KUALA LUMPUR: Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri has revealed that as of May 31, a total of 506 unregistered child care centres have been identified and are currently under action by the Social Welfare Department (JKM).
She detailed the ministry's approach towards these unregistered centres, which included issuing warning notices and enforcement actions under the Child Care Centre Act 1984.
"From the investigation papers opened and completed, eight child care centres were seized, 17 were compounded, and two cases have been prosecuted in court between 2020 and March this year," she said.
She emphasised the ministry's commitment to addressing issues related to negligence, neglect, and abuse in child care centers.
"We take these issues very seriously and ensure that every child care centre is registered and monitored in accordance with the Act," she said in reply to a question from Datuk Idris Ahmad (PN-Bagan Serai).
Idris asked for the statistics on the number of child care centres that have been found as unregistered under the Department of Social Welfare (JKM) and the extent of the enforcement action that has been taken against these establishments.
Nancy emphasised that registered child care centres played a crucial role in upholding the quality and basic standards of services provided by both the premises and caregivers.
Moreover, she underscored that their registration significantly contributes to mitigating the risks of negligence and abuse against children.
Meanwhile, she acknowledged that some centres, despite meeting JKM's minimum operating standards, remained unregistered due to various challenges, particularly those related to local authority requirements, which vary across different areas.
"For childcare centres facing such situations, we take an approach to assist them by providing advisory services and implementing initiatives to facilitate their compliance with the requirements set by technical agencies such as the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia, the Health Department and the local authorities.
"This is done through the activation of One Stop Centres (OSC) at the state and district levels. Between September last year and May 31, a total of 189 child care centres have been successfully assisted," she said.