General News
7 December, 2022
Day care puts safety first
BUCKLE My Shoe has earned Victorian Government recognition for its efforts to create a safer, healthier learning environment.
BUCKLE My Shoe has earned Victorian Government recognition for its efforts to create a safer, healthier learning environment.
The Terang-based child care centre recently met the criteria in each of the six key areas needed to attain recognition under the Victorian Government’s Healthy Early Childhood Services program.
The program is a health and wellbeing initiative which aims to create healthier environments for working and learning across the state.
The program has six key areas with various objectives which need to be met:
• Healthy eating and oral health;
• Physical activity and movement;
• Tobacco, alcohol and other drugs;
• Sun protection;
• Safe environments; and
• Mental health and wellbeing.
Buckle My Shoe director Caroline Rickard said staff had been working under the program since around 2019 to make positive changes.
“Through the six areas we covered we had to work through a number of benchmarks to achieve,” she said.
“It included things we are incorporating in to our daily practices and making sure we have policies around those areas which are being implemented to have the safe and healthy environment for the children, which we are striving to have.
“Some of the areas we were already well achieving, such as healthy eating through Smiles for Miles and sun protection through Cancer Council, so we were in a great position from the beginning.
“Mental health was an important one because we had not really touched on it before, so that was positive for us to work on for both the staff and children; it’s something we feel we can better recognise now.”
Ms Rickard said 2022 was a positive year to ensure the child care centre offered the best possible start for kids after the new Child Safe Standards were introduced in Victoria, which came in to force from July this year.
“It’s been really good to look at our practices and make sure we are covering all our bases and creating a safe and healthy environment for the children,” she said.
“That is always our priority.”