00:00Sending your children into the care of others can be a fraught process.
00:06As a starting place, families can check the National Register of Approved Providers and their quality rating.
00:12And looking at when that quality rating was actually assessed.
00:16So we do have instances where services are not necessarily assessed as frequently as they need to be.
00:22There are also plenty of questions you can ask a provider.
00:26Things like about the qualifications of the staff,
00:30about the program that the centre offers the children,
00:36what sort of behaviour management approaches the centre follows.
00:43Experts say it's crucial to take a tour and spend time in the centre
00:47and parents should be looking for a generally calm atmosphere and staff who are engaged.
00:52We want children to run to you, not away from you.
00:55So we want children to be sort of approaching staff and showing things
01:00and sharing things with the staff and other children in the centre.
01:03So having a fancy chef or having a fancy app, I'm not saying that those things don't matter, they do.
01:11But what matters more than anything is the relationship that your educator has
01:16and the teachers have with the children in their care.
01:19The experts agree on some red flags.
01:22It may be that you might see staff who are looking stressed.
01:28So if there's really high staff turnover, it could be an indication that it's not
01:33a particularly supportive workplace or environment for educators.
01:38If you think something is wrong at a childcare service,
01:41complaints can be made to your state or territory's regulator
01:44or for concerns about a child being in immediate danger, call 000.
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