Practical
examples - Equal Opportunities
Creating New Forms of Childcare
Queuing for childcare places is a common phenomenon in Estonia. The care
facilities for toddlers in no way meet the current demand, and the provision is
not flexible enough to satisfy the needs of mothers who mostly work full-time
and have to juggle their work with their family responsibilities. The
Development Partnership (DP) "Children Taken Care of, Mothers at Work" does
exactly what its name says: it creates new, alternative childcare services to
enable young mothers to participate in the labour market.
The missing link in childcare – a policy priority
According to national statistics, less than 50 percent of all one to four year
olds attend pre-school crèches or playgroups. For the larger part of this age
group - more than 33.000 children - it is up to their parents to find a solution
and this often turns out to be an arrangement in the grey market. In addition to
the public kindergartens that provide high quality care and pre-school education
for kids between four and six years of age, most Estonian parents would like to
see alternative provision with flexible opening hours for their younger
offspring. Naturally, they would also like to have such provision in the
vicinity of their homes or workplaces. Parents also feel that "small kids need
small groups", and that there should not be more than six to eight children in a
unit, instead of the usual 15. However, to date, such services are extremely
scarce and if even where they exist most families cannot afford them.
Establishing this missing link in the Estonian childcare system is a top policy
priority. "The best ideas are those which help to solve several problems at
once, "says Paul-Eerik Rummo, Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs. He
believes that "by developing new flexible child care opportunities, we will
provide a supplementary incentive to the increase in births that is already
underway in Estonia. At the same time, we will improve the employment situation,
particularly for women, and alleviate the risks related to the lack of qualified
labour that threaten the country's economic competitiveness. Our policies will
create a new basis guaranteeing that families can cope financially and
emotionally."
EQUAL is expected to play a key role in the development of these policies. The
Ministry of Population and Ethnic Affairs, which is the lead partner of the DP,
has joined forces with the Perekasvatuse Instituut (Family Education Institute),
the only institution in the country with expertise in family education, and the
Pölva Union for Child Welfare, an NGO promoting the interests of mothers and
children. EQUAL funding is being used to develop and introduce needs-tailored
services, which can include playrooms in municipalities and so-called family day
care that is based either in the home of the carer or of the family. Unlike
kindergartens whose groups cater for children of the same age, family day care
is provided for mixed age groups, thus reflecting the pattern in families that
have several kids.
The building blocks of the new model
Preliminary surveys and research explored and compared family day care in the
European Union and also the viability of alternative forms of childcare in
Estonia. This initial phase was an important stepping stone for the DP and
helped to prepare the ground for the development and fine-tuning of the new
model.
Training and supporting a dedicated group of future providers of the new
services is at the heart of the DP's activities. Some 30 women received training
that was specifically designed for "family care". The scheme, which was
developed prior to the start of the project, is based on a Professional Standard
for Childminders , the first qualification established by Estonia's Professional
Council of Health and Social Work to concentrate on childcare. Qualification
requirements are defined on five levels in the Estonian professional
qualification system. Level I is the lowest and Level V the highest, but not all
professions require the specification of qualification levels from Level I to
Level V. The child minder standard includes level II and III and requires that
the care providers possess the knowledge and skills to:
- guarantee a physically and mentally safe environment for children;
- observe the daily schedule of the child prepared by parents considering the age
requirements of children;
- support the development of the child through daily activities (play, movement,
etc.);
- observe the personal hygiene of the child, instruct and help the child with this
if necessary;
- make sure that the child is fed, cooking for the child and helping her/him with
eating if necessary;
- observe the health of the child, to promote the child's health and to care for
sick children;
- communicate with the family, and develop the social contacts of the child.
The training reflects all these requirements in a highly practice-oriented way.
It is interesting to note that the standard also contains specific skills and
knowledge related to the needs of children with disabilities, as well as
additional competences to initiate the youngsters in computer literacy and
foreign languages.
The DP participants were the very first group to benefit from the new programme
and to gain the certificate. During the last three months of 2005, the women
completed the 160 hours of training, which was combined with work experience
placements. "More than one third of the EQUAL trainee group are kindergarten
teachers or hold higher education degrees, and all the women have experience in
working with children", reports Erika Vahtmäe, the Project Director, "it is an
excellent start for our initiative to involve so many highly qualified women."
She explains that the scheme takes account of a potential carer's formal and
non-formal qualifications, which means that future candidates will be free to
decide on how many units of the modular training they need to cover because if
they already possess a relevant qualification, they can go straight on to sit
the exam.
After this first step, the group was offered entrepreneurship training to enable
its members to set up in business or to become self-employed. The training was
underpinned by on-going individual counselling and this is continuing throughout
the current process of establishing the services. The support package includes
financial subsidies to renovate and furnish the location of their venture, and
also expertise and know-how to help the women deal with any legal or
administrative hurdles. Pille-Riin Moilanen is one of these business creators.
