Parents satisfied with Tampere's early childhood education and care

The customer experience survey received a total of 2,699 responses (1,742 in 2022). The survey was conducted between 4 and 17 December 2023. 

Of the respondents, 84.8% gave a good or very good overall rating for the services, and on a scale of 1–5, the overall score was 4.2. Only 0.7% of the parents rated the services very poor.

The City listens with a keen ear

Parents were happy with the way the staff greets the children in the mornings. More than 90% of the respondents were happy with how their children's arrival at day-care and leaving for home were handled in early childhood education and care.

97% of the parents felt that there was enough play in early childhood education and care. Efforts have also been made to actively inform parents about the significance of play for the child's development. 82% of the parents said they were aware of the matter.

89% of the parents felt that their ideas and wishes were being heard. These could be expressed in various situations: daily when taking the children to day-care and picking them up, at parents' evenings, in other meetings, or through the eVaka system. Of these, discussions with staff, events arranged for the entire family, and parents' evenings were considered the most important.

88% of the respondents said that the staff had time to discuss the child's affairs with them. 
The parents were fairly well informed about how children's own ideas and wishes were taken into account in daily activities. Asking questions, discussions, and the recording of observations emerged as the main methods for this.

Safety, play and listening to the child considered important

The development of the child's early childhood education and care plan was also praised: 80% of the parents were satisfied with this. Compared to the previous survey, the respondents were now clearly happier with the discussions regarding the plan.

 According to the parents, safety was a key factor in a good day for the child in early childhood education and care. Taking the child's opinions into account and listening to them as well as play and exercise were also considered important. The parents also felt that emotional and interaction skills were being practised well. In providing feedback, the most popular methods were eVaka messages and discussions with staff.

Some issues were identified in the flow of information from day-care centres to families. For example, programmes against bullying have been prepared for all of the City's early childhood education and care units, but only 32% of the guardians who responded to the survey were aware of its existence.

Bullying is rare

80% of the families reported that their child had not been bullied, and only 9% reported that they knew that their child had bullied another child. The parents asked to be kept informed of any bullying cases and wished for determined intervention by staff. The parents also emphasised their wish to be informed if their own child took part in bullying.

In the open feedback part of the survey, the respondents expressed their wish for the families to be informed more. They also asked for Improvements to eVaka. Concerns were raised about the staff's coping at work, lack of resources, pay and the competence of substitutes. Small units were considered better than larger units. 

New customer families or families that had changed units responded to the service capacity survey

A survey measuring service capacity was conducted for early childhood education and care and pre-primary education customers between 24 November and 8 December 2023. The survey was directed at parents whose children had just started in early childhood education and care or pre-primary education or who had recently changed units. Parents of children in pre-primary education were included in the survey for the first time. 

The survey received 816 responses (294 in 2022). Of the respondents, 526 were early childhood education and care customers and 289 were parents of children in pre-primary education.
At the starting stage, 92% of the customers were satisfied with the service, information and guidance they received. The customers also felt that they had had enough time to get to know the new place. 94% of early childhood education and care customers and 91% of pre-primary education customers felt this way.

Information and guidance provided to parents at a good level

94 per cent of the early childhood education and care respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the level of service, information and guidance, and of pre-primary education respondents, 90 per cent. 

Parents most often searched for Information on the Tampere.fi website (65% of customers, 76% last year), but asking neighbours, friends or relatives is gaining popularity (29% of customers, 24% in the previous survey). 

In pre-primary education, 62% of the respondents had received information from their early childhood education and care unit and 51% had found information on the Tampere.fi website. 84% of early childhood education and care customers reported that they had found finding information easy, while the corresponding percentage in pre-primary education was 79%.

Good opening hours, effortless interaction

Most early childhood education and care units are open between 6 am and 6 pm. 98% of the respondents were happy with the opening hours.

11% of the respondents were not happy with their child's early childhood education and care unit. In most of these cases, there had been no vacancy for the child in the family's nearest unit. However, the figure has improved by 8 percentage points from last autumn. As many as 96% of respondents were satisfied with their pre-primary education placement. Eight out of ten customers felt that their interaction with early childhood education and care services was effortless.

The open answers given by early childhood education and care and pre-primary education customers were mainly positive. The guardians wished for improvements to the provision of information. Most of the responses gave praise to the place of early childhood education and care or pre-primary education. The staff was also praised.