PRIMARY CAREGIVERS

1. PRIMARY CAREGIVERS In order to develop secure and nurturing relationships many child care services use primary caregivers within the children’s service for small groups of babies and focus on building strong and responsive secondary attachments between babies and caregivers.

2. The primary caregiver is usually responsible for most of the routine interactions with a small group of children

3. These primary care groups are established to provide consistency of care and continuity of care so the babies can feel secure and begin to build a sense of trust with the caregiver

4. Maximum one adult to four babies is recommended

5. A mixture of younger and older babies is recommended in each focus group so that one to one time can be individually scheduled. Take into account compatibility of parent, staff and child “a good match.” Compatilility of culture and values is a relevant characteristic.

6. The children should then stay with this primary caregiver while they are in the group

7. If children have additional needs these children should be distributed among caregivers • (Greenman, Stonehouse, Schweikert, 2009 p 155-156)