Early childhood education at daycare centre

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.

Applying for reimbursement

The Insured guardian can apply for reimbursement for the paid medical costs by filling out an electronic claim form (available in Finnish and Swedish)(Link leads to external service). Include your insurance number and processing ID (‘käsittelytunnus’) which you have received in advance by SMS or email in the claim form. The electronic reimbursement application is signed by using your Finnish online banking credentials. Apply for reimbursement within one year of paying the medical costs. You can apply for reimbursement of paid expenses only.

You do not need to send the original receipts to the insurance company Fennia. Instead, Fennia will ask you to send them if necessary. Original receipts must be kept for one year after the costs have been incurred.

Fennia’s personal injury unit’s customer service is available Mon–Tue 9–17 and Wed–Fri 9–16 on +358 10 503 5051. 

We recommend that you and your child get to know the personnel, other children and activities at the daycare centre for at least one week before starting early childhood education with extended hours.  

Let the daycare centre know your work shifts or study schedules during which your child needs care as soon as possible and no later than by 16.00 on the Tuesday of the preceding week. If your child will not be staying overnight, you need to pick them up before their bedtime, by 22.00 at the latest. If your child will be staying overnight, you should drop them off by 20.00 at the latest.  

The child can stay at the round-the-clock daycare centre while the parents or guardians are at work and while they sleep after a night shift.  

The child must have at least eight days off per month. 

We do not provide early childhood education with extended hours on the parents’ or guardians’ days off, holidays or sick leave. On such days, the child may attend early childhood education by separate agreement from Monday to Friday during daytime hours.

If your family has multiple children in early childhood education with extended hours and one of them is sick, the healthy children may participate in early childhood education with extended hours if you need it because of your work. In this case, you may have arranged a caregiver for the sick child at home, or the sick child may be old enough to be home alone. If the parent or guardian is at home with the sick child, the healthy children may attend early childhood education only during daytime hours from Monday to Friday.

If your work shifts or study times change suddenly, and you need to modify the your child's care hours, let the round-the-clock daycare centre know immediately. The staff will let you know whether it is possible to change the child’s care hours. You will also need to give a written proof of the change from your employer or school to the round-the-clock daycare centre.

If the change is not possible in the child’s own round-the-clock daycare centre, the staff will find out if the child can go to another round-the-clock or evening-time daycare centre.

Please not that sudden changes in the care hours cannot always be arranged.

A child can get a place in a round-the-clock daycare centre if:

• The need for extended hours is based on the work shifts or study commitments of parents and guardians living in the same household
• The child needs care in the evenings, at nights or at weekends for more than 15 days during a three-month period.

If the need for care with extended hours is less than 15 days during a three-month period, the need is considered to be non-existent or to have ended.

If your child’s need for early childhood education in the evenings, at night and at weekends ends or decreases or you use the services less than planned, we will provide your child with an early childhood education place in a day-time group operating between 6.15 am and 17.30. If needed, we will continue to arrange substitute care for the child in a daycare centre that is open in the evenings, at night and at weekends.

If the child moves to another municipality, the child’s right to care 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. This does not apply to a move within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen.

When it your need for care with extended hours ends, send a transfer application via the Edlevo e-service to transfer your child to a daytime daycare centre or family daycare that operates between 6.15 and 17.30. Send the transfer application within two weeks of the end of your need for extended hours care. All transfer applications will be subject to the same grounds for placement as new applicants.  

Where possible, we will grant your child a place in your preferred early childhood education unit. Please note the that:  

• If there is no room for your child in your preferred location, we will give your child the nearest available place according to your home address.
• If there are more applicants than places, we will give priority to children who have a sibling attending the same daycare centre.
• If the applicants have the same start date and they all have siblings in the same location, we will offer the available place to the child who lives closest to the location, based on walking distance or public transport connections. 

If you reject the place assigned to you in a round-the-clock daycare centre, your child will lose their place. Any previous transfer applications will also become invalid. If your child still needs a place in early childhood education, submit a new application via the Edlevo e-service.  

Please note that your child will not have a place in early childhood education until you have applied for a new place and accepted it. The place in care with extended hours will expire two weeks after you get a new place, even if you do not accept the new place

If you do not send a transfer application when your need for care with extended hours ends, your child will not have a place at all in early childhood education. If your child still needs a place or if the need for care with extended hours begins again, send a transfer application.  

Your child's place in early childhood education with extended hours in will expire one month after your child's need for shift care has ended.

If your family moves to another municipality within the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, your child can stay in their previous round-the-clock daycare centre until the end of the next autumn term or spring term, or up until the start of pre-primary education.  

Example cases:

• If your family moves in the spring, your child can continue in early childhood education in the previous municipality until the end of the following autumn term.  
• If your family moves in the autumn, your child can continue in early childhood education until the end of the following 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 cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, the child’s right to early childhood education with extended hours in Helsinki ends immediately.