Accessibility of daycare facilities and realisation of pedagogical objectives

The goal of the assessment

The main questions of the assessment were whether daycare facilities are physically accessible and whether they contribute to building a pedagogically effective learning environment corresponding to the needs of children in different stages of growth and development. The Helsinki City Strategy 2021–2025 states that the City will expand the number of locations offering early childhood education services, so they will be available closer to residential housing and popular commuter routes, thereby making the principle of a local daycare centre near every home a reality. According to the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care, the early childhood education and care environment must be instructive, promote learning, healthy and safe, taking into account the child's age, development and other preconditions. The Education Division and the Urban Environment Division are jointly responsible for allocating appropriate and sufficient facilities for early childhood education and engage in cooperation in the procedures concerning the facilities.

Conclusions

The City of Helsinki’s daycare facilities can easily be reached on foot or by public transport, and for the most part, they provide a good learning environment corresponding to the needs of children in different stages of growth and development. However, based on user experiences, some daycare centres lack the space for creating quiet spaces that would allow smaller groups to play, calm down and learn on their own, for example. The City adopted new facility design guidelines for early childhood education facilities in 2023, according to which buildings must also include small spaces that can be separated from other spaces. It will be a long time before daycare centre buildings complying with the new guidelines are completed, as facility projects take a long time. The parties responsible for maintenance, repairs, alteration work and property management are unclear for some users of daycare facilities, and guardians and staff have not always been informed of facility projects at a sufficiently early stage.