By Ang Yiying

CHILDCARE centres here are a little ahead of the curve.

Since Friday, they have been telling parents that if their child has just returned from a H1N1-infected area with 'sustained community transmissions', he or she - ill or not - should be kept at home for seven days.

The 755 childcare centres here did this in response to an advisory by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports (MCYS), which licenses them.

This leave-of-absence guideline was laid down only yesterday by the Ministry of Education (MOE) for all kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, junior colleges and other institutions of higher learning.

It takes effect when the schools open on Monday, after the four-week-long midyear holidays.

Institutes of Technical Education, polytechnics and the universities are also implementing this guideline.

Since May, childcare centres have required parents to fill up travel declaration forms about whether they are taking their child out of the country.

At the time, only children who had household members on home quarantine orders were given the seven-day leave of absence.

Although this leave of absence has now been extended to include childcare centre children who have been to H1N1-infected areas, major operators say they are aware that the system will only be as strong as parents' willingness to be upfront about where they have taken their children on holiday.

To keep H1N1 out of their centres, some of these operators have instituted measures beyond those recommended by the MCYS.

These include cancelling communal meetings like assemblies, conducting temperature checks within the centres twice or even thrice a day, and barring parents from entering the premises.

Centres also call parents to remind them to fill up the travel declarations ahead of their departure; parents of children who are absent from school without reason also get calls so the centre can find out why. If necessary, the child is issued a leave of absence.

Childcare centres say they rely on rapport built up with the parents and play the 'social responsibility' card.

For instance, NTUC First Campus, which operates 43 My First Skool centres and 11 The Little Skool-House International centres for about 5,000 children in all, said it educates parents on the importance of the measures taken.

It said 'a few' of its pupils have been granted leave of absence after having visited H1N1-hit places.

Cherie Hearts Group International's senior vice-president of corporate development Imeelia Ismail said: 'Parents are also concerned about their own children and they understand that if they don't fully declare their travel details, it will have an impact on other parents.'

The parents of the pupils at its 48 childcare care centres have the contact numbers of the centre directors and can call in to report last-minute changes to travel plans.

Parents like the idea of these precautionary measures.

The MCYS advisory is no issue for IT officer Phyllis See, 37, who voluntarily quarantined herself and kept her two daughters from childcare for a week after returning from Melbourne this month.

Real estate agent Allan Sim, 46, whose six-year-old son Ethan attends a childcare centre, said the new measures were good since H1N1 was already spreading in the community.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.