1.introcfuction
4.2. The main findings of the study
4.2.1. Types of partial care facilities
From the findings, it is evident that there are different types of child care facilities in Cato Manor. Three types of partial care services were identified in this community. These have been referred to as informal Category A facilities, which operate from the facilitators' private homes; informal Category B facilities which operate from the property of the facilitators, and formal facilities, which operate from the municipality buildings. The informal Category A facilities are run by the facilitators with the help of their family members, in the same space the facilitators and their families live. They usually care for babies and children up to three years old. The facilitators who provide this kind of care have casual arrangements and relationships with the parents of the children they care for.
Informal Category B facilities have a separate room(s) for child care from those used by the facilitators and her family. These facilities sometimes employ staff members who care for the children. They have developed some educational curriculum and participate in activities involving pre-schools and care facilities in the area.
Formal facilities operate from the equipped institutions built for partial care as part of the infrastructure development in the community. They operate like pre- schools and, in this study, two facilities received Grade R funding from the Department of Education. The infrastructure development in Cato Manor took into consideration the needs of children in this respect and as such facilities were built for the purpose of providing partial care services for children. The community has also been proactive in the establishment and running of facilities, especially the formal facilities. The formation of an association 'to specifically address matters related to the facilities has been particularly innovative and progressive.
The formal facilities are built to accommodate 150 children each. At the time of the interviews, only one facility had 150 children in their care. The difference in fees charged by the different facilities is not significant. It would be worth exploring why parents send their children to poorly resourced facilities in private ..homes when there arefuliyequipped facilities that have been·purposefully built
and are not running at full capacity.
4.2.2 Enrolment in facilities
As reflected in Table 3.1., Category A informal facilities had fewer children enrolled, followed by Category 8 informal facilities and formal facilities. This situation is dictated by availability of building, space, and teaching staff. Even though the formal facilities have more staff than informal facilities, the ratio of facilitators to children is less in informal facilities than it is for formal facilities.
Category A informal facilities enrolled particularly babies, and this IS advantageous for the babies, since they need specific individual care as compared to older children who can be worked with in a group.
4.2.3. Operating times
The study revealed that parents left their children in the facilities for longer hours than is usually agreed on at enrolment. This situation also indicates that parents spend less quality time with their children, leaving them in the care of facilitators.
This situation is of course also created by the working conditions of some parents. Both children and parents miss out on invaluable time of being with each other. From the perspective of facilities, the results show that informal facilities are more flexible with time. Arrangements can be made in advance for extended care, be it after care or overnight care. Informal facilities offer the flexibility of providinq extended arrangements of child care. This offers working parents, for example, the opportunity to be at their work place without problems.
It also offers children the safety net of being cared for while parents are away.
The flexibility offered by the informal facilities needs to be acknowledged and taken into account in planning for child care and ECO.
4.2.4. Educational programmes
The results showed a difference in what children received based on the type of facility they attended. Category A informal facilities provide no planned programmes for the children they care for. They are not equipped to do such.
Children in these facilities miss out on the opportunity of being provided with quality programmes at the very beginning stages of their lives, the critical stage in child development. Nevertheless, Category A informal facilities provide a critical service by caring mostly for infants. Their work is, however, not generally recognized by any organization or State department.
Category B informal facilities and formal facilities do provide educational programmes. TREE provides support for the facilities to create their own educational programmes based on the courses they attend. TREE creates an opportunity for all facilitators from all the facilities that TREE visits. Support from TREE does not depend on whether the facility is registered or not. Facilitators also take their own initiative to attend more courses from other institutions to equip themselves and as such are able to provide programmes. However, the study shows that the quality of programmes is often dependant on different dynamics as there are no standard programmes.The motivation and creativity of the facilitators; the availabilityof resources; the training of facilitators are some of the dynamics. These factors have been demonstrated by the study to be unequal. It was not within the scope of this research to study those dynamics.
Government therefore needs to strengthen and support the initiatives of the facilitators. This could create standardized, quality ECO programmes for the facilities.
It is well documented that ECO provisioning in South Africa is under funded and as a result of this, access to quality services is limited (South African Law Commission 2001). The Education White Paper on ECO maintains that there is a general neglect of provision of ECO services and programmes to children from ...-.birff
fo--2 -years~fh-ejack of
se-iVrcesto CategorYA inform~lfacilities p~ i~t~ -to
theneglect of children from birth to 2 years, as these facilities specifically provide care particularly for this group of children.