Best Practices for Safety at a Child Care Center

In any childcare setting, the safety and well-being of the children are always the top priority.

Whether they are there for child observation or just to have a good time, childcare centers always need to protect children. Naturally, the devil is in the details when it comes to childcare. That’s why we wanted to share some of the best practices that can all add up to a safe and healthy childcare setting.

Staff Certification

A safe childcare environment usually starts with having a staff that’s trained and certified. Most of the time, there needs to be at least one staff member who is certified in first aid and CPR present at all times. However, it’s always a good idea to go above and beyond those standards by having every employee certified. This will help keep everyone safer and ensure that safety regulations are always met.

Attendance Tracking

Childcare settings always need to have an organized method of tracking who is there and how long they’ve been there. Obviously, there should be a gatekeeper to make sure only children, parents, and employees can get beyond the front entrance. But it’s equally important to track the names of the children who are there and when they arrived. It may sound simple, but childcare facilities need to know what children are under their care at all times.

Supervision Over Interaction

Obviously, childcare settings play an important role in the development of children. Childcare professionals no doubt enjoy interacting with children. However, it’s essential to remember that supervision is always more important than interaction. Employees always need to make sure that someone is available to supervise everyone before starting to give more personal attention to one of the children. 

Room Security

Along those same lines, the security of the room where children are playing is of the utmost importance. For starters, childcare supervisors need to be able to see the entire room where children are being watched. There should be no blind spots within the room so that children can’t hide or suddenly not be within the line of sight of the supervisor. Meanwhile, there should be no way for a child to leave the room where they are being supervised. Again, this helps to ensure that every child is accounted for at all times.

Toy Safety

The safety of the toys and objects in a childcare setting should always be taken into account. Certain toys may not be safe for children of all ages, so childcare attendants need to be aware of this. Likewise, supervisors should make sure that the children are using toys the proper way. They must make sure toys are not being thrown or used in a way that could hurt one of the children.

Reduce Clutter

While somewhat obvious, this is sometimes easy to forget. Children slipping and falling is one of the most common ways they can get hurt in a childcare setting. At the same time, it’s easy to prevent if supervisors can pay attention to clutter on the floor and make sure all spills are cleaned up right away. Doing this will reduce the chance of a child falling and getting hurt, especially since this is something that can be easily prevented.

Safety System for Everyone

The safety of children will always be the top priority for childcare workers, but their safety shouldn’t be forgotten. To help employees stay safe and healthy, EHS Insight has developed safety management software. Our system can be used in any workplace to help monitor and manage every element of workplace safety, leading to better results when it comes to the well-being of employees. 

If you want to ensure the safety and protection of your employees, give us a call and we can tell you more about how our software fits your business.