Skin cancer: do early childcare centres provide protection?

Increasing skin cancer rates highlight the need to reduce the amount of solar exposure of young children. Children in early childcare are one potential target group for improved sun protection policy and practice. Solar protection policies and practices in 51 randomly selected early childcare centres in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia were examined. Only 18% of centres had written policies and 36% of centres unwritten policies, predominantly hat and sunscreen policies. The sun protection practices of 306 children across the 51 centres was also examined. The adoption of specific policies by the centre was not associated with increased protection of children within that centre. The need for effective implementation and maintenance strategies is highlighted.