Reply to submitter ”Let the children stay at home and avoid the pre-school” by Anna Brix Thomsen on the DN Review 25 april:

we and several of our friends placed children in preschools in Stockholm, we have been very disappointed. We have been met by anything other than the ”pre-school world-class” as the city of Stockholm refers to in the policy documents.

Many middagssamtal has been spent to ventilate feelings and questions. You should go down even more in the hours of work? Why do I have to weigh my working life and my future pension to my children’s well-being? How little can I work?

not All of us can opt out of the preschool and be home for a long time with their children, mainly for economic reasons. Likewise, not all choose a good kindergarten, then the quality is so variable that the sites on the better of the preschools is not enough.

on the deterioration of working conditions and the situation of children within the nursery have it since a couple of years there has been a powerful organisation of staff within the nursery. It goes under the name of ”Förskoleupproret”. Even parents have joined and formed a private påverkansgrupp.

In its petition, lift staff and parents, highlighting different requirements for the pre-school should be able to live up to its mission and to create a good environment for children and staff. In this way, the pre-school could become a more attractive place to work. The downward spiral of sick leave and employees who leave the profession would be broken.

Unfortunately, the reactions from politicians and journalists to cool. The pre-school was not considered as a priority ahead of parliamentary elections in the last year.

to engage ourselves politically in order to try to contribute to a change. Mainly there are small children in need of protection and care that touches us.

You should not need to leave a small child crying to staff who do not have the ability to meet all children’s needs, due to the large groups of children and staff shortages. You will no longer have to go to work with aching heart and feelings of guilt.

It is up to the politicians to address the issue, to give priority to this important välfärdsinstitution and not turn a blind eye for the children as well as personals difficult everyday life.

Agency guidelines for the size of the groups of children in the nursery are then in 2016 they aged 1-3 years should consist of 6-12 children. For groups with four – and five-year-olds is the benchmark 9-15 children. These guidelines are not in practice.

It involves a problems of health and safety for staff, with large groups of children may find it difficult to provide adequate care and education. There are now governmental funds to seek to reduce children’s groups, but this is not enough. All kindergartens need to get assigned enough resources.

In a survey carried out by the teachers ‘ association 2017, pre-primary teachers responded to the question about which are the greatest problems they face in their professional role. The responses show clearly that the workload and working time are the most prominent factors.

70 per cent of pre-school teachers state that large groups of children is the biggest problem. According to a study from the Malmö university also found that preschool teachers and instructors are over-represented in the Agency’s statistics on sickness absence among personnel in the kontaktyrken. The risk for this group to suffer a long-term sick leave has increased significantly in recent years.

the figures, referenced by the Swedish Radio symphony Ekoredaktion, which showed that the turnover of staff in the pre-school is increasing, especially in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Children and ungdomspsykologer indicate that a too high turnover of staff can be directly harmful for the children.

the Union of municipalities shows a negative development with the two processes occurring in parallel: work on the nursery becomes genomfartsyrken with short-term employment, and the proportion of trained personnel is declining. On the basis of established knowledge about the connection problem, you should look seriously at the problem.

Children need to bond to safeguard the adult to develop into a harmonious and emotionally well-functioning individuals. When children from one year of age are at the pre-school the largest part of their waking time is their need anknytningspersoner at the preschool thus very large.

the city lists in its latest report indicators for the objective that all children should have a good and equal development conditions. Significant is to reach a high proportion of competent preschool teachers, as well as the proportion of pre-school children per employee. In the evaluation between the years 2014-2016 is no obvious positive trend for the city of Stockholm.

the Swedish research council notes that an equal access to quality ecec can improve children’s health from a shorter as well as a longer-term perspective, and promote later school performance, and discourage behavioral problems. A preschool that is not equivalent, however, may reinforce inequalities.

the Swedish schools Inspectorate has analysed the pre-school quality and effectiveness. The conclusions are that children are not provided with equal conditions and opportunities at all preschools. In order to achieve good and equal health, it is important that the nursery carries on an equivalent business that emanates from the needs of the children.

the health inequalities highlighted the pre-school emerged as an important arena. The commission for equity in health mean that the pre-school has a key role in the long term, creating more equal conditions for health, but the ability to compensate for differences between children with different conditions and needs must be strengthened. In its final report (SOU 2017:47) writes the commission is that they see a need for measures to strengthen the quality and, in particular, the variation in the quality of the kindergartens.

Research has shown that it is the quality of interactions between ecec educators and children that have the greatest significance for children’s learning and development in the short and the long term (see, for example, Barnett and Belfield 2006 and Sammons et al. 2004). Staff training and competence and, not least, the proportion of competent pre-school teacher, is one of the most important prerequisites for the pre-school shall be equal and of good quality.

We find that there are major shortcomings in transparency and valuable information when it comes to how well a pre-school lives up to its mission, including the basic legal requirements about the child’s safety and the right to good care and development. Anna Ambrose, phd in child and youth studies, pointing to significant shortcomings in the current system of evaluation and considers that the statistical reporting as a basis for the choice of school and preschool is to say the least arbitrary.

action from the politicians when it comes to the situation in the kindergarten. It is not up to the already hard-working staff to resolve this at the micro level. I invite to discussion and higher ambitions regarding the pre-school, with a clear action plan that includes the necessary economic priorities.