Infant care centre records and updates: what ECDA’s new partnership guide asks

A Straits Times opinion piece published on 16 September 2026 reported that the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) had recently launched a parent-preschool partnership guide, We Are Wonderful Partners!, and asked why such a guide is needed now. ECDA's own pages answer a narrower question. The guide sets out what parents and preschool educators can each do. Nothing on the ECDA pages we describe states that it applies to babies. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

So for a parent of a baby, two things are worth pulling apart. The communication habits ECDA describes are habits, not rules, and they work with any caregiver of your child. The written record trail — what is actually documented and handed to you — depends on which arrangement you use: an ECDA-licensed infant care centre, a childminder under the ECDA pilot, or a private nanny. ^[2]

What the guide says it is for

ECDA dates the launch of the guide to July 2026 and says it shares how operators and centre leaders can build strong parent-preschool partnerships. On its partnership page, ECDA says the guide helps parents and preschools work better together by setting out what parents and educators can each do, with practical tips, and it splits the material three ways: for parents, for educators, and for leaders and operators. Preschool is the frame throughout. No page states an infant-care equivalent of the guide. ^{[1] [2]}

The substance ECDA describes is ordinary rather than procedural. A Beanstalk feature on the guide notes that not every call signals a problem and that silence does not always mean smooth sailing, and says the most meaningful connections between educators and families are built not in moments of crisis but through consistent, everyday communication. ECDA describes the guide's purpose and its principles; it does not publish the guide's own steps on that page. ^[1]

Four habits you can use with any caregiver

ECDA's parent-facing guidance on building strong home-preschool connections is concrete. Inform your educator of your preferred mode of communication — in person, phone call or text messaging. Encourage updates on your child's progress, and be receptive to the feedback that comes with them. Discuss any concerns about learning, development and well-being, or areas that need more attention, so both sides are working from the same picture. ^[4]

A fourth habit is to share what your child has just done for the first time at home; ECDA says the educator can then create opportunities for appropriate support. An optional illustration, not an ECDA instruction: in your first week with a caregiver you might agree by text to send one short message each day, naming one thing your baby did well and one thing to watch. ECDA's expert explainer makes a related point — trust is accumulated through many small, consistent interactions, and parents know their child at home while educators know the same child elsewhere, so where behaviour differs both accounts are often valid. ^{[5] [4]}

What a licensed infant care centre holds in writing

An Infant Care Centre under a Class A licence caters to children aged 2 months to 18 months old, with a full-day programme from 7 am to 7 pm and infant care available 5 or 5½ days a week, excluding Sundays and gazetted public holidays. On meals, ECDA requires preschools to serve food that is nutritious, balanced and varied, and advises parents with dietary restrictions or food allergies to discuss these with the preschool. ^[6]

The documented trail sits in ECDA's Baseline Technology Requirements for a preschool management system. The mandatory modules include child personal particulars, including health information, and parent or guardian details, infant care routine care records management where applicable, and a parent communication module covering announcements by SMS, email or app, a media repository such as a child portfolio and highlights, and a parents' handbook. ECDA says timelines for operators to adopt these requirements would be shared in the second half of 2026, so ask a centre what it actually keeps. For curriculum, the Early Years Development Framework 2023 guides educators working with children from birth to three in centre-based childcare settings. ^{[7] [8]}

Home childminders and a private nanny

The ECDA Childminding Pilot for Infants runs three years, from 1 December 2024 to 31 December 2027, and is for Singapore Citizen infants aged 2 to 18 months who are not concurrently enrolled in ECDA-licensed infant care centres. Industry Standards co-developed with operators outline operators' and childminders' obligations and include provisions on service standards, the health and safety of infants, and communications with parents. A private nanny arrangement sits outside both the pilot and the licensed-centre framework. ^[9]

Practice varies within that framework. In one ECDA Beanstalk feature, Mr Nathaniel Liu said the childminders caring for his daughter kept a booklet of her milestones, meals and daily routines, and that the service provider planned to move those records into a mobile application offering real-time updates and photographs. That is one family's account, not a stated pilot requirement. So, directly: the guide asks for communication habits, and those habits transfer to a baby, while the written trail does not, because it depends on which arrangement you use. Ask any caregiver of your baby four questions: how will you tell me what today was like, how often, by which channel, and what do you write down. ^[10]

Sources

EduNanny Editorial · AI-assisted research and writing, reviewed by our automated editorial team. Sources checked 2026-10-10. Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration.