primetime 27-5-13 creche expose [read mod notes in post #4 and #434]

wolfpawnat

I am so scared for these children, give me 5 minutes alone with her! I am fit to kill her. PAINFULLY!!!!!!!! For the love of God, they are babies! My 4 year old is a handy eater. Swearing terribly at them, she is the scumiest of the scum! I am crying watching this.

How can that dozy bítch expect them to go to sleep if she screaming at them!! Those poor babies.

manster

"Cos they're all little bullies"

efb

What a nasty woman

hoodwinked

i am shocked, how anyone can watch that and let their child near those people :eek:

CookieMonster.x

I am still in school and I am absolutely appalled at this footage. It is just so cruel. Seeing her literally throwing the toddlers on the floor and throwing the blankets on them.. I am upset by this, I wonder how the poor parents are feeling.

wolfpawnat

She should be put to trial, that is assault and physical abuse.

Neyite

That was shocking to watch.

hoodwinked

what i don't get that room was bright, they had music blaring in the background even if it was twinkle twinkle, and babies that my daughters creche said should be in cots at that age on mattresses on the floor????

in her creche also, they have the camp beds in a dark silent room for the toddlers/montessori, with one member of staff in there at all times baby monitor in there too, a second member of staff, takes out the children as they wake, and leaves them with a third and fourth if the numbers need it, im shocked to see how different it was on that footage! :eek:

TextureLikeSun

Thats what struck me too -how could anyone sleep with that stupid music blaring,sunlight streaming in and stupid care givers roaring and shouting

Esoteric_

I don't have children, but I've studied Child Care and my sister has worked in Child Care for a good while, until she quit her job due to the way the children were being treated (and yes, she went to the HSE about it).

I'm fcuking horrified by what I saw. How in the name of all that is holy can an adult get away with THROWING a child onto a mat? That's absolutely sickening behaviour. Violence like that against an adult would end up in court, so I hope to god the parents of those children have that scumbag arrested and charged with assault.

I have to say, I always thought my sister exaggerated what went on in the creche she worked in (not one on the show, and not one I'll name, don't want boards getting into legal trouble), but now I know she wasn't.

Horrifying to think that people can behave like that and go unchecked. :mad: :mad:

Inquitus

The ECCE scheme is for children between 3-4 years of age, it also requires Fetac level 5 qualifications as a minimum, I don't see the correlation they try to make between the ECCE scheme and the disgraceful care levels we have seen tonight for kids uniformly below the age that qualifies for ECCE.

What we have seen here is an abject level of childcare for toddlers too young to be able to go home and tell their parents what has gone on, it is both sickening and disgusting, but has no relevance to the ECCE scheme as far as I can see.

2xj3hplqgsbkym

How is this not classed as abuse?
I have seen physical abuse, emotional abuse and verbal abuse in these clips.

Those "carers" should be arrested.

hoodwinked

i hate to say it but she makes a good point,

we make primary teachers do a minimum of a 4 year degree before letting them near 4 and 5 year olds,

where as anyone can do a 1 year FETAC and go work in a creche to make money for boozing on Saturday night.

if they were that dedicated to the career they should be glad to do 4 years of study before being left near a child. might weed out some of the not so dedicated quick fixers while keeping those dedicated to the career...

Emmyt

It is disgusting behaviour and lack of training is not an excuse. Any decent person does not treat a child in this way. While I agree these children are too young to report how they are treated I have seen and reported appalling behaviour towards afterschool children in one of the creches mentioned in the rte report.

implausible

Inquitus wrote: »

The ECCE scheme is for children between 3-4 years of age, it also requires Fetac level 5 qualifications as a minimum, I don't see the correlation they try to make between the ECCE scheme and the disgraceful care levels we have seen tonight for kids uniformly below the age that qualifies for ECCE.

What we have seen here is an abject level of childcare for toddlers too young to be able to go home and tell their parents what has gone on, it is both sickening and disgusting, but has no relevance to the ECCE scheme as far as I can see.

I noticed this too and was surprised at the figures they quoted for unqualified staff. I am involved in the FETAC Level 5 course and our students find it difficult to get employment. Most continue on to higher education to get a job!

lazygal

I don't think the chains in this can complain about context after what we've seen. I don't think I'd be happy to send my child into any of those branches, no matter what changes were made. How can any of the footage be explained away?

xzanti

I'm so upset after watching that.. I actually would do time for one particular women in that!!! in the Links place! What a weapon! :mad:

How can these people sleep at night knowing the upset they have caused these poor innocent, helpless little people.. This is their first experience of the school system for God's sake!

Great start for them

pippip

My son goes to one of the other links crèches. My wife and I found that horrific to watch, both of us wanted to turn off but couldn't for the sake of our son.

We have him in crèche as we have no other choice financially. Why I can only trust the crèche he's in, there will always be doubt now over his time there so far.

What I'm feeling now is that he is safer in this crèche that has had its name highlighted than another crèche that slipped under this report which has no need to alter anything.

Already links are consulting with their IT department to allow parents to log in to the CCTV and watch our childs room live. This will go far to ease my mind and I see it as the ultimate way of ensuring staff behave and adhere to nearly all the issues brought up on prime time.

Needless to say my wife and I will be having a very sleepless night. Agree with all above and really hope assault charges are brought.

hoodwinked

Just have to remember for each of those monsters on Primetime, there are hundreds of qualified childcare carers who'd give their life for your child, and who treat them with the love and respect you as a parent would want, there are creche's who everyday give their all to our children, lets not get caught up by the few bad apples.

to all those valuable people who care properly for our children, Thank you.

implausible

I've amazed myself by how how upset I am about this.

