Managing a daycare can be as challenging as any business out there.
Plenty of facilities like yours struggle in keeping their centres full by looking for new and creative ways to boost enrolment, but your methods shouldn’t just stop in marketing.
Improving your daycare’s quality of service is also essential for its success.
Most parents, especially new ones would be anxious to leave their children with strangers.
However, if you provide a high-quality service, the positive reviews and recommendations from your past and current clients could help ease the anxieties of these parents.
High-quality early learning isn’t just about keeping the daycare full, a childcare provider’s priority is a child’s wellbeing, so it’s critical to the development of the children you look after.
Here are some of the ways to improve the service you provide:
Create A Quality Learning And Development Program
Daycares are places where children develop and learn. As the quality of early child care would show its influences into adulthood, administrators, teachers, and caregivers should work on creating high-quality early care and education for the social, language, and cognitive development of the young children.
A high-quality program includes school readiness activities such as early reading, writing, learning to count, or highlighting social skills such as cooperation. The staff looking after the child should watch over them to make sure they are learning and developing skills that will help them get ready for their time for school.
Have Well-Qualified Staff And A Good Retention Rate
A high-quality child care centre requires teachers that are well educated in early childhood development. It’s ideal to have every member of your staff be adequately trained and have the necessary credentials to give care to multiple children since you want to hire caregivers who know the kinds of interactions children need.
It also helps if they love their job as well since they’re more likely to be loving and responsive which according to the study of the National Institute of Child Health and Development can help children have more positive interactions with one another.
Another aspect of management that can affect the quality is the child to staff ratio. Make sure that one caregiver or teacher isn’t handling more children than they can handle. Children in classrooms with lower child-staff ratios have been found to understand their teachers better, start and join in conversations more frequently, and show less hostility in their interactions.
It’s also essential to keep consistency among staff to establish healthy and secure attachments, especially for infants and toddlers who will be affected by staff turnover. Children who are in a stable relationship with the staff would display more appropriate social behaviour.
They should be cared for by the same teaching staff for at least one year at a time, or the lack of stability could cause an increase of behaviour problems as frequent turnover denies the children the opportunity to develop a stable and affectionate relationship with their teachers.
Secure Their Safety And Health
Every parent agrees that safety and security should always be a high priority of the facility they trust to take care of their children. Rooms must be clean and uncluttered as well as free from hazards like uncovered electrical outlets and poisonous chemicals.
Since daycares are always full of infants and toddlers who put everything in their mouths, it’s important to keep furniture, materials, and toys age appropriate and in good condition to avoid choking accidents. Anything that could be considered unsafe should be discarded. Different age groups should also be kept separated to ensure younger children would not get hold of any small items.
Of course, don’t forget to ensure that there’s always a fully stocked first-aid kit readily accessible.
The outdoor environment which usually serves as a play area should be inviting, easily accessible, and more importantly safe and secure. It should have age-appropriate outdoor equipment with plenty of space to run around or perform other large motor activities, enclosed by either a fence or a natural border.
There should also be a supervising teacher or caregiver to observe all the children at all times to ensure their safety. Minimising risks and maximising their opportunities to engage with teachers, caregivers, the other children, and their environment are essential strategies to promote their physical wellbeing.
A quality daycare would not just value a child’s physical safety but also their emotional health. For most parents, quality childcare might also mean safeguarding a child’s happiness in an environment where they can have educational, exciting and positive experiences and learn a wide variety of things.
For the children being emotionally comfortable might also include feeling accepted, having friends, and being around responsive adults.