Creches urged to register and train staff to avoid closure
ALEXANDRA - Some of Alex's crèches receive training to enhance their skills for working with children and parents but others avoid the training to the detriment of the children.
Alex has many creches offering early childhood development (ECD), and in order to enhance their credibility and attract parents to their services, a representative body, the Alexandra Combined ECD Careers Forum, has been created.
The forum mobilises membership and draws in support on training to improve the quality of their services to children.
At a recent training session on parenting skills by non-profit organisation Kids Clinic at the Alex Police Station, forum chairperson Connie Mahlangu said they were on a drive to enhance the quality of their services and to ensure all creches were registered and recognised.
“Alex has thousands of them, some hidden in alleys operating illegally and exploiting desperate parents when they do not provide the required quality of services because their staff are not trained,” she said.
Mahlangu said some have, and more will be, closed by the City Council’s Department of Environmental Health for operating illegally and endangering children’s health. Mahlangu urged the illegal creches to join the forum and get exposed to information, services and evaluations to enable them to comply with regulations.
She said, “The parenting skills training will help all of them with skills to handle children with behavioral problems, how to identify and handle those acting out, assessing children with [substance] withdrawal symptoms and signs of sexual abuse and the slow pupils.”
The forum’s assistant secretary, Lily Sekgapane, said the training gave them communications skills to handle problematic parents, referral skills and knowledge of support service providers and personal development skills for their own use at home.
The clinic’s social worker, Asanda Mabusela, commended the crèches for seeking support.
“Alexandra has complex and stressful problems which are compounded by overcrowding resulting in crime and violence which off rub onto the children. This makes it very difficult for parents without appropriate skills to nurture their children well and for creches to be expected to do the same. Our training of creche operators, and sometimes parents, gives them skills to manage their own emotional challenges to prepare them to handle those of children in their care. They include skills in communication, how to handle confidential matters and prevent negative reactions of parents to creche teachers, as well as issues of positive disciplining of children.
