Childcare day-to-day rethought: focus on parents

What is a ‚good‘ daycare center from the parents‘ point of view? This is the perspective taken by the Bertelsmann study “KiTa Quality from the Parents‘ Perspective”, which was published in spring 2021. In 12 group discussions, 71 mothers and fathers of daycare children were out of 10 institutions asked what a ‚good‘ daycare center is for them. "The aim was to work out similarities and differences in the quality conceptions of the very diverse parenting, in order to be able to design cooperation with them in a more needs-oriented manner through new, in-depth insights into the parents‘ perspectives", write the authors of the study. A central finding across all parents was: "If parents experience their child’s daycare center as an opaque ‚black box‘, this can not only lead to uncertainty and a lack of interaction, but also to mistrust and thus to breaking off relationships." According to the study the premise: "The more ‚foreign‘ the (educational) milieu of the daycare center is for parents, the more insight is necessary in order to gain their trust."

Globegarden, the leading provider of childcare in Switzerland, has evaluated the participation of parents in day-to-day childcare in line with the results of the study. “We pay great attention to continuous exchange and communication with the parents. In addition to daily reports, development portfolios, annual parent-teacher discussions, conversations between door and hinge in the evening, there is a monthly newsletter with photos from the day care center,” says Silke Bührmann, Director of Education. “We call that “making education visible”.” Globegarden also has a dedicated department with family consultants and parents‘ corners in many centers to exchange ideas with one another. By means of regular series of events, interested parents have the opportunity to find out more about educational topics in addition to the everyday offerings. The globegarden family portal also has interesting blog posts on the subject of education and daycare.

The key for Globegarden is to incorporate the experiences and wishes of working mothers into the concept. “Our company employs 95 percent women. Many of them work and have children. We work out all educational concepts and developments in our daycare centers with specialist groups in which a correspondingly large number of working mothers with children in daycare work,” says Galla Stambuk, Head of Family Service, who has two children herself. "In our eyes, this is one of the secrets of our success."

Further information on the Bertelsmann study can be found at https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/fileadmin/files/BSt/Publikationen/GrauePublikationen/KiTa-Qualitaet_Perspektive_Eltern_Studie_web_01.pdf