Sun Smart Policies - CareforKids.com.au®

Sun Smart Policies
It’s time for child care centres and parents to review and adhere to their sun smart policies

A press article reported this week the case of a mother taking legal action against her child care centre over the appalling sunburn he suffered while in child care. With summer round the corner and temperatures hotting up it's time for parents and child care centres to review their sun protection policies and make sure everyone sticks to them.

Australia has the highest incidence on skin cancer in the world and overexposure to the sun in childhood is known to be a major cause of skin cancer in later life. Child care providers are required to have a sun protection policy and to met sun protection requirements to meet the licensing and accreditation standards set by the NCAC.

The SunSmart Early Childhood Program was set up by the state based Cancer Councils to help child care providers devise and implement sun safe policies. The program can also help child care providers bring out-of-date sun protection policies up-to-date with current recommendations.

The program was designed for all child care providers including family day carers, long day care centres, occasional care centres, preschools, work based services and mobile services and hundreds of providers across the country have already signed up.

According to the Cancer Council a sun protection policy should clearly outline a service's policies and procedures with regard to protecting children and staff at the centre from UV radiation including:

Minimising outdoor play during peak UV periods
Using shade for outdoor play
Use of sun safe hats and protective clothing
Use of sun screen
Education about sun protection
Role modeling so staff are a positive influence on children

But as with all policy and procedure documents in child care, it's really important that a sun protection policy is written in straightforward language and made available for parents and visitors to the centre to review and for both parents as well as child care workers to ensure that this policy is adhered to

Slapping on the sun screen at the beginning of the day isn't good enough, especially when we're talking about little children who are particularly at danger of burning and suffering sun stroke. Both parents and child care facilities need to work together on this and policies such as no outside play for children who are not wearing appropriate clothing must be adhered to

Parents must also take a large part of responsibility for their children's sun protection and not only put sunscreen on them before they go to child care but also making sure they dress their children appropriately for playtime in the sun.

» Click here… to read our article published in Child Care News (October 2008 edition) which is distributed to the child care industry. Includes Cancer Council recommendations.