Important Questions To Ask Before Choosing Childcare

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This will be a very important choice that you will need to make for your child, yet for new parents, many of them are completely unprepared. Your instinct or gut feeling will play a significant role when it comes to deciding if a nursery, childcare, or an individual is the right option for your little one. Yet asking specific questions can also assist you in making a more informed choice when it comes to childcare.

1. What Qualifications Do They Have?
Qualifications associated with childcare, is reassuring, as it provides proof that the nursery workers or childminder has an extensive understanding of how to care for a baby. Ideally, the childminder or the staff in a nursery should have a minimum of a level 3 in childcare qualifications that are recognised, like NNEB, NVQ, or CACHE.

2. Will Your Child Be Safe?
When visiting the nursery or the home of a childminder you can pick up a lot by watching what is going on around you during your interview. Look for babies or children that are left with a runny nose, or children that are crying and they are not receiving comfort or even babies that are drifting around unsupervised. You need to find a safe place where you feel like the staff are attentive and attending to the needs of the children and babies.

3. Ask About The Daily Routine
The one stand out benefit of using a childminder has to do with that your baby or childs current routine can remain unchanged. If you are taking your child to a nursery they will need to adapt to the routine of the school. This usually includes all the children taking a nap together after lunch. However, the staff should be willing to allow your baby or child to adapt to this new routine at their own pace.

4. How Will You Be Kept Informed?
Childminders and nurseries usually maintain developmental records of the children they care for. In most cases, the nurseries send home a book every day, where they will let you know about anything that happened over the course of the day regarded as important. This book also allows you to provide any information that you feel is important when it comes to your child.

5. Ask About Discipline
Boundaries are very important to ensure your child is happy and safe, yet these will differ from one parent to the next, and from one nursery to the next. Certain nurseries may be more relaxed or stricter when compared to others, yet their exact approach and methods should appear in their policy documents.