Trusting child carers with your child may be an issue for some parents especially if you have never used childcare before.

For parents of communities where this is not the normal practice, it can feel strange. Negative media coverage about a minority of incidents, hearsay from other parents or maybe parents’ own observations or experiences sometimes don’t help. They may leave some parents feeling they would prefer not to leave their children with complete strangers or trust someone else with caring for their child apart from their immediate family.

Parents’ concerns around using formal childcare are usually about:

• quality of care
• child safety or how the child might be treated
• culturally sensitive care
• meeting special educational needs
• undermining their parenting style

The priority is to ensure that your child receives high quality professional childcare that meets their needs and helps you to meet your commitments.

The relationship between your child and carer is important for ensuring your child feels secure and happy in their environment and that the childcare arrangement is successful.

Parents often feel concerned or guilty for having to work and not being there for their child, but it’s important to remember that parents are valued as the primary carer and therefore should not worry that their parent-child bond is being weakened or replaced.

By spending regular quality time together with your child you will continue to build bonding relationships, keep secure your own family culture and values and it can be stimulating for both parent and child.

Whichever type of childcare you choose you can be assured, however, that there are regulations, quality standards and strict guidelines for safeguarding and providing good outcomes for children.

All registered childcare provision must adhere to guidelines which dictate:

• minimum qualifications of childcare workers
• ratios of workers to the children being cared for
• checking of all members of staff and volunteers working with children for criminal offences prior to them being employed.