Child Care Health And Safety Policy

Importance of Individual Needs in Child Care

Centre staff needs to be aware of the health needs of the children via communicating with families. The staff will need to work with the families in order to complement the routines and activities practised at home or at the centre (Fair Work Ombudsman 2011).

Staff will need to identify and cater for individual requirements of each child for routines all throughout the entire day as providing for children’s individual health, nutrition, sleep, resting and relaxation is fundamental to their health, safety and wellbeing.

The child care worker must consider the needs of individual child. For example, a need can include:

• A medical complexity, like asthma, diabetes or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); (Barkley, 2013)
• Allergies
• Food allergies, such as with nuts or lactose (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013).

Allergies: All staff of the centres needs to have a first aid certificate. If a child has a known allergy a display of first aid action plan in the child’s room is mandated. Other educators must also be made aware of the child’s allergies or sicknesses. And the educators will need to follow first aid procedures (Hockenberry and Wilson 2014).

Dietary Allergies: The centre needs to work with parents in order to ensure that any food allergy that the children might have is considered by the cook in the centre. All food allergies will need to be addressed individually and the centre will involve parents through newsletters and message boards to comply with removing specific food items from their diet (Ford, Turner and Campbell 2014).

It is also vital to ensure that parents are periodically asked to provide the centre staff any or all updated information about management of, specific health care need of their child, any allergies or relevant sickness. If necessary, they also must ensure that the parent provide an updated medical management plan. 

A medical management plan is important because:

• Explains how to manage the condition day to day in order to avoid or minimise issues.
• Provides information on recurring symptoms or stages of the condition.
• Gives directions on when to call on medical resources such as medication, doctors, an ambulance and emergency contacts (Burks et al. 2012).  

Experiences	Supervision required
Reading corner	Low
Home Corner	Medium
Activity table 1	Medium
Activity table 2	High

The year specific rooms are the most cozy and private space for the children to play. 

Time	No. of children in Home Corner	No. of children in Reading corner	No. of children in Activity Table 1	No. of children in Activity Table 2
10:00	4	3	5	3
10:10	4	5	5	3
10:20	5	4	3	4
10:30	5	4	2	2
10:40	5	3	4	3
10:50	4	2	3	1
11:00	3	3	3	2

Moderately enough space is available for the children, so that they can participate in each activities freely and without any risk to their health and safety. Overcrowding will only increase the risk of children harming themselves in the chaos and will be difficult for the child care worker to keep an eye on all the children (UNICEF 2017).

Element: 1.1.6: Each child’s agency is promoted, enabling them to make choices and decisions and influence events and their world (The National Quality Standard 2017). 

Outcome 1: Children Have a Strong Sense of Identity Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.

Managing Allergies in Child Care

Encourage children to make choices and decisions (Education.gov.au. 2017)  

A number of things can be done to help lessen the spread of infections at home in a similar way to the practice of childhood care services:

• Perform hand hygiene, with soap and water or by the using alcohol-based hand wash (Ford, Turner and Campbell 2014).
• Ensure proper drying of the hands followed by washing.
• The effective way to perform hand hygiene is using alcohol based washes, however, if hands are visibly dirty, using soap and water is critical.
• Coughing or sneezing into your elbow ensures lessened spread of germs (Defay te al. 2013).
• Covering mouth and nose with tissues while coughing or sneezing, and disposing off tissues straight away is a must before performing hand hygiene.
• Routine and periodic cleaning of surfaces with water and detergent is an effective method of removing germs from surfaces.
• Gloves are used in education and care services in order to provide a protective barrier against all kinds of germs (Ford, Turner and Campbell 2014). 

G8 Education believes that proper hand hygiene is the best way to decrease the spread of infectious disease. Good hand hygiene by early childhood educators, the children and their families is the most effective way to prevent spreading germs in child care centres (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network 2016).

This policy is intended to keep children, families and staff healthier and guide best practice within the education and care service.

The strategies that my child care service is using are according to the guidelines provided by the ACECQA. The strategies include:

• Hand washing
• Basic dental care
• Regularly sterilizing toys and equipments
• Cleaning bathrooms
• Hygienic toilet supplies
• Hygienic food handling and feeding
• Excluding and secluding critically ill children (gov.au. 2017) 

Notification for Parents

There has been a case of MEASLES reported in the service. If you suspect your child has Measles, they must be taken to the doctor for diagnosis. Symptoms: fever, tiredness, cough, runny nose, inflamed eyes, white spots on the inside of the cheek and rash at the hair line. Treatment: Follow your doctor’s guidelines. Infectious period: About 4–5 days before the rash appears until the fourth day after the rash is visible. Exclusion period: 14 days at least after the emergence of the rash if unvaccinated. If the child feels sick, keeping him home until he is feeling better is advisable. He may require MMR vaccine or Immunoglobulin as per the advice of the public health authority. Warning: You must tell service staff if your child shows symptoms of Measles. For more information about Measles, visit: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/infectious/factsheets/pages/measles_factsheet.aspx

Yes, I would inform the local public health authority immediately.

