Child Care or Child Scare: Enhancing the Legal Requirements on Health and Safety in Child Care Centres Laws and Regulations in Malaysia

Abstract

Health and safety are the required legal requirements that need to be regulated in-laws and regulations of child care centres. These legal requirements are categorised as structural quality features which are often translated into laws and regulations in ensuring quality child care for children. This paper examines the question of whether the health and safety legal requirements necessitate improvements in the legislative framework of Malaysian child care. The laws and regulations in Malaysia on health and safety requirements as stated in the Child Care Centre Act 1984 and Child Care Centre Regulation 2012 are evaluated according to the relevant sections and regulations. Recommendations are made in enhancing laws and regulations in child care centres in Malaysia regarding health and safety. The qualitative method was used in this study using document analysis especially the related laws in Malaysia. Cross-reference to other jurisdictions’ laws and regulations such as Australia and Singapore was also conducted. In conclusion, enhancement on health and safety features need to be made especially with regards to knowledge on child protection law amongst child care providers, prohibition of employment, laws, and regulations on incidents, injury and trauma, and medicine and drugs administration.

Parents’ Satisfaction Towards the Quality of the Management of Childcare Centres

“…As far as Malaysian childcare is concerned, there is an effort to promote health and safety in childcare, especially looking at the Malaysian National Childcare Quality Standard, which outlines that nutrition, health and safety are among the standards that childcare operators should adhere to. The question is whether the minimum requirements set by the regulations in Malaysia are sufficient or whether the requirements describe the needs below the basic level of acceptable care (Mashitah et al, 2021).…”

“…Recent research on brain development demonstrates the quality of childcare, which improves a child's development. Therefore, the quality of childcare fosters healthy brain development during the first five years of development (Mashitah et al, 2021).…”

The Awareness towards Safety and Health of Children among Child Care Centre Staff

“…They think that the environment and safety support the quality of a centre. It is also supported by Mutalib et al (2021), in which they believe childcare centres should always offer high quality care and education with high emphasis on health and safety. In addition, Balany (2014) mentioned young people are more vulnerable to accidents when entering any of the workplaces, compared to older people.…”