50 mentors should help daycare centers reduce the number of children per supervisor | local

“Nine is too many.” This is the slogan with which childcare organizers have tried to explain to the Flemish government in recent years that something urgently must be done about the workload in this sector. Currently, each childcare worker at a daycare center is allowed to care for up to nine children at the same time. This is the highest percentage ever in all of Western Europe. In September, the Jambon government decided to address this issue. Starting Jan. 1, all daycare centers will have three years to reduce the number of children per supervisor. The goal is to achieve a ratio of one supervisor for every seven children as of the end of 2026.

This will require additional staff. The government believes it can solve this problem, among other things, by appointing logistics personnel. These are people who are not trained in childcare, but who will be allowed to work at the daycare center doing “logistical tasks” such as cleaning or food preparation. Employers may partially include these employees in calculating the ratio between the number of children and the number of professional supervisors.

In addition, they also want to help nurseries find more qualified childcare workers. Social Welfare Minister Hilda Krevecs (CD&V) relies on a network of fifty mentors. It will engage them to support employers in Brussels and Flanders. Mentors must, among other things, organize internships and develop programs for “workplace learning” (combination of work and study). In this way, it is hoped that people interested in working as childcare workers will be encouraged to actively move into the sector. Mentors will also be able to mentor logistics staff who wish to retrain over time to become qualified childcare workers. With 50 mentors, it is hoped they will be able to train around 750 people.