Welcome to DIY daycare - we thought it's about time we put together a few hints and tips for selecting a daycare centre for your child. We split our list of essentials into two parts - firstly things you should consider when selecting the centre, secondly things the centre staff should tell you about. Here it goes ...

1) What to look for in a childcare / daycare centre

• Safe location – is it in a safe neighbourhood / near a busy street?


• Safe building – is it clean and child-safe (by regulation, it has to be)? Or is it old and rundown?


• What are the play areas and toys like (new, old, dirty, clean)?


• Is there a pleasant outdoor area available, with appropriate shelter from sun and rain?


• Can the dropping off and picking up of your child be organised safely and with relative ease?


• What is the centre's teaching and childcare philosophy? What are their policies and procedures e.g., about noise, behaviour, TV watching, sleeps, and so on?


• Staff ratio – are there enough people to take care of the children at ALL TIMES?


• Staff abilities – are they trained and qualified? There are strict regulations in place for operating childcare centres; don’t be afraid to ask about staff qualifications.


• How many children attend in total? How many under two year-olds and how many pre-schoolers.


• What food and beverages do they serve?


• What is their incident history, and how long have they been registered with an official authority?

Things the childcare / daycare centre should show you during the tour (ideally without prompting them):

• Access to the building and how this is regulated / organised (e.g. keys, access card)


• Access register (who dropped off / who picked up)


• Play areas (for over 2s and under 2s)


• Sleep areas and sleep routines


• Activity log (recording sleep times, feeding, nappy changes, incidents, etc)


• Food preparation, diets and how they cater for special dietary requirements


• Outdoors play areas


• Safety procedures


• Qualification of all staff


• Child / teacher ratio


• Teaching philposophy of the centre


• Activities with children / stimulation (games, songs, etc)

Make sure you get a tour by a member of staff before you make a decision. Pay particular attention to how you are greeted and how the person showing you round treats you - there is a good chance that your children will get a similar treatment. The topics in the second list should all be covered by the person doing the tour. If they don't explain key points to a satisfactory detail it's a warning sign.

It's a pretty tough and difficult decision to leave your child (or children) in the care of others. If you have decided to go with a childcare / daycare centre (there are other options of course) make sure you do the importance of this decision justice by finding out as much as you can about the place you have in mind for your child. Definitely check with other parents whose children are using that centre already and if available check government / council websites for ratings or references.

Finally - once you have made a decision and your child is in a centre, make sure you check the logs and observe your child closely to make sure all is well. If you are not happy with something you read in the log or notice behaviour / practices you are not happy with - talk to a staff member straight away. It may also help to speak to the centre director or manager if you are unhappy about something especially if it doesn't get resolved.

There are lots of really good childcare centres out there (and perhaps a few not so good ones) - so hopefully the points we mention here are useful to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.

-Stefan