Poor neighbourhoods lose out on good child care Dutch authority warns

Public health service GGD is concerned about the quality of more than half of the nurseries, kindergartens and after-school cares in the Netherlands. They have problems ranging from security standards not being in order, not enough carers or serious complaints. Child care in poor neighborhoods are worse off than in the richer neighborhoods, the Volkskrant reports based on its own investigation into 3 thousand establisments.

In poor neighborhoods the GGD has "light" to "serious" concenrs about 2 out of 3 child care centers. In neighborhoods with higher income households, the GGD is concerned about little more than half of the cild care centers.

According to the newspaper, parents have a hard time finding out about the quality of child care centers. There are inspections and reports, but the results are very difficult to compare.