Managerial Issues in Daycare Centers - Term Paper Example

Managerial Issues in Daycare Centers Introduction Children are often considered the jewels of society because it is only through these individuals that the family and society itself has a future. If the current generation wishes to be remembered positively, it must take care to raise the next generation with care and compassion, responsibility and intelligence. Among the various institutions that are normally concerned with children are daycare centers. These institutions generally provide care for children whose parents are busy with their jobs or other commitments. As in the case of public schools, daycare centers are increasingly being expected to provide a second home for young children. Childcare provision is almost a basic need in this modern society where families find it necessary for both parents to work in order to maintain a high quality of life rather than arranging for one parent to remain at home with the kids. Generally, child care can be defined as caring for the basic physical and mental needs of young children as well as supervising their activities while out of the home and the parents’ care. Because of the significant impact such care can have on the developing personality of the young person, there is a necessary demand for an equally significant investment of finances, human resources and infrastructure. As this should illustrate, there are various managerial issues that affect daycare centers including recruiting and maintaining personnel, providing appropriate discipline, regular maintenance, attending to students with special needs, safety for staff and students, addressing allegations of abuse, provision of sufficient nutritious and economical food and dealing with control issues. Recruiting and maintaining personnel One of the primary responsibilities that a daycare administrator has is recruiting quality personnel. The process typically follows much the same order as recruiting for other positions, but requires an additional level of protocol. For example, the administrator will typically follow the process of advertising the position, interviewing the candidates and employing an individual, but must consider deeper answers to the traditional questions. Questions such as how many personnel does the center need and does the candidate have any experience seem like simple quantifiable answers, yet quickly take on new depth with the position. If the center requires teachers, it is important to know what type of teachers – simple watchers of children or educational providers, playtime assistants or specialized activities – are needed and what shifts as this will affect the types of teachers employed. Candidates with experience might seem to be preferred, but there is the additional question of what type of experience has been gained. A mother who has successfully sent her last child off to college may make a more effective infant room teacher than a young adult who has worked in the church nursery for the past five years. These considerations are very important as they help in decision making. A daycare administrator has to make sure that the employees are recruited on a merit basis rather than based upon peer connections as the most qualified must be placed in positions of authority to preserve the integrity of the center’s benefits. This is very important in attracting quality employees as they are then able to take pride in the service they provide. This leads to effectiveness and teamwork among the personnel and the entire daycare benefits. An administrator also has the responsibility to promote personnel who have furthered their studies to benefit the children (Fred, 2006). When all of these issues are properly addressed by the administrator, the program has a greater chance of being successful. Unfortunately, an appropriate recruitment process is frequently a very challenging issue for many centers. Unlike many businesses, the relatively passion an employee feels for his or her job is not a central issue in the hiring process, the child care administrator has to be sure the individuals hired truly have a passion for the care and nurturing of children. Without this erroneously labeled ‘mother instinct’ (men have this instinct as well), children are not benefited with the appropriate patience, understanding and guidance necessary for the nurturing of their development. At times, it is difficult to find applicants with the appropriate qualifications, experience, sentiment and compensation expectations to suit the positions that must be filled. Maintaining personnel within the day care can also be problematic as budgetary concerns limit salary expectations and competition for quality teachers is fierce. Research indicates that one of the highest costs incurred by child care centers is in relation to labor recruitment, training and maintenance which further indicate a high rate of employee turnover throughout the industry. Discipline This is one of the essential aspects that must be dealt with effectively if children are to grow into productive members of society. Yet, increasingly, schools and child care institutions have lost the ability to discipline children in their care. As a result, this is one of the more challenging managerial issues in daycare. These institutions have children from diverse backgrounds with different characters, all of whom have different expectations regarding what are effective and appropriate disciplinary measures. There are instances when children who enter the center are highly undisciplined and thus present a constant interruption to classes and office activities. It becomes very hard for administrators to discipline such children accordingly. Some of the parents insist the center never discipline their children, that this is the exclusive right of the parents. However, without appropriate discipline, children do not learn necessary limits to becoming effective adults at the same time that their inappropriate behavior adversely affects the behavior of other children who weren’t previously discipline problems. This process of emulation, or copying the behavior of others, also occurs as the children witness the behavior of the adults, again illustrating the importance of accurately assessing the character of the applicant. To avoid lawsuits as well as to ensure a unified, acceptable approach to discipline, daycare centers have found it necessary to put in place policies that stipulate clear guidelines concerning student discipline. Before students are enrolled, parents should be provided with a copy of these guidelines to review and be required to sign the documents indicating that they agree with the rules concerning overall discipline of their children (Danielle, 2005). Maintenance Day care administrators are normally constrained by tight budgets which they must adhere to. However, there are also a high number of educational facilities and equipment that must be kept in constant repair. Facilities include various buildings and play equipment and food preparation and consumption facilities. Even the sanitation facilities need maintenance which has to be done often. Daycare administrators are normally challenged to ensure that they put in place a maintenance program that helps in improving the general appearance of daycares. This isn’t for the simple vanity of an attractive storefront, but is also very important to prevent any exposure to hazardous things that may affect teaching personnel, children and the auxiliary staff. General cleaning in the daycare is also very important to prevent widespread infection in immature immune systems. All of these issues require funds. It is very challenging for daycare administrators to work with tight budgets yet at the same time ensure the smooth operation of the center. Taking into account the high costs of child care services, many families are now finding it difficult to afford them. The cost of childcare provision services have been rising because of increases in wages for child care workers, higher costs of renting spaces, higher costs of suppliers and necessary products and the need to employ higher educated graduates and train them further on child care issues. All of these reduce the amount