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For several years now, educationalist Pauline Slot has been researching the quality of childcare in the Netherlands, together with the . The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment recently informed her that she, her colleagues from Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ and the research and consultancy agency can continue this research over the coming years. The new project has been awarded a grant of EUR 2.7 million.

This extension will enable the researchers to continue working with the entire childcare sector for the coming years to monitor and improve the quality of Dutch childcare. Slot: ‘The method we will use to measure the quality of childcare, pre-school care, after-school care and childminder services is largely identical to that used in previous years to enable us to identify any multi-year trends in terms of quality. There will also be new themes. For example, extra attention will be paid to equality of opportunity, inclusion and diversity, cooperation with parents, and cooperation with education and care staff. There is also more focus on broad talent development in after-school care and what this could mean for equality of opportunity.’

Right to free childcare

By researching the quality of childcare in general and this National Childcare Quality Monitor project in particular, Slot and her colleagues are contributing to important and political discussions. Slot: ‘Such as the discussion on introducing free childcare, for example.’ The Social and Economic Council (SER) recently advised the government and chair Mariëtte Hamer  on this issue. The SER advocates two days of free childcare for every child, basing their recommendation strongly on the LKK study. Free childcare can counteract inequality of opportunity among children, but the quality must then be high. Slot: ‘Especially in terms of educational quality in childcare, i.e. the promotion of children's development of language and thought, much remains to be done.’

Market forces and entrepreneurship can boost quality.

Towards a social market

An important point of discussion is whether childcare should be transformed into a public service like education, or remain a free market with commercial and social entrepreneurs. Slot: ‘Using data from the National Childcare Quality Monitor, we studied the dynamics of the hybrid childcare market and saw that market forces and entrepreneurship can boost quality and also provide higher quality services to children who benefit most from that. It would require a new form of government control in which clear social goals are set for the sector and entrepreneurs start to focus on those social goals.’ Recently, a National Childcare Quality Monitor report on this subject, advising the creation of a 'social market', was sent to the House of Representatives together with a remarkably positive recommendation from outgoing Minister Koolmees.

On average the quality of childcare in Denmark and Norway is more likely to be lower than in in the Netherlands, rather than higher.

The Netherlands vs Scandinavia

Slot, who is a part-time lecturer at Aarhus ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ for childcare research in Denmark, says that Scandinavia is often seen as a shining example of how things should be done in the Netherlands. Childcare there functions as a public system with ample public funding and few commercial providers. Comparative research, however, shows that on average the quality of childcare in Denmark and Norway is more likely to be lower than in in the Netherlands, rather than higher, and in terms of educational quality it is clearly lower. Slot adds: ‘And, very importantly, in the Netherlands we generally provide higher quality for those children who benefit most from it, whereas in Denmark you see the exact opposite: there, the more children at risk of disadvantage or with special support needs there are in a group, the lower the quality of childcare.’

Within the National Childcare Quality Monitor, Slot and her colleagues perform quality measurements every year in representative samples of childcare groups in day care, pre-school care, after-school care and childminding services. This includes observations of group interaction processes, as well as interviews and surveys with educational staff and managers.