Multi-ethnic childcare model offered

A report published last week, Developing Diverse, Sustainable Approaches to Childcare: Multi-ethnic Pre-school Lessons from Sweden, looked at the role social enterprise models have played in meeting the specific childcare needs of various immigrant groups in Stockholm and concluded that similar models could help plug childcare gaps in the UK.

The findings were based on a visit to three community pre-schools in Sweden. Two were worker co-operatives, owned and run by staff, which charged parents fees, and the third was a pre-school for refugee children run in association with Sweden's Department of Immigration, which provided services for free.

Methods used to address cultural and religious needs included involving parents. In one co-operative, the children's parents took part in the delivery of after-school and lunchtime activities, including a 'World Buffet' programme, where they acted as international chefs of the month to provide food from their own cultures at lunchtimes. This helped keep the pre-school's costs down and was seen as providing an important social network for parents who were new to the country, while teaching children the value of cultural diversity.