Unsanitary situations, use of incorrect professionals, a safety and health policy that inadequate and insufficient pedagogical coaching: daycare centers in Flevoland do not have everything in order. This is evident from an analysis of almost 300 inspection reports from GGD Flevoland by four master’s students from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU).
To monitor the quality of childcare, the GGD carries out unannounced inspections every year. The health service does this on behalf of municipalities. During an inspection, the supervisor looks at, among other things, ‘staff and groups’ and ‘safety and health’.
An analysis of the 272 inspection reports from 2023 shows that in the municipality of Urk alone, 17% of daycare centers had not properly registered their staff in the Childcare Register of Persons or that staff did not have a Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG). Both are mandatory.
Moreover, 27% of the daycare centers in the municipality of Lelystad score unsatisfactory on the ‘safety and health policy’. For example, staff do not know what to do in dangerous situations.
Unrated
It is not standard practice that all parts of daycare centers are examined every year. The domains in which the GGD inspects are divided into subcategories. Almost half (43.8%) of these categories within the domains ‘personnel and groups’ and ‘safety and health’ were found not to have been assessed during inspections in the past year.
That is on purpose, says Natascha Rol, supervisory manager at GGD Flevoland. According to her, this is due to the new flexible inspections. This involves working with supervisory profiles. That profile determines how an inspection is carried out.
A childcare center where previous inspections went without problems will receive a green profile. At this shelter, the GGD will check some aspects, and therefore not everything. The aspects that the GGD checks are alternated annually so that everything has been checked after three years.
“When the inspection came (..) the groups that were understaffed were assigned the right number of leaders”
Yellow, orange or red profile
If the GGD has (mild) concerns, a shelter can be given a yellow, orange or even red profile. With a red profile, all aspects are checked. According to Rol, the switch to flexible supervision should ensure fairer inspections.
But according to six (former) employees who want to share their stories, the inspection reports are not a good representation of reality. Following an article by the AD in 2023 and the analysis of the reports, the VU students spoke with various employees, former employees and parents whose children go to daycare.
The situation is much grimmer than the GGD shows, according to the (former) employees. “When the inspection came, they quickly called the office upstairs and the groups that were understaffed were assigned the right number of teachers,” says a former employee of a childcare center in Almere.
Snapshot
Rol confirms that this form of manipulation does indeed occur, but that it is difficult to see during inspections. “You actually have to catch them red-handed. If it is not wrong at that moment, you cannot enforce it.” She emphasizes that an inspection is only a snapshot.
“It has to be just the right time. It can be good for 364 days and then not that one day, or the other way around.” This makes guaranteeing the quality of childcare more difficult, according to Rol.
However, childcare centers can make a reasonable estimate of when the GGD will be on their doorstep, says an employee: “For example, if they have been to one childcare location, you are almost certain that they will also visit the other locations within six weeks.”
Unqualified personnel
According to the employees, when the GGD arrives for an inspection, a colleague with the correct qualifications is quickly called in to stand in front of a group, but unqualified personnel are regularly used.
Against the rules, interns end up on the work floor as regular employees. “Daycare centers never let the outside world know that they employ staff who do not yet have a diploma. But it happens everywhere,” says an employee who has been working in the sector for eighteen years.
“I went through six tours before I found the right childcare
Parental concerns
Parents also express their concerns. “My youngest came home with a blue nose and they don’t know what happened or how it happened, because my child did not come to them on their own for comfort,” says Kelly Kalenkamp about a shelter in the Noordoostpolder.
After several incidents, Kalenkamp withdrew her children from daycare. Other parents also face a challenge in finding the right childcare. “I went through six tours before I found the right childcare,” says one parent despondently.
At every childcare center she visited, things were not in order. From grandmothers who were on the group due to staff shortages, to eating junk food for lunch.
Two years on waiting list
According to the Association of Parents in Childcare (Boink), the waiting lists at childcare are extremely long. “With us you have to be on the waiting list for at least two years,” reports a childcare employee.
If you as a parent are not satisfied with the childcare, it is almost impossible to switch daycare centers due to the long lists.
Jobs galore
The quality of care and the safety of the children appear to suffer from the staff shortage. Since 2015, the number of employees in childcare has continued to grow. A number that is expected to increase over the next ten years, according to the Labor Market Care and Welfare (AZW) research program.
Yet the number of vacancies remains higher. This makes it difficult for employers to find suitable staff. As long as the staff shortage persists, it will likely be a challenge to guarantee the quality of daycare centers, the VU students conclude in their research.
This article was written by Rachel Barten, Doutsje de Boer, Tessa van Groeningen & Maya Luz Hartog. Master students from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Tags: Omroep Flevoland News daycare centers affairs order inspection reports
-
