Quality Concepts for Daily Child Care Services

Aim and Scope of Research

requirements for institutional child care services are undergoing a rapid processof change. On the one hand the number of employed women with children is increasing,on the other hand changes in family structures can be observed. The problematicalconditions and tendencies in society imply a raising need for individual support.
At the same time, the educational commission of care institutions (already officiallyestablished for a quite longer period of time) has gained more attention - notat last with the debates concerning the PISA-Study - and many parents demandhigh quality standards.
Facing these raising requirements, the question of the quality of achievementsgets increasingly significant: On the side of the public spending, only highpolitical attention can prevent that the subject 'quality of the daily childcare services' becomes a victim of
the widespread ruling obligations of savings.
What quality is and how it is put into practice, is by no means a trivial question,but requires a methodical approach. Furthermore the market power of the customersremains fiction, as long as they aren't sufficiently able to overlook the supplyand to evaluate its relevant quality dimensions.

Approach

Within the framework of a transparency study, a theoretical and empirical provenoutline about the state of the art in quality evaluation and quality managementfor day nurseries shall be established. This is to be put in concrete termsby means of analyses of national and international Best Practice - examplesand serves as a starting point for the elaboration of acting proposals. Theproject includes the following aspects:

• Basic principles and criteria of the quality discussion;
• Instruments of quality management for daily care institutions;
• Practical examples;
• Concepts of strategy for the realisation of quality aims.