‘A child who is clearly exhausted shouldn’t be denied sleep’ – Commissioner for Children

Commissioner for Children Pauline Miceli believes that, amongst other things, a child should not be forced to remain awake, child care centres should aim to be transparent and all child care staff should be thoroughly trained.

Following the article by The Malta Independent on Sunday last week, in which a child carer spoke about the mistreatment of children in child care centres, this newspaper contacted Commissioner for Children Pauline Miceli for her comments on the issue.

"Child care centres should always act primarily in the best interests of the children under their care. This means inter alia that a child who is clearly exhausted should never be denied sleep, and that any clear signs of repeated neglect or abuse the child may be suffering at home should be reported to the Child Protection Unit within Aġenzija Appoġġ. This requires that all child care staff be thoroughly trained in the knowledge and skills that are needed to provide child-centred care," she said.

In a Facebook post, the child carer, amongst other things, told how children are sometimes left by their parents at centres for about 10 hours a day, parents occasionally bring their children to the centres with dirty nappies, give orders to the carers that they are not to let their child sleep so that they will sleep at home, and some children will have poor hygiene. She also said that the ratio of child carers to number of children is often below the legal number, that children who are hyperactive are often kept in a pushchair, playpen or highchair for the entire day and children are sometimes handled aggressively.

Ms Miceli continued: "Inspections of child care centres should be carried out not only on the basis of complaints or reports but also periodically, especially through spot-checks, with the aim of ensuring that they are operating in accordance with the standards.

"Child care centres should always strive to be transparent in their activities, namely by allowing parents physical and/or visual access to their children during child care in a way that does not impinge negatively on the children."

The Commissioner said that the Office of the Commissioner for Children has been working with the Department of Quality Standards in Education (DQSE) "with a view to updating the National Standards on Child Day Care and improving the quality of child care in Malta.

"This work has been guided by the principle that child care centres should provide child-centred care that protects children from harm and promotes their social, emotional and cognitive development," she said.

"In practice, this means that any claims of alleged malpractice suffered by children attending child care centres should be immediately reported to the DQSE so that the claim can be properly investigated and followed through."

In conclusion, Ms Miceli concluded" "While the government and the regulatory authorities should support the development of child care centres, there should be an approach of zero tolerance in respect of any centre that is not committed in practice to providing child-centred care."

 

from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2tHjArY
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