Good Relationships = High Quality Care

Good Relationships = High Quality Care
According to new parent survey

Parents value the relationship between carers and individual children over qualifications, ratios and educational curriculum according to a new survey conducted by CareforKids.com.au on behalf of KU Children's Services.

The survey of nearly 800 parents with children in care canvassed their opinion on what constitutes high quality care and asked parents to rank a range of indicators from 1 as most important to 9 as least important.

When asked what they think are the most important indicators of a 'high quality' early childhood education (pre-school), 52 per cent of parents said the relationship that educators have with children and parents was the most important, followed by qualifications and experience of the staff (39 per cent) and safety and cleanliness of the centre (37 per cent).

Just over a quarter said the ratio of educators to children was a very important indicator with just under a quarter putting highest importance in the educational program or curriculum offered by the service (23 per cent).

When it comes to choosing a child care centre or preschool availability was the biggest factor, ranked highest at 27 per cent, followed by reputation of the service and proximity to home ranked at 26 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.

These were closely followed by the quality of educational programs provided (22 per cent), specific hours and days offered (21 per cent) and qualifications of the staff (20 per cent). The fee level doesn't indicate quality however with only 13 per cent believing fees to be an indicator of the quality of child care provided.

The survey also showed that parents struggle to secure high quality early childhood education.

Nine out of ten parents said that accessing quality early childhood education was difficult (Difficult 58% or Very Difficult 33 per cent), citing lack of places in quality services (76 per cent) lack of places in local services (65 per cent) and fees and affordability (49 per cent) as the main barriers.

Parents also identified lack of information as a barrier, with 21 per cent claiming there is not enough information available about local services.