Staff shortages pressuring quality of childcare

Staff shortages in childcare are causing more and more mistakes and putting the quality under pressure, supervisor GGD GHOR Nederland told NOS. GGD inspectors are increasingly noticing things like cots that are not correctly closed, children left in outdoor beds in the sun too long, kids not getting their own food, or sometimes not getting their milk bottles.

“We see that in most cases, things are going well, but due to staff shortages, more locations are falling through the lower limit,” GGD GHOR Nederland director Ton Coenen told the broadcaster. He can’t say whether these mistakes are harming children. “But we have not drawn up the requirements the GGDs check for nothing. They must guarantee the safety and health of children. The risk of things going wrong is increasing.”

Parents are also receiving these signals, Gjalt Jellesma of parents in childcare group Boink said to the broadcaster. “From children who are not missed at the after-school care while they have gone home to cots that are not properly closed.”

Due to the staff shortages, the childcare sector relies heavily on substitutes and temporary workers. And that puts even more pressure on permanent employees. The kids know them and are more likely to turn to them with their needs, said Ppink, the organization for pedagogical professionals. “They actually don’t manage to offer a very high quality every day,” director Myrte van Gurp said. “Things will go wrong at some point. Our members are afraid that something might happen that could have been prevented. There is high absenteeism. People can’t handle it or say: I don’t know if I still want to be responsible for this.”

Minister Karien van Gennip of Social Affairs told NOS that children’s safety must always come first. “If you don’t have enough people to care for the children, the last resort is temporarily closing the daycare until you have enough people again. Nobody likes that. And at the same time, we have to ensure enough people want to work there, and we are working very hard on that.”