Advice from health authorities:

• Writing down the dates that the child/adult with measles was in the centre over the last 10 days.
• Discussing with the public health staff of centre about who should be excluded from care.
• Excluding a person suffering from measles for at least four days after the rash appears (Rah et al. 2015). 

Exclude children over 6 months of age who lack MMR vaccine.

Babies under 6 months probably would not need immediate exclusion as they might have immunity from their mother. 

I would immediately sterilize their hands and mouth and will call a health care professionals and deliver a message to the parents of the children as well (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013). 

Phil should be kept in a secluded space out of reach of other children to minimize the risk of other children getting the infection. 

If Phil as under the group with older children, it would have the lesser potential for infection as the younger children will be more at risk o touching him unknowingly, the4 children of 7 years will be wiser (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013). 

I would fill up an incident/illness report for Coleman’s injury(which is a service procedure) at the time of incident. I would write up the whole scene that has happened there the time of injury. Then it would be easy for me to explain it to his father with every little detail of incident. And get him to sign that report (Defay te al. 2013).

If the play area is overcrowded then there are most likely the chances of injury as it leads to less space for each child to play and hard to supervise as well which increase the risk of getting injured and vice versa (Defay te al. 2013). 
 

Experiences	Supervision required
Reading corner	Low
Home Corner	Medium
Activity table 1	Medium
Activity table 2	High

If we consider two educators present in the room, then one educator should sit on Activity table1 with children

Dietary Allergies in Child Care

For another educator should sit & play with children in home corner and Activity table2

• Each room leader can talk to relief staff on arrival about supervision requirements (Rah et al. 2015)
• Show layout plan of the indoor/outdoor environment and highlight which areas staff need to be in order to supervise
• Educators aware themselves of the environment in order to see as many children as possible (Ford, Turner and Campbell 2014).
• Provide supervision for children in area where the possibility of injury is high
• Implement dependable supervision strategies and avoid performing other duties while supervising the children.
• Awareness about the importance of communicating with permanent staff about their location within the environment (Burks et al. 2012).

The furniture should be positioned in a way that enables adequate supervision of all areas. For Quiet and private spaces like reading corner, open book shelves allow visibility for the purpose of supervision and children will still get their privacy in their area. Or we can place furniture where an educator could be able to see through its shelving for another side. It would make supervision easy for educators (Burks et al. 2012).

Excursion details (Acecqa.gov.au. 2017)
Date(s) of excursion	22nd April	Excursion destination	Nearby park
Departure and arrival times	4 pm
Proposed activities	Walking	Water hazards?  No If yes, detail in risk assessment below.
Method of transport, including proposed route	Walking for 6, transported by pram for 2
Name of excursion co-ordinator	Amelia Clark
Contact number of excursion co-ordinator	(BH) **********	(M)**********
Number of children attending excursion	**********	Number of educators/parents/volunteers	**********
Educator to child ratio, including whether this excursion warrants a higher ratio? Please provide details.	8:1

Purpose: Risk minimisation plans are created to help reduce the chance of a health issue occurring. It is only effective if all educators are aware of its existence; know who the child is and how to best manage their medical conditions (Barkley 2013).  

Location: Staff room notice board, in the play space the child uses, around the service in predominant areas. 

Purpose: For storing different types of dangerous products separately and provide clear warning signs so that others are quickly aware of the hazards (Huffaker 2012).

Location: On a locked cupboard where children can’t access, Laundry cupboard. 

Purpose: Food handling relates to the safety of the food and drink used in the service (Coleman and Dyment 2013).

Location: In kitchen 

Purpose: used to record visitor’s names and times in and out of the service for future reference. It is also useful in the event of an evacuation to make sure the premises are empty (Runciman et al. 2012).

Location: At the reception desk. 

Purpose: A safety checklist is an efficient tool that ensures you scan your workplace effectively and regularly for potential hazards (Runciman et al. 2012)    

Dear families 

Information regarding a local excursion we will be taking the children on is listed below. On each excursion we will carry a first aid kit, emergency contact numbers for families and a mobile phone. We will also ensure that all of the staff members have a First Aid Certificate.    

Children will need to bring a hat

Children will also be required to suitable clothing e.g. shirts with sleeves and sensible shoes. 

