Child Care Service - Essay Example

The Australian government has taken several measures such as the child care benefit determination  2000, GST-free supply determination 2002, and family assistance determination 2003,  to ensure that children receive the best attention and to improve childcare facilities.

Child care centers provide services throughout standard hours, weekends, overnight, school holidays, before and after school working hours, etc. For working parents, it is a safe place to entrust their children to the care of qualified childcare workers. Generally, they follow a policy of strict confidentiality and do not reveal any information related to children and parents to outsiders. When the children are enrolled, an agreement is signed between parents and the childcare centers. First of all, the child care center agrees to provide a secure, homely environment to all children. There won’t be any discrimination between children based on caste, religion, color, and financial status. Moreover, they provide a conducive atmosphere for the mental and physical development of children. They also promise to inculcate good qualities in the child through moral education. In return for all these services, the parents agree to provide a certain amount as fees. There is an effective mechanism in place in order to deal with complaints from the parents as well as the children. All the grievances of parents and children are immediately looked into and according to the specific nature of the complaints, actions are recommended.

As the child care centers have several qualified trained personnel, they can bring up children in a secure, family-focused environment. The children in childcare centers learn through play and examination. Sometimes, unqualified child workers may look after children in a child care center, a child’s home, or a carer’s home. They also work in hospitals, women’s shelters, and sometimes in child care centers. Therefore, it is necessary for parents to ensure that the childcare facility they choose employs only professionally qualified carers. Government authorities should also exercise a proper check on such institutions to ensure that only qualified personnel are working in the centers. The children at the child care center usually are divided into small groups according to their age and they are assigned different rooms. Each room is looked after by two childcare workers. Generally, one will be qualified and the other one may be untrained. The untrained child worker generally works as a childcare assistant and is not allowed to give the child any prescribed meditation. The untrained child worker persuades children to do a certain task that will help their learning. For example, an assistant childcare worker on bathroom duty is responsible for teaching the children about the significance of hygiene. An untrained child worker can persuade young children to adopt good eating manners. They should also observe and monitor the behavior of the children so that parents can be informed about it. An untrained child worker should also build a genuine friendship with the children so that they may be able to gain the trust of the children as well as their parents.