Parent Rating System - CareforKids.com.au®

CareforKids.com.au
Parent Rating System

CareforKids.com.au will soon be launching an online quality rating system for parents allowing them to rate their child care service.

The system will enable parents to rate their service provider on a variety of criteria such as:

learning and development programs
facilities and environment
food preparation and nutrition
staff
health and safety
affordability
communication with parents
warmth and empathy towards children

The purpose of the rating system is to offer parents a valuable and reliable source of information about the experiences other families have had with child care services.

For child care service providers it offers an unprecedented opportunity to build your reputation as a great place for child care.

User reviews are becoming increasingly common online and more and more businesses provide opportunities for user reviews on their website.

Anyone who has used a website such as Yelp, Amazon, Trip Advisor or eBay to research and/or buy something will understand how helpful user reviews can be and this is what the CareforKids.com.au ratings system offers parents.

For child care service providers it provides unprecedented exposure to a wide audience of parents currently looking for child care. Positive comments will drive new parents to your service and ensure you keep vacancies to a minimum.

Remember CareforKids.com.au is here to support the Australian child care industry and the fabulous professionals who work within it and this is not an exercise in naming and shaming.

To ensure services are protected from unqualified negative comments we have put in place a number of safe guards:

Parent ratings do not go live straight away, CareforKids.com.au is notified that a rating has been made and the child care service also receives a copy.

Child care services have control - once a parent has submitted a rating child care providers who have supplied an email address receive a copy of the rating before it is published. The service provider can: respond to the parent; invite others to rate their service; flag the rating as suspect or inappropriate.

To ensure integrity, people wanting to use the rating system must have had a child attending the service they intend to rate in the last 12 months and must be a parent or legal guardian of the child.

Child care services also have the opportunity to respond to parents and thank them for or make comments on positive reviews. Forward looking services may also use the reviews to develop and improve on what they do.

Consider this: if you are in regular email contact with your parents you could send them a link through to our website encouraging them to make comments and rate your service. Services doing a great job will receive great comments and your reputation will build.

For parents our new rating system offers a forum for the discussion and resolution of issues. It provides a wealth of useful resources and tools on how to positively manage their relationship with child care services and links to the ACECQA website so parents can review government ratings when they become available.

Click here and select the Gold Star to have a look at the new system in operation and an example of how a parental scorecard might look.

Any comments on how the system looks and operates would be greatly appreciated. Please email your feedback to enquiries@careforkids.com.au