Prioritizing Children’s Safety at a Daycare

KUALA LUMPUR, 21 March 2019 -In the first half of 2018, close to 200 abuse cases involving children under the care of babysitters were reported causing parents to worry about their children’s safety. Negligence has been the main concern among parents when it comes to selecting a daycare centre or appointing a personal caregiver, we Malaysians commonly call ‘bibik’.

The debate does not only end at whether parents want to send their children to a daycare centre or a ‘bibik’ as the more affordable and safer alternative for childcare.  Parents are more concerned about the skills and experience of the caretaker in terms of childcare and child safety protocol.

Realizing the society’s need for a quick background checks, Verity Intelligence Sdn. Bhd., a leading background screening and verification company in Malaysia and Singapore, launches Verity Plus Online. This first of its kind service in Malaysia helps local consumers to quickly verify whether their potential suppliers or vendors are legit via a simple online system.

Founder Mark Leow developed the Verity Plus Online platform to help make Malaysia a better and safer place. “We regularly see reports in the media about Internet scams, identity thefts, children abuse at daycare centres and more recently, news about professionals with fake credentials. By launching VPO, we allow corporates and individuals to run background checks on people easily at an affordable rate starting from RM140,” he said.

The company that has been established in 2010 has served more than 500 clients and screened more than 100,000 individuals. Of this total number, 90% background screenings were done by employers to verify their future employees to provide a risk-free working environment.

This platform that is fully developed by Malaysians aims to assist mothers to check on the background daycare centres to ensure the safety of their children while being cared by babysitters. For this purpose, Verity Intelligence works closely with the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to verify the status of the daycare centre whether it is a registered premise that meets the standard requirements set by the ministry. As of June last year, there are more than 4,000 registered daycare centres across Malaysia.

The platform also helps SMEs to screen potential employers and for homeowners to verify the future tenants. These background checks include verifying a person’s identity, checking for criminality / integrity, checking for credit default, and information on past or ongoing civil litigations and other critical integrity checks.

With Verity Plus Online, individuals may also conduct self check regularly. As a job seeker, a background verification enhances one’s credibility as a potential employee. It is also important for individuals to assess their personal financial records in the events of the possibility of identity thefts. To give users peace of mind, Verity Plus Online complies to the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) and offers turnaround time for any reports from as soon as 1 to 5 business days.

For large corporate clients, Verity Intelligence (www.verityintel.com) is trusted by more than 800 companies in Malaysia and Singapore and offers customised background screening solutions to meet every company’s differing and intensive requirements.