Childcare. How Many carers to children?

Just got a question for anybody that knows a bit about childcare. My Centre changed hands about 6 months ago and I have notice when I drop my 3 year old's off there can sometimes be up to 15 children in the room with only 1 career. I know some of these kids are "before school care" but my twins are only 3 and a half. I dont want to say anything until I know how many they can have.

I have also noticed before all this happened the kids came home every day with drawings and paints now I am lucky to get one a week. When I ask the kids what they do they tell me nothing and I have noticed when I have picked them up early they can have all the kids gathered around a TV. I didnt send my children to childcare to watch TV and the more I see it the more I want to say something.

What do another people think?

Thanks
Eliaar

At the day care I send my boys to, I think the babies are 4-5 childern to a carer, in the toddler room about
6 children to a carer and the prescoolers are more like 10 kids to a carer.

Mine is 2:8 so 1 staff member to 4 bubbas

It depends on a few variants.
What state are you in?
The ratio in Qld is currently lower than other states, we have 1:12 for 3-5 year olds. When you have school aged children in there, if anyone is under 4, the ratio drops back to 1:7 in Qld. Either way, what they have is not a legal ratio.

So the Qld ratios are:
1:4 up to 15 mths of age
1:5 15mths - 2 years
1:6 2-2.5 years
1:8 2.5-3 years
1:12 3-5 years
1:7 for mixed age grouping which has a number of different grouping mixes allowed.


Also - legally centres should display what group they are running on the door of the room at all times so you should be able to see what ratio they should have in your state.

Depends where you are - under the new national scheme (which doesn't apply to kids aged over 36 months until 2016) all centers should be working towards having a ratio of 11 to 1 (or 10 to 1 in nsw tas & wa ).
I'm pretty sure that the staffing for out of school hours care is 15 to 1 and if it is a mixed class the ratio should vary accordingly.

What Ausgirl said.

IMO having the kids in front of the tv is really poor form. It's not what you are paying them for.
We used to have a music DVD on for the children occasionally on wet days, but we would still be dancing and interacting with the children, just as we would if it was a cd. Even that felt a bit wrong. I would say something about that too.

I'm not sure about the ratio stuff, I do recall my centre saying something about 2:16 in the 3 and 4 year olds rooms but could be wrong.

But I am horrified they have kids watching TV! Our centre doesn't even own a TV as far as I know. To me that is totally and completely unacceptable.

Dpends on so many factors.

For Victoria -
Current 2009 regulations are
0-36m - 1:4
36m + - 1:15
Some centres are not required to follow this if they were licensed prior to the introduction of the 2009 regs (May 25 2009)
If that is the case their 0-36m ratios are still 1:5.
They would be required to follow from Jan 2012.

Under the regs to come in, in Jan 2012
0-24m - 1:4
24m-36m - 1:5
36m + - 1:11
However there a specific provisions and transitional periods for each state (for example, Victoria will be 1:4 for 24-36m as well).

As Muppity mentioned, there is a transitional period of 4 years for the 36m + ratios, which means even though the national regs are 1:11 centres will continue to be current ratios (Victoria 1:15) until Jan 2016.

Transitional periods apply to existing centres. AFAIK the only centres that will end up needing to follow the new regs - "to the letter" - from Jan 2012 are those which become licensed after the date of the regs.

Wow! I would go bananas if my kids were watching tv,- in saying that, our kindy has 2 teachers and 1 helper with 40 in the class. After lunch, while they are waiting for the slow kids to finish eating there is a dvd put on, and they have some quiet time before they go to sleep. But it is an educational style dvd- not just random tv and its for 20 mins.
I have used DVDs to help me teach the kids a song- dvd would have song and a simple dance when I was teaching- but they were just afew mins.

As for the TV - the regulations are pretty clear about TV or other such media not being used as a substitute for educational opportunities.

Others have allready covered the numbers of kids to teachers.

Our centre does you DVD at times, eg a few months ago were talking about Antartica in toddler room where DS1 is so they watched a DVD about Antartica. I have no issue with this but would be annoyed at kids watching lots of tv there.

Thank you everybody for your replies we live in Victoria so it looks like 15 children to 1 career is okay.

I am not sure I am happy with that but I guess there is nothing that can be done.

I did go to pick up the kids after I had put this thread up and when I got to the centre there was 8 kids alone in the room and the career was outside with another couple of kids packing up. I signed my kids out and walked out the front door. There was nobody at the front desk and I am sure the career didnt even see me. It started to make me think, what if somebody else did that and they walked out with my two. I know with my 2 if somebody offered them a ice cream or lollie they would follow them. We have done the stranger talk but I am not sure at Childcare because they have different careers there all the time the kids wouldnt think.

I would love to move centre's but this one is the newest in our town and it has a great outside area. All the other centres the kids have to play on cement and they are on small house blocks. My daughter is very clingy and is settle at this centre so I know it will be hard to move her.

Wow! That is so not on! At the very least talk to the director, that could be an extremely dangerous situation!

Yep that is not on and I would definitely be raising it with the person in charge.
For what it's worth regarding outside space at other centres etc - it IS part of the new framework that 'all' centres will provide a natural environment for children
However, the actual cost of implementing this to existing centres is massive and therefore it will take time - but other centres will start providing this bit by bit.

Thanks again for your input.

I have thought about it and after today turning up to drop the kids off a little later than normal, the room they were in only had 1 career and with my 2 she had 21 kids.

There was a poor little girl screaming and she was doing her best to try and comfort her while try to keep the rest of the kids from running a riot. I really like this career and I dont believe it is her fault. I think if she said something she wouldnt have a job the next day.

I am going to have to say something as everytime I think about it at work I am feeling sick thinking of what might happened to them.
Will be interesting to see what they have to say.