Early childhood education at daycare centres

Always agree in advance with the daycare staff about the arrangements for picking up the child from daycare. If the child has more than one home, the staff will agree on the arrangements for picking up the child separately with the guardians.

The staff will assess the safety of the journey home based on the information available to them when the child is about to leave. This safety assessment takes into account factors such as the child’s age and skills, the ability of the person picking up the child to ensure the child’s safety, the length of the journey home, and any exceptional circumstances.

Contacting the guardians and contact details

It is important that your contact information is always up to date at the daycare centre or other care provider. If a child is not picked up from daycare by the time that has been agreed upon, the daycare centre will contact the guardians and the person who was supposed to pick up the child. If the daycare staff are unable to contact the guardians, they will try to reach the other persons permitted by agreement to pick up the child.

Your child will spend time outdoors in all types of weather at the daycare centre. In addition to weather-appropriate outdoor clothing, your child will need clothing and shoes to wear indoors. To avoid mix-ups and items going missing at daycare, please make sure to put a name tag on all your child's clothing and equipment. During the initial discussion held at the start of daycare, the staff will tell you what type of clothing your child will need.

The City of Helsinki is not liable for any damages to or loss of property. The daycare centre staff will take as good care of the children’s personal strollers, bicycles and toys as possible, but they cannot be kept in a locked or secure facility.

Meals and food education are important parts of a child’s early childhood education. High-quality, healthy and balanced meals and snacks promote children’s health and wellbeing. Mealtimes at the daycare centre covers two thirds of a child’s daily nourishment (in daytime daycare centres). We follow the Finnish Food Authority’s recommendations called Terveyttä ja iloa ruoasta (’Health and joy from food’) in the daycare centre meals.

The menus and guidelines for the food service providers are planned together with the service providers. There are four different food service providers for the city’s daycare centres: Palvelukeskus Helsinki, Compass Group, Palmia and Sodexo. 

Helsinki wants to offer nutritionally balanced and tasty food for children on special diets. We can arrange a special diet for your child for health-related or religious reasons. If your child has severe allergies to any foods or ingredients, you must provide the daycare centre with a medical certificate concerning a special diet.

The notification of a need for a special diet to the service provider is done together with the daycare centre manager. 

Browse the daycare centres’ and round-the-clock daycare centres’ menus

• Palvelukeskus Helsinki (Link leads to external service)
• Compass Group
  • Daycare centres(Link leads to external service)
  • Round-the-clock daycare centres(Link leads to external service)
• Palmia(Link leads to external service)

See also

• Instructions for special diet, pdf in Finnish: Erityisruokavalioita koskeva ohje, pdf (Link leads to external service)
• Mealtimes in early childhood education, bulletin for guardians, pdf in Finnish: Ruokailu varhaiskasvatuksessa, tiedote huoltajille, pdf (Link leads to external service)

After morning activities, spending time outdoors and eating a meal, the children will take a nap or listen to a story or music. Naptime routines at the daycare centre help the children calm down and rest. While some of the children need to take a nap, rest/storytime is enough for others. The daycare centre staff can tell you more about the naptime practices.

Please do not take your child to daycare if the child is ill. If a child falls ill during the day, the daycare staff will notify the guardian, who must pick up the child as soon as possible. If a child falls ill with severe symptoms, the daycare staff will take the child to the nearest health station or a hospital’s outpatient clinic. The guardian is responsible for the child’s further treatment.

The child can return to the daycare centre once the child is able to participate in the activities and there is no risk of infection.

If your child needs to take medication while in daycare, please provide the daycare staff with a doctor's written instructions on how to administer the medication. If necessary, the child’s guardians can discuss arrangements for the child’s medication (such as diabetes or asthma medication) with healthcare and early childhood education staff on a case-by-case basis.

A child with an acute illness can return to the daycare centre or family daycare while still taking medication, after a sufficient recovery period. The staff will administer the medication labelled with the child’s name to the child according to the doctor’s instructions on the right dosage. Daycare staff do not give homoeopathic products to children in daycare.

In the event of an accident, daycare staff will immediately administer first aid to the child and notify the guardians about the incident as soon as possible. If the accident leads to a need for further treatment, daycare staff will take the child either to the nearest health station, dental clinic or the Paediatric Emergency Department at New Children's Hospital, depending on the nature of the accident.

If the child requires aid devices after the accident, the unit supervisor and the guardians will assess the child’s ability to participate in the daycare centre’s activities together.

