Learning by Working

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LEARNING BY WORKING
First Exposure to Finnish Professional Life in Louhela Day Care Centre.

PLACEMENT REPORT

4th August 2009
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Practical placement report submitted by Sudip Joshi to:
Degree programme in social services (DSS C25)

DIACONIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
Järvenpääntie 640, 04400, JÄRVENPÄÄ

FINLAND

Sudip Joshi suedip@mail.com www.silcreation.org

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CONTENTS

1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………...3

2 Understanding the environment........... ...............................................3

2.1 Child Care Services in Finland

2.2 Working Skeleton of Day Care Centre

2.3 Interaction of Different Actors

3 Fragile Foundations……………………………………………………….10

4 Personal Professional Developments and Learning………………...13

5 Lists of Reference………………………………………………………….16


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1 Introduction

This report is written in account of the placement done in Louhela Settlementi
Kindergarten during week 16 to week 19. The report will thoroughly discuss the
placement environment, a case study during the work, personal and professional
development which will also be followed by the learning from Finnish child care
and welfare system.

2 Understanding the Environment

Louhela Kindergarten stands at the heart of Jarvenpaa city along the Jarvenpaa-
Helsinki railway track in the Manilantie Street. Established as one of the three first
day cares of Southern Finland in 1952 AD, it has been a greater assistance in the
welfare of the state till today. The day care supposedly started in late 50s and
has been a great help to the working parents of Jarvenpaa till today. This day
care has already passed its silver years of establishment and with its growing
year this has always been a first priority for the parents. Louhela day care is run
by Louhela Settlementi, which is a private sector. Louhela Settlementi was
established in the 18th century in London by a priest on the grounds of Christian
religion and for Christians but today it has no influences from any religion, beliefs
and culture. However, the values coming from Christianity to take care of the
weaker is a strong foundation still today. This kindergarten is solely a private


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sector however, the government has been buying service from it since the
establishment. This phenomenon exhibits the visible picture of welfare mix in
Finland and this concept is growing rapidly every day. Looking at the recent
figures, Jarvenpaa municipality pays Euro six hundred fifty thousand per annum
to this day care.

The day care has been constantly growing bigger with its service and the number
of children being enrolled is increasing as well. It has shown a steady progress by
increasing its day care groups and enrolling more professionals. This institution
aims to provide quality day care to the children and to up bring them with proper
biological, cognitive and psychological development. When it started in 50’s, there
were 2 groups comprising 30 children and 5 workers. Today there are four groups
consisting of 21 children and 3 workers in each.

2.1 Child Care Services in Finland

A law with far-reaching effects was the 1973 Child Day Care Act, which stipulated
that all local governments were to provide good child day care for all families that
desired it. The care for children up to seven years of age could be given either in
day-care centers, sometimes private but generally run by local governments, or
by accredited baby-sitters, either at the child's home or outside it. Although the
number of places for day care had more than doubled by the mid-1980s, it would
have had to double again to meet total needs. A 1985 law set the goal of being
able to allow, by 1990, all parents of children up to the age of three the choice
between home-care payments or a place for their child in a day-care center. One
parent could also take unpaid employment leave until the child's third birthday.


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The Child Welfare Act of 1983 enjoined local governments to look after children,
and it empowered them to take a variety of measures if a child was being
seriously neglected or abused. (The library of congress- country studies.)

Similarly, the act on Children’s Day Care has provided a framework for the
implementation of day care. The Act clearly defines the physical setting for the
provision of day care and the educational objectives. According to the act the
objectives of day care promote the balanced development of children together
with their parents. For its part, day care shall provide children with safe and warm
relationships; activities supporting children's development in a versatile manner,
as well as a favorable growth environment based on individual children's
circumstances. Well-educated and multi-disciplinary staff is one of the strengths
of the Finnish day care system. The staff in day care centers is required to have
at least a secondary-level degree in the field of social welfare and health care.
One in three of the staff must have a post-secondary level degree (Bachelor of
Education, Master of Education or Bachelor of Social Sciences). The adult-child
ratio in day care centers is one to seven for 3-6-year-olds and one to four for
children under the age of three in full-time day care. When arranging part-time
day care the ratio for 3-6-year-olds is one to thirteen and for children under three
the ratio is the same as in full-time care. (Early childhood education and care in
Finland.) Summarizing the child act, it ensured each child with proper care
required during its development.1

