Child care in “permanent crisis” with staff shortages in the thousands

Childcare in the Netherlands is in a "permanent crisis situation" due to massive staff shortages, Emmaline Bijlsma of Brancheorganisatie Kinderopvang said to Trouw. The sector has thousands of vacancies and can simply not keep up with the demand, she said.

"This is a problem everywhere young families live, for example, in growth centers or new residential neighborhoods," Bijlsma said to the newspaper.

Brancheorganizatie Kinderopvang got the first reports of acute problems around Chrsitmas, Bijlsma said. Childcare organizations sometimes had to close or send groups home because there were not enough people to look after the children.

Bijlsma couldn't give exact figures but said she's getting enough reports to confidently say that this is happening regularly. "We are now more surprised when organizations say that they don't have to close groups."

Earlier this year, Kinderopvang werk! calculated that the sector would need 32,000 additional employees to meet the demand for childcare in the next five years. By 2031, the sector will need 50,000 extra employees.