I know that créche workers are hugely underpaid and the job is really stressful, but why was management not checking on them? They should have been terrified to take out a phone, keep a child in a chair like that or hold babies' heads down. I know there is a mountain of paperwork and admin and that they are businesses trying to make a profit, but the primary concern of any créche should be child care. The HSE needs to be adequately funded to make the prospect of inspection inevitable.

gabrielIT

It is statistically plausible that if three out of four or five inspected under cover by rte showed such a level of breach of fundamental hse regulations the rest the same chains would be as critical as the ones aired on tv.

implausible

gabrielIT wrote: »

It is statistically plausible that if three out of four or five inspected under cover by rte showed such a level of breach of fundamental hse regulations the rest the same chains would be as critical as the ones aired on tv.

But, were the créches not chosen based on complaints already made?

Trotter

Ask ourselves what kind of place we're in here. We speak of the primary teachers who train for 4 years on top of a foundation of wanting to spend their career caring for children. What do we do for them? We rip them to shreds in the media, on message boards etc.. we call them cosy, lazy, holiday motivated..

How about we start putting the jobs where people care for children up there with the most important in the country. Lets hire the best of the best to do it. Lets not pay them beans. Lets trust the selection and training process so that we know solid, educated, trained people who care end up teaching and caring for our kids.

Primetime disgusted me. Sickened me. I work with children every day. I am that primary teacher and I want to know that my own two children are cared for by people in these services. Some of the people are the wrong people to be left near a child, nevermind care for them.

Lets not kid ourselves though.. in Ireland, the attitude to people who care for our kids is often based on acceptance of the lowest bidder doing the work, and slicing and dicing the ones who demand a decent wage for putting their heart, soul and extensive training into their career.

Lets invest in the people that want to care for these young little people instead of throwing minimum wage at whoever will take it!!

paul71

Something that was omitted from the program was the fact that Girraffe was prosecuted last year for breaching staff ratios but that the court did not convict them. It is difficult to understand how we can expect the HSE to implement existing statutory standards when our court system will not support them.

I mention Giraff because court records are in the public domain, but from personal knowledge I know that the inspection that led to the attempted prosecution was as a result of anomymous complaints made by staff members who no longer work there. In fact many complaints about cheches made to the HSE come from staff members who feel overwhelmed by blatant and continuous staff ratio breaches and the stress that creates for the staff in these chains.

nesf

implausible wrote: »

I've amazed myself by how how upset I am about this.

I know that créche workers are hugely underpaid and the job is really stressful, but why was management not checking on them? They should have been terrified to take out a phone, keep a child in a chair like that or hold babies' heads down. I know there is a mountain of paperwork and admin and that they are businesses trying to make a profit, but the primary concern of any créche should be child care. The HSE needs to be adequately funded to make the prospect of inspection inevitable.

There's a serious disconnect between the amounts parents can reasonably pay per child and the required ratios for adults to young children. It would not be possible without serious Government subsiding to pay people working with under-2s decent wages. Low wages combined with high stress is a recipe for poor performance.

Nordieboy

trotter I think you must be reading another thread there abusing teachers. This is just on the creches and program no reference to primary teachers. Get off the political bandwagon.

implausible

€9- €12/hr is not an adequate wage for someone who is caring for and educating your child. It is not a wage that tells you that your work is valued and important.

Apart from the abuse shown on this programme, what came across strongly to me was the apathy of the workers. The ones featured were demotivated and disengaged to the point of forgetting that the people in their care were individual little human beings.

This and the profit-making impulse of their employers are not conducive to a good environment for child or worker.

I feel desperately sorry for the parents whose children were in the créches featured and for all the fantastic childcare workers out there who give their all and who may face questions and suspicion tomorrow.

Trotter

Nordieboy wrote: »

trotter I think you must be reading another thread there abusing teachers. This is just on the creches and program no reference to primary teachers. Get off the political bandwagon.

Im sorry if it came across that way. It wasnt how it was meant. The gist of what Im saying is we're all calling for well trained carers to be put in place.. yet the well trained carers are slated every day in the media. The whole idea should be to try and hire people who want to care for kids, but who have achieved a high level of training to add to that caring foundation. The status of the job of caring for a child has to be given more respect in this country and those people that fail to care for them properly shouldn't be allowed to stay in the job. Thats all I'm after. I'm posting here as a parent.. an absolutely disgusted parent.

Nordieboy

Where do you start after that? Thank God Belarmine wasn't the worst, that's as little positive I could take from it. Serious questions must be asked of providers, inspectors and of anyone and everyone associated with the childcare industry.
Ok, my child is no longer in Giraffe, but what about the other facilities?
Too often there came across a 'this is how things are done' attitude. At least once the reporter was asked if she had worked at other creches, as if its what everyone does.
I respect the decent people working in childcare.

Ambersky

I think you made a valid point there Trotter as a parent and as a professional who looks after young children , making the link between how professionals who care for young children are undervalued at pre school age and that this undervaluing coupled with high expectation continues on to primary school level.
The children are not the only ones being told to go back to their place when they stick their heads up and complain.

Trotter said
Lets invest in the people that want to care for these young little people instead of throwing minimum wage at whoever will take it!!

Radical stuff there.