1
ECEC; Early Childhood Education and care, Finland


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2.2 Working Skeleton of Day Care Centre

The day care is managed by group of professionals who have sound knowledge
on child care and child social work. The workers are divided into different groups
of children. This group is divided in accordance to different age bar and in regard
of the proper care these children require. These groups comprise 21 children and
3 workers in each which comes in accordance to the day care law introduced in
1970 (Day care law 1970). In addition, the day care has employed a nurse to
meet the needs of emergency primary medical assistance if required. These
numbers of children are merely head count but also accounting the proper care it
would require in different age categories. A child under the age of 1 year is
equivalent to 3 head counts and a child within the age limit 1 to 2 years is counted
as 2 head counts. By doing so, each child is offered adequate care during their
development. The day care groups are further sub divided as three day care
groups and a preschool group. As I had my placement with the ordinary day
care groups, the preschool group will not be discussed in this report.

The working day in this day care is 12 hours, starting from 6 am till 6 pm. These
working hours are adjusted to meet the need of majority of the parent who work in
Helsinki, who either leave early to work or return late from work. For the first two
hours, the children are gathered in one common room. The idea is to allow the
children to interact and socialize with other children from different groups. Then
they are separated for their respective groups.

The feeding habit of children are a routine, they are fed with breakfast at 0800hrs
in the morning, the lunch at 1130 hrs and again at 1500 hrs after their bed rest in
the afternoon. Similarly, the day care has a good understanding in the


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psychological and cognitive development of the children. Early in the morning the
children have an interactive discussion about the general timeline which includes,
time, day, date, month and year. They are taught to recite and identify the names,
words and numbers. The process includes the usage of pictures, symbols and
mnemonics which help the cognitive understanding of these children. More to
this, the recreational activities are conducted both indoors and outdoors. When it
is indoor activities, the children are provided with interactive games, drawings and
puzzles with pictures and words. This seemed to be a scientific way to help the
child develop psychologically building their reasoning and identifying skills. While,
these children enjoyed outdoor recreation two times a day each of 1 hour
duration. Children have biological need to sleep adequate hours during the day
time and the day care has properly included this requisite also in its routine. The
whole events are closely monitored, supervised and evaluated by the workers. In
overall, the day care has helped the child develop properly during its stay there.

2.3 Interaction of Different Actors

The day care is officially bound to the Jarvenpaa municipality as it is supported by
the government directly despite its private nature of organization. The beautiful
fact of welfare mix in Finland is the process where these private organizations are
financially and professionally supported by the state. The actions and decisions
regarding children are closely watched by the government. The day care is
responsible to identify the problems and need of the children, while the decisions
are only taken by the social workers with the consultation of day care workers.
The social workers represent the state and work indoors in the Jarvenpaa city


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office. But when doing so, the whole process includes the opinion and situation of
the parent as well. It is an important part to equally include parent in all these
progress.The parents (guardians) bear the main responsibility for the upbringing
of their children. Public ECEC services support the parents in the upbringing of
the child. 2Parents and workers work together as partners to support the child's
growth, development and learning. This partnership is characterized by
interaction on equal terms, combining the expertise and knowledge of both the
parents and the staff. Parents participate in their child's ECEC and in the planning
and assessment of activities. An individual educational plan is made for every
child as a basis for co-operation between the day care service and parents. (Early
childhood education and care in Finland.) Furthermore, any assistance or help for
the child is always a blend effort of the day care, the parent and the state, so
these all institutions can be termed as partners in their work.

Day Care (worker)

State Parent
Fig: Diagram illustrating partners in child work

Moreover, the existing day cares in Jarvenpaa are linked together with a common
network where they discuss and share different issues and ideas. This has been
a useful platform for learning and enhancement of these institutions. The common
baseline of this network is to work for the better services and support for the
children. Referring to the statement from one of the workers, children are the
pillar of this nation so; they have to shape them with proper care and culture. The

2
ECEC; Early Childhood Education and care, Finland


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role of the day care in Finland comprises care, education and teaching to support
children's balanced growth, development and learning (Ministry of social affairs
and health). They are also equally responsible for child guidance and family
counseling alike the social workers representing the state.