Like all her colleagues she greatly appreciates the support provided by EQUAL.
"Starting to offer the new services from within the EQUAL project has been very
useful, because all of us are much more visible for the public and can explain
better what family day care really is and what our goals are. The project team
has been very supportive throughout the training and examination time. Really,
our problems have been heard and solved."
In parallel to all these activities, the DP is preparing methodological
materials and tools for current and future family childcare providers.
Making small towns more family-friendly
In Estonia, the legal responsibility for providing childcare lies with the
municipalities. It is not always easy for the public authorities, in particular
those in small towns and villages in rural areas, to satisfy the demand of
parents. It is also not easy for parents in these areas to find services that
respond to their needs in terms of flexibility, quality and size of groups.
Sometimes they have to drive up to 40 kilometres every day to take their child
to a suitable childcare service. The DP has set itself the task of helping
parents and municipalities to remedy this situation.
The test bed is Pölva, a little town in the south - east of the country. It is
the home of Pölva Union, a very active NGO, which has been working and pushing
over the last few years for the creation of a playgroup for toddlers. The idea
was that the playgroup should be based in a building that belongs to the
municipality, which also houses other community services. However, senior
citizens represent the majority of the population. This has, of course, an
impact on the outcome of elections and so establishing and funding a playgroup
was not exactly a top political priority for the local council. It required a
lot of persistence, a number of convincing arguments and highly-developed
negotiation skills to bring the local policy makers on board and to get the
green light for the opening of the playgroup. The coordinator of the group,
Tiina Jurs, is quite proud of what has been already achieved: "Families living
outside of town are bringing their children to the playgroup while visiting
different public institutions or other places. Those parents find the playgroup
extremely useful. Also, parents whose smallest children are not yet going to
nursery school are coming to the playgroup, so that the kids get used to the
company of other children. And it also meets their childcare needs. "
All the lessons learned from the Pölva pilot case, from the first glimmer of the
idea to the opening of the playroom, are of crucial importance to the DP. These
experiences, both positive and negative, will help the EQUAL partners to develop
strategies, which have the potential to improve the social environment and to
create and facilitate partnership and cooperation between local authorities and
new childcare providers.
Ensuring sustainability and mainstreaming from early on
Even if the DP's aims and actions are perfectly in line with the family policy
of the National Government and thus, its potential for mainstreaming its
achievements is optimal, the partners still have to face a number of challenges
if they are to really transfer the new model into the regular childcare system
in Estonia.
One of those challenges is to raise the awareness of the public at large of the
dilemma of reconciliation that marks the daily reality of young parents, and
particularly the life of the mothers. Thus, the project activities are
accompanied by information and publicity activities that aim to engender a
culture that is supportive to children and families.
From its very beginning, the project has addressed different categories of key
players such as local politicians and authorities, ministries, government
agencies and national political decision-makers in an attempt to convince them
of the necessity and value of these additional childcare services. As the number
of concrete outcomes of the DP increases, it is expected that this mainstreaming
strategy will gain momentum and also make an important contribution to the new
legislation on social care that is about to be introduced into the National
Parliament by the
Minister of Social Affairs. This law will be essential to the
integration of alternative forms of childcare into the generous and
comprehensive
Estonian family policies and practices. These include parental
leave offering benefits to parents (mothers and/or fathers!) that match their
previous income over a period of 14 months, birth grants, childcare benefits,
family and single parent allowances, family holiday subsidies and various tax
credits - to name just the most important
family benefits. Adding
needs-tailored, high quality and flexible care services to this impressive
package would make a real difference to the daily lives of the youngest members
of society and of their parents.
A cross-border learning process
The "Children Taken Care of, Mothers at Work" DP is cooperating with three
transnational partners in
France,
Italy and the
United Kingdom. Under the name of
Primavera this Transnational Partnership (TP) has the aim of developing new
competencies, services and businesses in the care sector. In particular,
partners intend to exchange good practices related to the empowerment of those
target groups that might become carers by providing innovative guidance,
counselling, training, qualification, coaching and business creation paths.
Provoking an impact on gender, social and employment policies at local, national
and EU level is part of the common agenda, as is raising public awareness about
the importance of care services in the evolution of European societies and about
a new concept of Equal Opportunities through social communication and action.
This involves the joint production of audio-visuals materials and press
campaigns and also of printed reports assembling the outcomes of comparative
studies on innovative methodologies and training processes in the participating
countries.
Contact
Erika Vahtmäe
Office of the Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs
State Chancellery of the Republic of Estonia
Rahukohtu 3 15161 Tallinn – Estonia
Tel.: +372 693 5259 – Fax: +372 693 5254
E-mail: erika.vahtmae@riigikantselei.ee
Link to Equal database description:
EE-3
Professional
Council of Health and Social Work: Professional Standard Childminder II, III,
2005.
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