In the rush to create childcare places, vital protections for children may be overlooked, writes Susan Calnan.
Protecting children against potential physical or sexual abuse in settings such as creches, nurseries and community playgroups requires greater attention and more preventive strategies, an Irish expert has warned.
Dr Helen Buckley, senior lecturer at the school of social work and social policy at Trinity College Dublin, says the high demand for childcare places could distract attention from the need to put essential protections in place.
In a newly published paper, she says awareness of the possibility of child abuse in early years' settings is largely implicit or unspecific in current policies.
Buckley, a senior research fellow at the Children's Research Centre, says Government programmes focus primarily on increasing the volume of places and recruitment of staff.
"Childcare has become a huge issue in this country and parents are under a lot of pressure to place their children in childcare facilities. However, because of the strains on the system, there is a danger that certain precautions might slip through the net," she says. "For example, because of pressures on staffing in the childcare sector, there is a possibility that references of job applicants may not always be properly checked."
The paper, Duty to Care - Reducing Risk in Childcare Settings, is published in the current edition of The Irish Journal of Family Law.
Buckley emphasises she is not suggesting that child abuse is common or even evident in early years' facilities in Ireland, but says greater emphasis needs to be placed on preventive child protection policies in such settings.
Children in pre-school or nursery care facilities could be particularly vulnerable to abuse, she says, because of their size, compliance and limited language capability, along with their lack of knowledge about dangerous situations or inappropriate care.
Moreover, parents' desire to hold on to their child's nursery or creche place may make them less inclined to complain about conditions or to seek closure of a facility, even when certain aspects of the service are shown to be inadequate.
Although no high-profile cases of child abuse in pre-school or day care settings have yet come to light in Ireland, there is evidence in the UK and the US that people with a disposition to child abuse have deliberately targeted early years' settings and carried out multiple abuses within such facilities, Buckley says.
One problem concerns the lack of external accountability or agreed standards. "The growth of national county childcare committees and umbrella organisations uniting smaller childcare facilities is undoubtedly beneficial in terms of raising quality standards and accountability to service users," says Buckley.
"However, as long as demand for childcare places exceeds supply, the impact of regulatory measures will be weakened," she says.
While regulations under the Child Care Act 1991 do provide for pre-school inspections, Buckley says research in this area indicates that such regulations focus mainly on "quantitative" factors such as space, ratios and equipment, rather than on "qualitative" aspects such as relationships and interactions between the children and the adults caring for them.
She also points out that the obligation on service providers to have a child protection policy, as stipulated in Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children, is only enforceable in the case of services that are State funded.
Her paper also highlights critical areas that need to be addressed. Proper procedures such as supervising all those visiting the childcare premises, even relatives of staff members, should be maintained at all times, Buckley says.
A complaints procedure for parents and staff should be put in place, while more rigorous standards should be imposed in regard to the recruitment of new staff.
Furthermore, ongoing training of existing staff should include awareness of the potential for abuse in childcare settings.
Buckley says: "Such precautions are not only of paramount importance for the children themselves, but also for the staff and managers of these centres, so that they are properly trained to deal with any concerns or allegations that may arise during the course of their work."
As long as demand exceeds supply, the impact of regulatory measures will be weakened