On the next half, the state or the social workers representing the state are
responsible for the child welfare and in decision making regarding different cases.
Child welfare is divided into preventive child welfare services and child and family
specific services. A key role in prevention is played by municipal maternity and
child health clinics, child guidance and family counseling clinics, day care,
schools, youth work, and family centers that assemble family services. Child
protection directed at children and families becomes applicable in municipal
social work when
 a child welfare report has been made about a child
 there is an application for child welfare service
 a child welfare worker has otherwise received information that a child is in
need of protection
Urgent needs assessments are made immediately. In other cases, social workers
have seven days to evaluate whether needs assessment is necessary. In
addition, children may be taken into care and placed in foster care with a foster
family or foster home. Municipalities have to compile plans for the promotion of
child welfare and the organization and development of child welfare and
protection. (Ministry of social affairs and health.)

It is visible that the child care in Finland has been possible with the interrelated
roles and responsibilities of these different actors.


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3 Fragile Foundations

This child whom I am particularly focusing for my case study is a boy of 4 years. His
name is Petri (changed name) and he lives with his grandmother despite having his own
mother. He has been coming to this day care since he was 9 months old.

In the Nordic countries, the expansion of welfare state has decreased individual’s
dependence on the family. As women’s social rights have become more extensive, they
have acquired a more independent status, which for its part is reflected in the family
structure. (Forssen 1998, 131.) This has brought an ease environment for increasing
numbers of single mothers. This case comes in the same scenario. Petri was born to a
single mother in her early teens. Until today she is unaware of her child’s responsible
father as she had numerous physical relationships with strangers after getting drunk. She
always lacked proper motherhood and care to the child since its birth. The mother who is
21 now, had series of careless mistakes while growing the child. She often went to the pub
with the young boy, got drunk and even left him there for number of occasions. This was
followed by events when the kindergarten quite often had to call the mother to come and
pick the child in the evening. Additionally she started drinking in home and had also
depression problems; this was enough for the social worker to be concerned. Being aware
of the situation, the social worker decided to take the child in custody for the safety.
However, luckily the grandmother wanted to take care of the child as it was too young.
Now, Petri has been living with her since almost 3 years. The grandmother is at her late
50s and is an active working woman. She has to leave early in the morning for work to
Helsinki, for this reason he happens to be one of the children who come early to the
kindergarten.


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The development of the child is influenced by the development psychology which
depends on the environment of raising it. This fundamental factor of child psychology and
behavior is indicated as the matter of nature and nurture. On the same hand the parent
especially mother have a big role to culture and set them with rules of social life. (Delfos
2003, 23.) Petri has always missed proper care and attention from his mother. At this
point of time, when this boy is growing quite fast, now he has a search for belonging to
his father and a desire to live with his mother. His moods are very versatile, he can laugh
and enjoy for a moment and within fractions of time he will look depressed. The
grandmother accounts this pattern of behavior similar to her adult daughter now. It is
obvious for this young child to have gained such behavior from his mother. While, he
seems to be a disobedient and undisciplined child; this is quite normal as he has missed
his basic social lessons at home from his mother or even grandmother now. The
grandmother is busy at home with the house chores and doing her official works. When
she finally agreed to meet me once during my 1 month stay there, she admitted her
immense love for the grandson but she also mentioned her exhaustion in raising the kid
because of her old age and hectic work. Now she wants the mother to take care of him as
she has grown older but all in vain. It’s hardly once a week when the mother comes to see
Petri. In the weekdays the mother is busy with her work. And during the weekends she
has her night life going to bars with her friends for which during the day time she has to
sleep.

In this due course, Petri has even missed weekends to share with his mother. Recently, she
has planned a vacation to S. Africa with her friends, she is ready with tickets and travel
plan but she is not taking Petri with her. On the other hand, the grandmother is busy with
her work this summer and she is not taking any vacation. This fundamental factor of
raising environment has strong outputs in his behavior in daily life.

Some children go back to the stages that were suppressed when they were younger. They
can act violently if their emotional needs are not met. Just remember that most of these


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children are noisy, energetic and bratty. They will give you a headache because you're
different from them. (Dealing with difficult children.) Petri makes similar situation. The
child is getting aggressive day by day, and it is affecting other children to a greater deal.
He usually gets jealous and angry when the other children come with their parents. He has
been expressing his desires to have loving parents with the day care workers. He often
compares his situations, food and amenities with other children. And to the difference he
observes, he usually acts violently and starts crying.