To help staff remember their roles, many services display emergency plans in the staff room, toilet or bathroom so they are reminded of the information regularly when not engaged in supervision.

We have phones in each of the rooms for the staff to access’

Names and emergency contact information of service personnel.

Managing Medical Conditions in Child Care

Contact details of emergency services agencies and DEECD regional and central offices (Marotz 2014).

Emergency drill training held after every three months and also discussed and practised with children, educators and any other people on the premises including family members.

The equipment include

• First aid equipment
• Eye wash shower
• Evacuation alarms
• Fire extinguisher
• Evacuation equipment, especially for those with disabilities or impairments
• Torches (Hockenberry and Wilson 2014)

References:

Acecqa.gov.au. (2017). ACECQA. [online] Available at: https://www.acecqa.gov.au [Accessed 7 Mar. 2017]

American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013. National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education.(2011). Caring for our children: National health and safety performance standards; Guidelines for early care and education programs, 22.

American Red Cross, (2017). [online] American Red Cross. Available at: https://www.redcross.org [Accessed 23 Mar. 2017].

Bailey, A.M., 2013. Prioritizing child safety as the prime best-interest factor. Family Law Quarterly, 47(1), pp.35-64.

Barkley, R.A., 2013. Taking charge of ADHD: The complete, authoritative guide for parents. Guilford press.

Burks, A.W., Tang, M., Sicherer, S., Muraro, A., Eigenmann, P.A., Ebisawa, M., Fiocchi, A., Chiang, W., Beyer, K., Wood, R. and Hourihane, J., 2012. ICON: food allergy. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 129(4), pp.906-920.

Coleman, B. and Dyment, J.E., 2013. Factors that limit and enable preschool-aged children’s physical activity on child care centre playgrounds. Journal of early childhood research, 11(3), pp.203-221.

Crittenden, P.M., 2013. Raising parents: Attachment, parenting and child safety. Routledge.

Defay, F., De Serres, G., Skowronski, D.M., Boulianne, N., Ouakki, M., Landry, M., Brousseau, N. and Ward, B.J., 2013. Measles in children vaccinated with 2 doses of MMR. Pediatrics, 132(5), pp.e1126-e1133.

ecopestcontrol, (2017). Eco Systems Pest Management – Eco Systems Pest Management. [online] Eco Systems Pest Management. Available at: https://ecopestcontrol.com [Accessed 23 Mar. 2017].

Education.gov.au. (2017). Early Years Learning Framework | Department of Education and Training. [online] Available at: https://www.education.gov.au/early-years-learning-framework [Accessed 23 Mar. 2017].

Fair Work Ombudsman, (2017). Welcome to the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Ford, L.S., Turner, P.J. and Campbell, D.E., 2014. Recommendations for the management of food allergies in a preschool/childcare setting and prevention of anaphylaxis. Expert review of clinical immunology, 10(7), pp.867-874.

Hockenberry, M.J. and Wilson, D., 2014. Wong’s nursing care of infants and children. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Huffaker, C.B. ed., 2012. Theory and practice of biological control. Elsevier.

Marotz, L.R., 2014. Health, safety, and nutrition for the young child. Nelson Education.

Mindhealthconnect.org.au. (2017). {{meta.og.title}}. [online] Available at: https://www.mindhealthconnect.org.au/crisis-management [Accessed 23 Mar. 2017].

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2016. Child-care structure→ process→ outcome: Direct and indirect effects of child-care quality on young children’s development. Psychological Science.

Rah, J.H., Cronin, A.A., Badgaiyan, B., Aguayo, V.M., Coates, S. and Ahmed, S., 2015. Household sanitation and personal hygiene practices are associated with child stunting in rural India: a cross-sectional analysis of surveys. BMJ open, 5(2), p.e005180.

Runciman, W.B., Hunt, T.D., Hannaford, N.A., Hibbert, P.D., Westbrook, J.I., Coiera, E.W., Day, R.O., Hindmarsh, D.M., McGlynn, E.A. and Braithwaite, J., 2012. CareTrack: assessing the appropriateness of health care delivery in Australia. Medical Journal of Australia, 197(10), p.549.

Sane.org. (2017). SANE Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.sane.org/ [Accessed 23 Mar. 2017].

The National Quality Standard, (2017). The National Quality Standard. [online] Acecqa.gov.au. Available at: https://acecqa.gov.au/national-quality-framework/the-national-quality-standard

UNICEF. (2017). Convention on the Rights of the Child. [online] Available at: https://www.unicef.org/crc

www.ses.sa.gov.au, (2017). [online] www.ses.sa.gov.au. Available at: https://www.ses.sa.gov.au [Accessed 23 Mar. 2017].