The City of Helsinki has taken out insurance on the children in early childhood education. The insurance company will cover any treatment costs arising from an accident, based on the fees charged for public healthcare. The insurance company will also cover the costs of a private service to which the patient is referred to by public healthcare services.

Neither the insurance policy nor the City of Helsinki will cover any loss of profits arising from the arrangement of home care for a child.

It is recommended that the child and guardian get to know the personnel, other children and activities at the daycare centre for at least one week before the beginning of early childhood education with extended hours. You should let the daycare know the schedule of your night shifts or studies that require the child's presence at the daycare as soon as possible, no later than at 16.00 on the Tuesday of the preceding week. If the child does not stay the night, you must pick up the child before the child's bedtime, no later than at 22.00. If your child is staying for the night, you should bring the child in no later than at 20.00. 

The child can stay in the round-the-clock daycare centre while the guardians are at work and while they sleep after a night shift. Care with extended hours is not available during your days off, holidays or on medical leave. On those occasions, the child can participate in early childhood education according to a separate agreement, within the opening hours of daytime early childhood education from Monday to Friday. The child must have at least eight days off per month. 

Your work shifts or study times can be subject to sudden, unforeseeable changes, and you may need to modify your need for care with extended hours. The change must be based on a shift change by the employer or study times determined by your education institution. You are required to provide proof of the change. You must also contact the daycare centre that provides childhood education with extended hours and find out if a sudden change can be made. If the change is not possible in the child’s own round-the-clock daycare centre, the personnel will try to find if another round-the-clock daycare centre for your child. Please note that sudden, unforeseeable needs for extended hours in early childhood education cannot always be fulfilled.

The child's need for early childhood education with extended hours is determined based on the work shifts or study times reported by the guardians living in the same household. When your child's need for early childhood education in evenings, at nights and weekends ends, decreases or is used less than reported, the child will be arranged a place in a regular daytime group, daycare centre or family daycare that is open between 6.15 and 17.30. If needed, substitute care in a location that is open in the evenings, at night and over weekends will still be arranged for the child. If the child moves to another city, the child’s right to early childhood education with extended hours in Helsinki will end on the day of the move or no later than two weeks from the day of the move. 

If the child has needed early childhood education with extended hours less than five times during the past three months, the child’s need for early childhood education with extended hours will be considered to have ended. For a period of three months, the child must need care during evenings, nights and weekends on more than 15 days.

Once it has been determined that your need for early childhood education with extended hours will end, you must submit a Transfer application in the Asti online service(Link leads to external service)to transfer the child to a regular daytime daycare centre or family daycare that operates between 6.15 and 17.30. Any transfer preferences will be subject to the same placement criteria as those of new applicants. The guardian has two weeks to submit the Transfer application. 

If possible, the child will be granted a place in the preferred daycare centre based on the criteria according to the regular admission criteria in early childhood education. If there is no room in the preferred daycare centre, your child will be granted a free place that is nearest to the child’s home address. If there are more applicants than places, the available places will be primarily granted to children whose siblings are in the same daycare centre. If the applicants start early childhood education on the same date and the sibling principle is fulfilled, the place will be offered to the child who lives closest to the unit in question according to the Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) Journey Planner.

If you reject the assigned place in the Asti online service, the child’s placement in early childhood education with extended hours will end. A previously submitted Transfer application will not remain valid. If your child still has a need for early childhood education, a new application should be submitted in the Asti online service. The child will not have a place in early childhood education until you have applied for and accepted a new place. The placement in early childhood education with extended hours will end two weeks after receiving the place, even if the place is not accepted.

The child will not have a place in early childhood education because the need for extended hours in early childhood education has ended. You must submit a Transfer application if the child still needs early childhood education with extended hours. The placement ends one month after the need has been determined to have ended. 

If the child is in early childhood education with extended hours and the family moves to another municipality within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen), the child’s right to extended hours in early childhood education in the previous municipality will continue as needed until the end of the spring or autumn term following the move, or until the beginning of their pre-primary education, at most.

This means that if the family moves during the spring, the child can continue in early childhood education with extended hours in the previous municipality until the end of the following autumn term. If the family moves in the autumn, the child can continue until the end of the spring term. 

If the child is already in pre-primary education, they can continue in the previous municipality until the end of the spring term if they want to.

If the family moves to a municipality outside the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, the child's right to early childhood education with extended hours in Helsinki ends immediately.