The Institute of Early Childhood Development (IECD) organized a half-day working session on pre-registration and assessment visits to be conducted at Childminding Establishments as part of the registration process for home-based services. The working session which saw the participation of Officers from the ECCE Sectors, Health and Social Affairs as well as the Seychelles Fire and Rescue Services Agency (SFRSA), was held recently at the International Conference Centre Seychelles.
The IECD Act, 2014 established the Institute as the regulator of home-based childminding services with the responsibility of regulation and inspection of registered services as well as enforcement where the requirements are not being met. The recently gazetted IECD (National Standards on Childminding Regulation) 2016, calls for home-based, paid childminders with four or more children to register with IECD for a certificate of operation. The recently developed registration process involves several painstaking steps including a joint pre-registration visit and assessment. These visits are aimed at determining the eligibility of the Childminders to register by assessing whether they meet the requirements set by the regulations. Led by IECD, the visits are conducted by a team of officers from the above mentioned Sectors.
The aim of the training session was to set a common approach to the visits and validate the instruments to be used for the assessment. However, the session itself was dominated by discussions on the registration process and instruments for the visits. The training was led by the CEO of IECD, Mrs. Shirley Choppy, supported by the then Special Advisor to the Minister of Education, Mr. Selby Dora and assisted by the Staff of the Institute’s Regulatory Affairs Section.
