I’ve worked in childcare for 50 years. I’ve never been more concerned

I have worked for more than 50 years in early education and care as an academic, centre director, writer, consultant, resource developer and consultant with a focus on childcare experiences for birth-to-three-year-olds and partnerships with families. My interest has also been as a parent and a grandparent. I have never been more concerned about the sector than I am now.

Allegations of abuse of children in Melbourne centres has shocked, enraged and sickened us all. We’re all deeply concerned for families who use the centres named. The crisis has also eroded the trust that families have in centres not directly affected. A previously satisfied parent whose children attend an excellent centre told me, “I was OK before, but now I need to be reassured that my child is OK.”

News of a Melbourne daycare worker being charged with abuse has rocked parents across Australia.Credit: iStock

But I reject the outdated and inaccurate “I-told-you-so” generalisations from some commentators who say that childcare is not good for young children and should be used only if necessary.

I have had many insightful conversations with families over the years. For example, from the single parent of a child with complex behavioural challenges: “After a hard start to the day at home I can rock up to the centre and say, ‘Here he is, you take him, I’ve had it’, and they don’t judge me.”

Another parent said, “They make me feel like my child is their favourite.” She smiled and added, “But I know every other parent feels the same way.”

Both children and families benefit from good quality childcare. I knew a prominent academic who became a very anxious first-time mother. Her baby was unsettled and difficult to care for. The centre provided a calm experience for the baby, respite for both mother and baby and support and reassurance to the mother, setting them up for a good relationship.

In the current crisis, we mustn’t lose sight of what good quality childcare adds to a child and family’s life. Benefits are most obvious in families that face mammoth challenges in their daily lives but are there for all families. When I picked up my grandson at his centre, I introduced myself to an educator, who remarked, “He’s so kind to other children.” It was both something I didn’t know and a comment that so pleased me. What a gift! She knew him, valued him, and wanted to share that with me.

Good practice takes account of each child’s family, culture and community. That’s a big ask of time-and resource-poor educators, who typically work with many children and families, often from different cultures.

Many centres are not of the highest quality. What matters is that they are working on improving, that the centre’s culture prioritises learning more and getting better. They must be transparent about both struggles and successes, communicate these professionally to families and invite their contributions.

Some educators are working in services that prioritise profit over quality, and they work every day doing their best in circumstances where child-to-educator ratios allow little more than crowd control. This interferes with good practice – such as having one-to-one encounters with children and individualising each child’s experience.

Strengthening Working with Children checks, putting CCTV cameras in centres, banning educators from having personal phones when they are working with children, strengthening regulations, improving child-staff ratios and ensuring visibility in physical environments are all warranted and will help reassure families. In the end, however, trusting others with your child is a leap of faith, an act of trust.

My concern includes another group of people devastated by the allegations of abuse – people who work in the sector, especially educators. We prefer the term educators rather than childcare workers (and early education and care centre as more accurate than childcare) to reflect that children are learning from birth and the adults who care for them in centres nurture crucial, foundational learning for life.

The thousands of educators who are doing excellent work every day to offer a good quality experience to children and their families are hurting under the dark cloud of current accusations. They enter this crisis already under-resourced and undervalued.

Even attempts to compliment them are sometimes patronising. An educator told me recently that she felt demeaned when a parent in a suit carrying a briefcase dropped their child off and said something like, “I don’t know how you do it – I wouldn’t have the patience.” She said, “I resent the implication that all that’s required is a strong back and patience. My work involves so much more.”

In the recent federal election, the rhetoric about cheaper childcare was not always paired with the promise of quality. Sometimes the rhetoric likens childcare to carparks – a place to park your children while you work. This further de-values educators’ work.

Male educators will be feeling particularly vulnerable. Comments that men should not be allowed to be educators are ridiculous and damaging. Men have as much to offer as women, not least as role models to demonstrate that people of any gender can be kind, warm and caring.

Collaborating with families to assist their child’s wellbeing is the hardest part of educators’ work. It is also arguably the most likely way to make a lasting positive difference in a child’s life.

There are many obstacles to robust partnerships between educators and families, and educators who make them happen, especially in trying times, deserve our congratulations. They encourage families to ask questions and respond with respect, without being defensive. They accept that families need to know the steps services are taking to try to ensure no child is subjected to abuse, for example, ensuring that children’s toilets and nappy change areas are visible and that educators are not working alone.

I hope educators will empathise with families and do everything possible to reassure them, and that families will empathise and show support to their children’s educators. They deserve it.

I also hope that families and other community members will recognise and show appreciation to good quality centres and educators. Families that are members of a good quality centre community are fortunate. They shouldn’t take that for granted. We all need to advocate to increase families’ access to good quality childcare and to be rid of centres that fail to provide it.

Anne Stonehouse AM lives in Victoria and works as a consultant, writer and facilitator of professional learning in early childhood.

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