres would take and record the temperature of the child when he reports to the centre. When a child is running a temperature, most centres will request the parents to bring the child home but some centres allow the child to stay in the centre and participate in the activities as long as his temperature is not high.

 

Policy on picking up the child

Childcare centres usually operate from 7am to 7pm. 7pm being the latest that the child should be picked up. As there might be times due to some reasons we might run late in picking up our child, I always enquire on the centre's policy on picking up our child late and if special arrangements can be made. Some centres might impose a late penalty charge of $1 per min after 7pm. Others, especially those that are not a franchise might be able to accommodate special arrangements in pickup time without imposing any penalty.   

 

For the safety of the children, does the childcare centre have a procedure/ policy in place to ensure that the child is picked up only by authorised people?

Usually there will be an authorisation form for parents to provide the information of the people whom they authorise to pick up their child from childcare. Most centres identity the authorised personnel by their identification card. Some centres will request for a photo of the person to identify with and others might take a picture of the person when they pick the child up. The centres should have a procedure in place to handle situations where the parents request for a person not in the authorised list to pick their child up. The childcare centre should make all the reasonable and prudent measures of ensuring that the child is picked up by the right person.

 

Does the childcare provide after school services?

Some childcare centres provide after school services where children go to these centres after school to be taken care of, supervised in homework and rest. If the childcare centre that we choose for Larry provides after school service as well, it will be an added benefit as he will not need to readjust to a new environment should we decide to enrol him for after school service when he starts school in future.

 

Sibling Discount

Some centres offer discount off the monthly fee if siblings are placed in the same centre. This will be an added benefit if I decide to put my second child (if I ever have another child) in the same centre in future.