New Summer Early Childhood Education Reservation Policy Yields Significant Savings in Rauma
Uutinen
New Summer Early Childhood Education Reservation Policy Yields Significant Savings in Rauma
This year, the City of Rauma implemented a new policy for summer early childhood education reservations: reservations that are not canceled or are canceled too late will be charged half of the child’s monthly fee. The goal was to reduce unnecessary reservations, improve the planning of summer operations, and ensure sufficient staffing at facilities open during the summer. The policy reduced summer early childhood education staffing and meal costs by approximately 63,000 euros.
– With this change, we wanted to encourage guardians to report their children’s summer early childhood education needs as accurately as possible in advance. Thanks to these reports, we were able to better prepare for the number of children during the summer . Guardians were extensively informed about the change through the city’s various channels as well as at the facilities themselves, explains Pauliina Henriksson, Director of Early Childhood Education.
Better preparation made it possible to staff the facilities appropriately. Meals were also prepared in quantities that matched actual needs, which reduced food waste.
In July, 15 groups were open across three daycare centers, compared to 20 groups across four daycare centers in 2025. During July, there were a total of 41 fewer employees on the job than the previous year.
– We were able to better coordinate permanent staff vacations during the summer, and fewer substitutes were needed throughout the vacation season. There may also be some additional savings on substitute costs in August. The savings resulted from more precise reservation practices, not from reservation fees. There were fewer than 20 children with long-term, unannounced absences throughout the summer, says Henriksson.
Thanks to the successful pilot program, an event will be organized for the children during the current program year, and they will get to vote on the content themselves.
