By Jane Couch
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Home-based service networks are organisations licensed with the Ministry of Education, and part funded by the Ministry, as early childhood education and care services.  There are many different home-based networks, some are run by franchises as part of a national network, some are run by charitable trusts or community organisations, others are run privately by companies or by individuals. 

A ‘co-ordinator’ is a person who is employed to do the day to day work of managing the service and overseeing the home-based care arrangements. An ‘educator’ is the person who provides the hands-on care for a child or children in his/her home or in the child’s home.

Home-based services have increased in numbers at a phenomenal rate in New Zealand over recent years.  And just as with early childhood centres we are seeing quite a variation in the practices and standards of home-based network providers. 

Below I outline what I have found from experience and observed of different network providers to be the characteristics that set apart those who are good from those who are not so good.  The top home-based service networks would have at least 3/4s or more of the features listed below.  

1. Trust

• The co-ordinators (those who place children with educators and who are responsible for overseeing the educator’s work) have to know the educators well, and trust that they will always put the interests of the children first. 
• Parents need to have confidence in their home educator, that their educator will put the needs of their child and any other child to the fore.
• The co-ordinators must make themselves available and the educators need to trust that the co-ordinator to come and help if there is a crisis during their working day, or to be available to visit while the educator attends a dental/doctors appointment etc.
• Educators need to trust that they will be visited at least monthly by a coordinator who will spend time with them, show an actual interest in what they are doing, play with and get to know each child being cared for by the educator, and provide a sounding board and give helpful advice.

2.  Parent Involvement

Services should involve parents in quality assurance through providing input and feedback.  Some services have a parental satisfaction survey that is sent out about 6 weeks after the family has joined the service.  Other services encourage parents to attend a formal planning meeting for their child.  Some services ask for feed-back for the educators performance appraisal, and yet other services consult their parents on a wide range of topics.

3. Picking the Right Staff

Educators

• Services have their own list of key attributes that make a good educator, and are always looking for people to fill the role. Many educators apply and few are chosen.  You could ask what key attributes are looked for in a good educator.  You might also ask to see the statistics the service keeps on the numbers of educators who apply to join and whether and why they are successful or not.
• Educators are chosen for several reasons.  They need to be passionate about the education and care of young children.  They need to understand the differences in the roles of parents and educators, ie they need to be a step removed from the child. They need to be willing to learn and understand that all children are different and they wish to be professional in their practice.

Co-ordinators

• A co-ordinator needs to be a registered and qualified early childhood teacher, to understand that while all educators will do things differently the outcomes for children should be and are the best they can possibly be.
• Co-ordinators are the professional leaders of the network and therefore need to display good interpersonal skills, clear communication skills and good listening skills.
• Co-ordinators need to understand that there is a fine line to walk between professional and personal relationships.  If this becomes blurred it may be difficult to deal with professional situations, such as the inadequate performance of an educator.

4.  A Process for Matching Educators, Families and Children

In home-based services there is no one size that fits all and quality services pride themselves on the provision of personal service, where the requirements of parents, children and educators are paramount. 

Some services do this by initially carefully listening to the parent’s requirements and then matching them with available educators. Parents are told at the initial enquiry that if there is no one suitable then even if there is space in the service, the service will be unable to provide a care arrangement. If the parent and educator have a similar philosophy then that is a good starting point to build a professional relationship. 

5. Provision of Professional Development

Quality home-based services provide professional development opportunities, either across the service, or on an individual basis.  These may include:

• Educator-only days (like teacher-only days in schools), when the service is closed for professional development;
• providing regular training workshops for educators and coordinators;
• attendance of coordinators at the annual New Zealand Home-based Early Childhood Education Association Conference; and
• some services provide financial support for further training for coordinators and educators and subsidise membership of professional groups like ChildForum to access research and professional learning resources.

6. Annual appraisal system

A home-based service’s quality is enhanced if there is an annual appraisal system in place. This includes a formal annual safety check of each educator and home (repeating the initial screening process every year):

• a home-safety check (this is over and above any safety aspects that are commented on during monthly visits by the coordinator to the educator),
• a formal review of the educators responsibility with the home-based legal requirements and,
• an annual appraisal system when educators, parents and co-ordinators contribute to a performance appraisal.

7. Provision of Equipment

Many services provide supplementary equipment to support a specific child’s interests.  Some services provide specific topic information with, for example, ideas for science teaching and learning.  Educators should be encouraged to request equipment from co-ordinators to bring on their monthly visits.

8. Membership of Umbrella and Professional Organisations

The NZ Home Based ECE Assn is the umbrella organisation representing  specifically home-based early childhood services. Home-based networks belonging to this organisation have the benefits of being part of a professional body dedicated to supporting and ensuring high standards in the home-based sector.   

ChildForum covers all types of early childhood services and people working within the sector, families, and researchers.  Membership of ChildForum brings the benefit of communication with people from across the sector, and access to research and policy analysis. 

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About the Author - Jane Couch

Until the end of 2010 I was involved with Home-based services for 20 years.  I started my early childhood journey as a Playcentre parent and became involved at centre, association and nationally – each of the roles brought me a different perspective.  I joined Barnardo’s New Zealand in 1990 and worked for that organisation for 9 years. I would like to acknowledge Barnardo’s New Zealandfor the excellent training I received as a co-ordinator.  Jane Firth joined me in 1993 and we worked together for 17 years. 

In 1999 Jane and I set up Hutt Family Day Care Ltd as a private home-based service.  We both had a passion for family day care as it was known then, realising that we could do things the way we wanted to, working within all the parameters of current legislation and always ensuring a service of the highest possible quality.

We did lots of things to increase the profile of home-based care in Aotearoa.  We presented workshops and keynote addresses at conferences; organised the International Family Day Care Organisation conference in Wellington; started a Centre of Innovation (once home-based services were allowed to apply to do this). I was part of the Ministry of Education Reference Group for the home-based regulations and was part of the writing team for the Te Whāriki video “Learing Through Relationships Ma te Whanaungatanga ke Ako”.   

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