KUALA LUMPUR: The government will tighten the screening process for babysitters hired at taska and daycare centres, says Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
The Women, Family, and Community Development Minister said the ministry’s Welfare Department will discuss with the Home Ministry and police to explore the proposal to make background checks mandatory for candidates to be hired as babysitters.
“The candidates as well as taska operators will be required to undergo a psychometric test, among others, as an indicator of their mental health and their interest in the occupation.
“This is to ensure that the candidates are compatible to handle children,” she told the Dewan Rakyat during Minister’s Question Time on Thursday (Oct 19).
Nancy said this in a reply to a question by Jimmy Puah (Pakatan Harapan-Tebrau) who asked the ministry to state the measures taken to reduce the rising number of child abuse cases and the assistance given for the victims.
Nancy said the ministry is also planning to improve the regulations and guidelines for closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at daycare centres.
“Installing CCTV has been made mandatory for taska operations. However, there are loopholes where the installation of the cameras and its operations have yet to be listed out in detail.
“For example, it is not mentioned the number of units that need to be installed, the datakeeping of the recordings and so on,” she added.
Among the measures that will be improved on the installation of the CCTVs at the daycares, Nancy said operators must ensure there are no blindspots for the surveillance cameras.
“Surveillance will be exempt private areas such as toilets and changing rooms.
“The operators must ensure that CCTV is functioning throughout the operation period even though there is only one child at the centre,” she said while adding that an enforcement team will monitor compliance through surprise visits when the guidelines are enforced.
Nancy said the ministry will also streamline the enforcement team under the newly established Child Development Department by the end of the year.
“We will rearrange the placement of officers in each district by placing those who will focus on carrying out monitoring tasks and enforcement actions specifically for childcare centres and taska only.
“The placement will involve 43 districts identified as areas at risk and we will implement it this year,” she said.
In efforts to reduce risk of child abuse at home, Nancy said it required a different form of approach as it involved various factors which were out of her ministerial powers.
She said the ministry is planning to implement awareness programmes as well as advocating for child protection and empower the community on the matter.
“In this matter, the ministry’s approach is to protect and help the victims by prioritising and placing victims in the care of their family members. For us, growing up in an institution centre is the last resort,” she said.
