On June 26, Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Health and Social Development, Dr Mpho Phalatse, launched the City’s first Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centers blitz in the Westdene area after reports of two children that tragically died due to alleged poising.
On 12 June 2019, MMC Phalatse inspected an ECD center, Victory Child Care Center, also in the Westdene area suspected to be non-complaint. Upon the insistence of the MMC, an inspection conducted on June 13, 2019, revealed the following:
• The preschool is not registered with the Provincial Department of Social Development;
• They do not have a permit from the City’s Environmental Health Department.
It is for this reason that the MMC insisted that the City launch a Citywide blitz focusing on ECD centers to raise awareness on the City’s ECD compliance process and to empower owners on how they can be assisted to meet the set legal requirements.
The ward-based blitz will be conducted on an ongoing basis across all the City’s seven regions and will be a joint operation between all key City departments and entities such as Environmental Health, Social Development, Children’s Help Desk, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), the Emergency Management Services and Development Planning to name but a few.
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The operation’s focus will be to ensure that ECD centers comply with the municipal by-laws and other pieces of legislation, such as the Children’s Act to ensure the safety of the children. The MMC together with the team visited five ECD centers and found the following:
• The first ECD center was an example of what a compliant ECD facility should look like and met all the requirements.
• The second and fifth ECDs centers were issued with statutory notices with the intention to close them because they were in complete violation of the municipal by-laws and other legal requirements. Both operated as makeshift ECD centers and had no permits. There was also overcrowding in both facilities.
• The second and fourth centers were issued with statutory notices to fix some of the compliance issues identified. The second facility had a sign that the ECD center was operating but did not meet the minimum requirements as legislated by the municipal by-laws, e.g.; it had no outdoor and indoor play areas, the number of ablution facilities for the kids and resting equipment was not sufficient for the kids.
In the fourth facility, some of the children did not have sleeping mats and it had no designated sick-bay. One of the owners alleged that she has approached the city to be assisted and she did not get the assistance she needed.
Phalatse said that if the owner can demonstrate that she did indeed visit the city departments and that she was not assisted, it something that we will need to deal with and as the government make sure that there is consequence management.
The Early Childhood Development programs are well known as multi-level means of breaking the cycle of poverty and are hence a crucial component of local development.
They are fundamental to the well-being of the preschool child population, especially in the poorest areas. The emotional, social and physical development of young children has a direct effect on their overall development and on the adult they will become.
That is why understanding the need to invest in very young children is so important, to maximize their future well-being.
Phalatse said parents should take extra care with children during their formative years and place children in ECD centers that will assist the child in reaching their growth and development milestones.
It is important for parents to do the following:
• Visit the ECD center before enrolling your child
• Look at the various age divisions available at the ECD center to determine whether children are divided accordingly
• Ask to view their curriculum and see if it provides for various developmental activities (e.g. fine motor development, cognitive development, physical development, etc.)
• Review the health and safety within the facility
• Request to know the menus for the children (ideally there should be a summer menu and a winter menu)
• Ensure that the center is registered and the registration certificate to be hanging on the wall
If your child’s ECD facility is registered it will give you the peace of mind that your child is in safe hands.
Phalatse also urges ECD owners whose facilities are non-compliant to visit or contact the city’s Social Development office in Braamfontein and in the regions. She said the ECD compliance process aims to assist ECD sites to be compliant with the legislative requirements for registration in order to have sites that are safe for both the children and the practitioners.
How to get your ECD center compliant:
• Visit the City’s Social Development local office and inform the social worker that you want to register the ECD facility and learning program
• Complete the relevant forms and submit to the office to ensure that you pass a series of requirements, including municipal by-laws to ensure that your facility provides a healthy and secure environment
• Pay the required fees for compliance
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