GABORONE CITY COUNCIL DAY-CARE CENTRE BYE-LAWS
(under regulations 34 and 35)
(31st March, 1995)
ARRANGEMENT OF BYE-LAWS
BYE-LAW
1. Citation
2. Interpretation
3. Registration of day-care centres
4. Closure of day-care centres
5. Hours of operation
6. Age of admission
7. Premises
8. First aid requirements
9. Toilets
10. Classroom equipment
11. Outdoor play areas
12. Pets
13. Kitchens
14. Staff
15. Smoking prohibited
16. Responsibilities of owner
17. Powers of entry
18. Offences and penalties
S.I. 21, 1995.
These Bye-laws may be cited as the Gaborone City Council Day-Care Centre Bye-laws*.
*Originally made under the Township Act now repealed, these regulations have been continued under s 94(2) of the Local Government Act, 2013.
In these Bye-laws
“day-care centre” means a place for the supervision during the day of young children below normal school age and before they attend a normal school;
“infectious disease” includes diphtheria, cerebro-spinal meningitis, whooping cough, measles, mumps, German measles (rubella), chicken pox, scabies, ringworm of scalp or body, and typhoid fever.
3. Registration of day-care centres
(1) No person shall operate a day-care centre without the prior approval of, and registration by, the City Council.
(2) Any person intending to operate a day-care centre shall make application to the City Council therefor, on the appropriate form, giving details of the premises intended to be used for the centre, the names and qualifications of all the teachers and other assistants to be employed at the centre, and such other information with regard to the proposed centre as the Council may require.
(3) If the City Council is satisfied that the proposed centre meets all the requirements of these Bye-Laws and any other relevant legislation, it may, on payment of a fee of P100, register the centre, and issue to the applicant a registration certificate, valid until the 31st. December of the year of issue, but thereafter renewable from year to year, on payment of the annual fee of P10.
(4) The current registration certificate shall be displayed on the wall of the principal office of the centre.
4. Closure of day-care centres
The City Council may cancel the registration of, and require the closure of, any day-care centre that contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of these Bye-Laws with which it is its duty to comply.
A day-care centre shall not operate outside the hours between 7.00 am and 17.00 pm on week-days, except with the written approval of the City Council.
Children shall not be admitted to, or be allowed to remain at, a day-care centre, without the written permission of the City Council, if under the age of two and a half years or over the age of six years.
(1) Occupied residential houses shall not be used as day-care centres, and garages and verandahs shall not be used or extended as classrooms for day-care centres:
Provided that, with the written consent of the City Council, an occupied residential house may be permitted to be used as a day-care centre if the portion to be used for the centre can be adequately and satisfactorily separated from the portion used for residential purposes.
(2) Premises used for day-care centres shall be constructed in accordance with and from material permitted by the appropriate building regulations, floors shall be smooth and tiled or carpeted, and every classroom or rest room must be adequately lit and ventilated.
(3) The size of rooms to be used as classrooms shall directly relate to the number of children permitted to use them at any one time, so that for each child there shall be the equivalent of 1,5 square metres.
(4) In every day-care centre there shall be a room, equipped with a bed with mattress and clean linen, in which a sick child can rest and be isolated.
(5) Premises used for day-care centres shall be adequately and securely fenced in, and shall be adequately set back from busy roads or roads regularly used by heavy traffic.
In every day-care centre there shall be maintained, and readily accessible at all times, a first aid box or cupboard containing an adequate supply of dressings, bandages, sterilised cotton wool, adhesive plasters, disinfectant, safety pins, and a tourniquet.
(1) Every day-care centre shall be provided with separate toilets for staff and for children, which shall be well lit, well ventilated, and have adequate running water.
(2) Toilets for children shall be provided with standard junior toilets and wash hand basins, so that there shall be one toilet and one wash hand basin for every 15 children.
(3) Storage facilities for towels, face cloths and personal belongings of staff shall be separate from similar facilities for children.
(1) Every day-care centre shall, bearing in mind the number of children attending the centre, provide an adequate supply of equipment suitable for use in a day-care centre, such as reading material, picture books, blackboards, toys, paints, crayons, moulding clay, puzzles and beads.
(2) The City Council may require or approve additional, or alternative equipment to that referred to in sub-bye-law (1).
(1) Outdoor play areas shall be adequate in size, providing a minimum area equivalent to not less than 2 cubic metres for each child attending the day-care centre, shall have a flat, generally dry surface, with adequate shade.
(2) Outdoor play areas shall be provided with play equipment such as sand pits, swings, slides and climbing frames, to the satisfaction of the City Council, and adequate for the number of children attending the day-care centre.
Animals, whether pets or otherwise, shall not be permitted within any area used for the purposes of a day-care centre, without the written permission of the City Council.
(1) Where food is provided by a day-care centre, there shall be available in the kitchen adequate hot and cold water, adequate and hygienic storage space for food, adequate cutlery and crockery of a suitably hygienic type, and there shall be available for inspection a detailed menu of food provided, with a suitably balanced diet.
(2) Where food is brought into a day-care centre by the children there shall be provided suitable facilities for the storage and refrigeration of the food.
(1) A day-care centre shall have a minimum of two qualified teachers, and at all material times there shall be at least one such teacher on duty:
Provided that there shall always be at least one teacher on duty for every 30 children at the centre.
(2) Assistants may be employed to assist the qualified teachers to supervise and look after children at the centre.
(3) All staff employed at a day-care centre shall be medically examined, including being x-rayed, before taking up employment, and thereafter at six monthly intervals.
(4) All staff employed at a day-care centre shall at all times wear clean uniforms or clothing.
Smoking shall be prohibited anywhere within the area of a day-care centre, and a notice to this effect shall be displayed prominently at the entrance to the centre.
(1) The owner of a day-care centre shall ensure that at all times a high standard of maintenance and cleanliness is established and maintained within the centre.
(2) The owner of a day-care centre shall ensure that any child or member of the staff suffering from, or suspected to be suffering from, an infectious disease is immediately isolated from contact with other children or staff members.
(3) The owner of a day-care centre shall ensure that all children at the centre shall have a common resting period of not less than an hour each afternoon.
An officer of the City Council so authorised in writing by the Town Clerk may at any reasonable time enter a day-care centre for the purpose of inspection, and to ensure compliance with these Bye-Laws.
Any person who contravenes, or fails to comply with any of these Bye-Laws with which it is his duty to comply, and the owner of any day-care centre which operates in breach of the provisions of any of these Bye-Laws, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine of P200 and to imprisonment for three months.