Families give childcare an average score of eight out of ten | Interior

A total of 1,075 people living in Flanders participated in the Gezinsbond survey. They are all parents with children under the age of 18. Seventeen percent of them have children younger than 2.5 years. Of the parents surveyed with children younger than 2.5 years, 89 percent use childcare.

On average, they give the shelter an eight out of ten. They are therefore satisfied with the care of their baby or toddler. One in ten families with one or more babies or toddlers is dissatisfied. They give a score of less than seven out of ten. “We know that families cannot properly estimate the quality of childcare and sometimes rate it higher, because they are often already happy that they have a childcare place,” Gezinsbond qualifies the figures.

Gezinsbond points out that childcare should be good for every child, and also for the supervisors. That is why the association advocates an “ambitious and calculated future plan with short- and long-term objectives”. For example, the supervisor-child ratio must be reduced: to five children per supervisor and four if babies are involved.

In addition, the groups must be smaller, there must be better training requirements for the child care workers, they must also have child-free hours for further training and consultation and they must earn better, it sounds.

The survey was a baseline measurement. A new measurement will follow in September, in which the Gezinsbond will take a closer look at out-of-school and after-school care.