Home-based care is the alternative to “Dangerous Daycares”

Home-based care is the alternative to “Dangerous Daycares”

In a response to Radio New Zealand’s (RNZ) article released today “Dangerous Daycares” PORSE says home-based care is the answer for parents looking for quality, low-ratio childcare.

Early childcare teachers have spoken out in RNZ’s article claiming that some centres are deliberately cutting corners and operating with fewer teachers than legally required, putting children’s safety at risk.

Organisations representing early childhood services say the cracks are appearing because government funding has not kept up with booming child enrolments.

This comes on the back of Child Forum’s survey in late 2017 where more than a quarter of childcare centre workers said they would not place their own children in the centres they work in, with some calling the centres “akin to factory farming of children”.

Home-based education and care is becoming an increasingly popular option for parents who are looking for quality, low ratio care.

General Manager of PORSE, Kerry Henderson, says decades of research in neuroscience have confirmed that the early years of a child’s development is best nurtured by providing a child with quality one-on-one relationships. This can be hard to achieve in large group environments where the legal adult to child ratios is high and appears not to be consistently met in many centre services.

In home-based care and education, one adult cares for a maximum of up to four children at a time in a settled home environment..

“At PORSE we build authentic relationships, giving each child the opportunity to create a secure attachment with one carer, which includes one-on-one quality time and attentiveness,” Mrs Henderson says.

“It allows both children and their Educators the opportunity to have a meaningful early childhood experience – focusing on both care and education.”

Mrs Henderson says it’s scientifically proven that the first 1,000 days of a child’s life is when most of their brain development takes place, emphasising just how important it is to invest in early childhood education.

She echoed calls for the Government to increase in funding to the entire ECE sector.

Mrs Henderson says the RNZ article highlights that many staff in busy centres are stressed, and lack time to develop relationships with the children they care for and are failing to plan for each child’s individual needs.

“In a sector that should be defined by the critical role our environments and relationships play in early brain development, how are we collectively nurturing the best start in life for our tamariki?”

“While centre-based care is still seen as ‘the norm’, this feedback from ECE teachers will hopefully be the beginning of a greater pull towards a more natural and holistic way of caring for and educating our children, such as home-based care and education.”

”PORSE In-Home Childcare is New Zealand’s largest and longest standing home-based ECE provider. We have been in the market for over 23 years and our programme is based on understanding how the brain wires and fires in those early years to ensure your child has the best start to their life-long learning journey.”

Mrs Henderson urged parents looking at childcare options to do their homework.

“You’re looking at trusting someone with the most precious days of your most precious person. What you put into these most formative years will determine your child’s success through primary and secondary school and well into adulthood; do your homework on the service that will best met your child needs.”

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