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These days it takes a lot more than a love of children and savvy business sense to operate a successful childcare centre. Government regulations such as the National Quality Framework (NQF) require heavy oversight of childcare operations, ensuring a safe, secure, healthy environment for the country’s future leaders.
To assist in meeting these regulations, all childcare centres should employ technology that tracks and regulates compliance in the key areas governed by the NQF.
Here are six reasons you need technology to make your job easier.
Cleaning and Maintenance
Cleaning protocols in a childcare centre are part of the job. You likely have staff assigned to check the restrooms periodically, clean toys and common surfaces with a disinfectant cleaner throughout the day, and vacuum and deep clean nightly. However, the documentation and reporting of these tasks can double the time required unless you have technology simplifying the process.
Similarly, maintenance of the facilities is a critical component of NQF standards, ensuring that the centre is in good repair and free of hazards that could cause potential injuries. The use of childcare NQF software makes it easy to highlight potential issues with curated checklists and keep track of important maintenance documentation with pre-formatted reports.
Illness and Accident Forms
The Health and safety of children is a top concern for childcare providers. While it’s important to ensure that the environment is clean and free from hazards, illnesses and accidents will still occur. Reports about accidents and illness are a part of the job, and it’s important that they are completed correctly and filed appropriately to meet compliance standards.
An integrated software system that is already formatted for the NQF reports helps to take this concern off your hands by having everything queued up and ready to go in the case of an illness or accident, freeing you and your childcare teachers to focus on the children and their safety instead of cumbersome paperwork.
Mandatory Drills
Unanticipated emergencies are an unfortunate part of life, and an important aspect of educating and caring for young children is preparing them for these unforeseen circumstances. Mandatory drills are part of the compliance requirements that end up taking up too much of your time to plan and document. Consider using technology to assist with emergency training, remind you when drills should take place, and document when they have been completed.
Healthy Lifestyle
Feeding children in your care is important for healthy kids and a healthy business! Just as illness and accident reports, cleaning and maintenance, and mandatory drills are necessary for ensuring the safety of children, the food that they eat must meet standards as well. A software system to help with planning and tracking healthy food is a tremendous benefit.
Similarly, NQF requires exercise to be incorporated as a part of the day’s activities. This is an area that technology can address, with reporting templates and professional training that addresses ways to engage students in healthy activities.
Learning Environment Audits
Once the safety of students has been ensured, the most effective childcare centres exceed expectations in the area of the learning environment. The NQF establishes regulations for an educator to student ratios, which effective software programmes can help make manageable with computational tools. In addition, your centre’s curriculum and expertise of educators on your staff should go beyond the NQF standards. Technology can assist here with professional development and learning frameworks available to give teachers an educational boost that they can share with their little learners.
Collaborative Partnerships
When you are doing great things at your childcare centre, you want to share the news and attract the support of parents and community partners that can further strengthen your business. A quality childcare compliance software package can assist you in establishing strong communication with families and making connections with the broader community through a network of contacts and an integrated communication system that allows for quick and easy messaging and regular sharing of the great things you are doing every day!
Can you run an effective childcare centre? Of course. Is it easy? No. Are there ways to make it easier and more effective? Yes. By incorporating technology, you can far exceed the standards set forth by the NQF, increasing the effectiveness and success of your business while simplifying your role in the process.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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