of funds available for maintenance issues, yet none, including maintenance, can or should be excluded, shorted or ignored. This is quite a concern in many daycares. As the costs of maintaining daycare centers continues to rise, the costs of student attendance in these same daycare center also rises. As tuition rises, poor families find it no longer benefits the family for the children to attend daycare and opt for one parent to remain home, which is also a hardship on the family as one income is eradicated. Thus, daycare centers also face the challenge of trying to meet the needs of the poor while still earning enough money to remain in business (Danielle, 2005). One means of addressing this issue is through the provision of government subsidies to daycare centers, ensuring they have the funds to remain in operation. This reduces the burden of child care costs upon the family while ensuring quality child care centers are available to all children. Students with special needs Children with special needs cannot simply be turned away from childcare centers based solely on the fact of their disability. These children can suffer from a range of issues from the physical such as poor eyesight or being confined to a wheelchair to the mental such as ADHD or obsessive compulsive disorder to a combination of the above such as in cases of autism. There are many occasions when the administrator must make special arrangements or concessions for these children, ensuring that their needs are met while providing them with the most equitable experience possible given their limitations. For example, when organizing for student transport, a daycare administrator has to ensure appropriate transportation is provided to bring students confined to wheelchairs along with the group. It is also very important that daycare administrators employ personnel who are trained in dealing with children with special needs or be willing to provide this type of training to their existing staff. This enables them to deal with each issue according to professional requirements. Safety Student safety is, of course, a primary concern for all administrators and qualified staff. This issue also remains very challenging for child care administrators. Many of the students in daycares are at the age where they want to explore. At this age, children want to find out more concerning their environment (Brooks, 2006) but don’t always know their limitations. This is a natural part of their development and important in helping them gain an understanding of their world, but also has the potential to lead them into trouble. This means that great care has to be taken when handling them. Management in daycare has to ensure that play facilities in these daycares are very safe, yet provide room for exploration of skills and abilities. This equipment needs constant servicing to ensure that it is in good condition. There are frequently published policies and standards in place for what is considered safe and appropriate equipment and maintenance schedules to assist administrators in making these decisions. Allegations of abuse Among the more onerous of managerial issues that are found in daycares include coping with allegations of abuse. Many parents do not fully trust the care given to their children in daycares, particularly in light of numerous media documentaries and news programs illustrating in-center abuses. This makes parents very vulnerable to any incidents that may purport abuse within their own center. It is important when allegations of abuse are made to investigate immediately and completely as a means of reducing the impact on the daycare while effectively and quickly halting any actual abuse that may be taking place. While abuse does occur in some cases, there are many more cases in which children in child care will lie about abuse as a means of covering up their own or a friend’s actions (Fred, 2006). This makes it very hard for managers in daycares to defend themselves, particularly as they must take into consideration that the allegations might be accurate and conduct a thorough investigation. Allegations of abuse almost always results in some parents taking their children to other daycares. This problem is common in the industry. To minimize damage as well as allegations, management in daycares always has to train their staff on how to handle children appropriately given a variety of personalities and backgrounds as well as how to report concerns. Food Child care administrators may feel a great deal of the children’s welfare is primarily in the hands of the instructors they hired, yet it remains to provide these children with a nutritious, economical and appealing mid-day meal. Some children are very choosy when it comes to food and therefore making common food for all the children becomes quite tricky. Some children simply just don’t want the type of food offered at the time. This becomes a very challenging issue to the management in daycare. Despite this, it is the administrator’s responsibility to ensure that the meals cooked in daycares are balanced as a means of contributing to the healthy development of the child. Menus should include proteins, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables. Special diets may also be required for ill students and students with dietary restrictions due to religious affiliation or allergies. Food safety goes hand in hand with general cleanliness in the kitchen department. An administrator has to ensure that cleanliness in the kitchen is of the required standard. Running tap water has to be provided to help in general cleanliness and an administrator has the responsibility of ensuring that auxiliary staff is educated concerning appropriate food safety. This will help in minimizing food poisoning problems that may occur in daycares (Danielle, 2005). Toward that end, an administrator also has to ensure that all the kitchen staffs are healthy. Before they are recruited, they have to be tested for any ailments. These include diseases like Aids, Ebola and Tuberculosis. This has to be done after every six months to help prevent transmission of diseases from staff to the students. Finally, administrators also have the responsibility of purchasing protective clothing for the people working in the kitchen. Controlling Many daycares experience problems that are related to control of resources. As has been illustrated, daycares normally have very tight budgets. After buying required materials, administrators have to control the way these resources are used so that they can sustain the center at the planned level for a given time period. Frequently misused common items include soap, water, cooking fat, sugar and general cleaning supplies. In cases where some teaching goes on, chalk, art supplies and erasers tend to be greatly misused. This calls for tough control measures from the management which is normally not a simple task (Brooks, 2006). Conclusion Daycares are places where parents take their children during the day when they are busy with other responsibilities like work or studies. Parents normally collect their children at the end of the day on their way home. As has been explored, common managerial issues in running daycares include recruiting and maintaining staff. Labor in daycares is very costly and very essential at the same time. Managers in daycares have to ensure that discipline is upheld among children and staff as staff serves as important examples to the children. There are also other issues that concern controlling of resources in daycare. This is carried out to ensure that the resources are not wasted and that they supply the center for an appropriate period of time to reduce expenses. Safety one of the most essential aspects administrators must address at all times. All these issues when correctly handled lead to the smooth running of daycares. Works Cited Brooks, F. (2006): Impacts of daycare subsidies on family and child well-being; Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17, 498-511 Danielle, E. (2005): The Senate’s $ 6 Billion Child Care Provision; A Critical, But Modest Investment. Centre for Law and Sociology Fred, C. (2006): Educational Administration Concepts and Practices; 4th Ed; New York; Macmillan Press Read More