Now, the workers in day care understand the vulnerability of this situation. They are
aware that their actions can make a difference. Petri has always been one of their bulls
eye. The challenge for these workers is not only to monitor him but also to prevent other
kids from his violent attacks. They are encouraging Petri to play in different groups each
day so that he keeps on socializing and increases his tolerance toward other children.
Raising him with care and trying to make him follow rules – be disciplined- are in one
hand whilst they are also taking proper consultation on this regard from child psychologist
to make better approaches. In weekly basis, the workers also sit together with the
grandmother to discuss about the current situations; they are counseling her to raise such
difficult children. On the secondary level, the day care is working together with the social
worker in city office. The social worker is also meeting Petri’s grandmother at least once
a month. While, the social worker is concerned to include the mother in this task as well,
they are giving her options and possibilities to get involved in raising the child. She has a
big and important role and they are encouraging her to participate in this development.
The social worker is aware of the situation and the progress with the child. The social
worker is always capable of taking immediate or safety action if needed.

In this scenario, all these three actors- day care, parent and social worker are working
together to bring positive results. The process looks to be appropriate and well managed.


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After being involved in this practice, it is visible that the parent has the important and
main role for the future of the child. Children are like clay, the mother especially is
responsible to shape them with culture, rules and behavior for other fellow beings. Home
is the first school and mothers are the first teacher for the children. During this course, the
mother has missed to perform her basic duties, her tasks and the outcome is the growth of
this difficult child. While, the day care and social worker have significant role now but
this work is rehabilitative in nature. So, the favorable idea for the state and families will
be to prevent teen pregnancy – or birth from teen mothers. But in this particular case, the
results will likely be positive and the child is developing better with these efforts from all
actors. I personally wish Petri grows better and his fragile foundations of childhood will
strengthen with this course of effort.

4 Personal Professional Developments and Learning

This stay in Louhela day care has brought me with ideas on Finnish working life and in
the same time exposed me to the child welfare here. This has been quite informative and
the learning shall be important for a life time. It has been positive but also a blend of
shock and exhaustion observing the culture from near glance. My roots have brought me a
strong sense of power distance between different age groups which follows degree of
respect as well. The first week was harder in this sense, where the kids would act rudely
or when they exhibited low degree of respect to the elders. However, this was the moment
which taught me lessons of tolerance and patience. The ethical competences in social
work were well understood and it has been a practice to understand the distinction
between personal and professional relationship. One of the important learning was to
share the information of my case with fellow colleagues without disclosing personal


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matters of the client. Workings abide by the act on the openness of government activities
is a professional betterment. This duration has increased my understanding of emotions,
their limitations and boundaries of personal and professional life. While working with
Petri and other children in the day care I always had to be aware not to develop an
intimate emotional belongingness and personal expectations in them. Adding in this
context, dealing with this particular case I have developed the importance of both
rehabilitative and preventive work. The next professional skill is been to acquire psycho-
social working skills while dealing with young group of children. I have understood my
simple actions can leave different images in cognitive level of these kids. Children imitate
habits from elders, I was therefore conscious of how I am presenting myself to them and
what I do for them. I have developed my communication skills during this placement. In
general, I have gained self development on moral, personal and professional levels.

Nonetheless, Finnish language has always been a challenge for this timeline. But, my
strengths of non verbal communication have helped me a lot. Non verbal communications
and making an ease atmosphere is an important requisite dealing with clients, this has
always been my strength. My Nepali roots make me exhibit high degree of respect for
elders and affectionate care for the younger, it has made the situations easy and
comfortable when I am dealing with the clients; the children and their parents.

This reside in Louhela day care, I have lived up to my expectations, my aims to
understand the working life as a professional in social work have met. Now, I have
known the roles of a socionom in child care, which is an achievement to me personally. I
have recognized the way child care and child welfare runs in Finland, this shall be
important to share it when I go back to my homeland. I have abided by the legislations
and rules of the day care; this should be significant gain in my professional work.


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Louhela kindergarten was an important part of learning. In countries like Nepal- which is
trying to build good child welfare- Finland will be a good system to learn while also
acknowledging the importance and primary role of family to be the first and foremost
need for up growing children.


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5 Lists of Reference

 Day care law, 1970.

 Dealing with difficult children.
http://bloggerparty.com/dealing_with_difficult_children
accessed 5th August 2009.

 Delfos, Martine F. 2003. Children and Behavioral Problems, Jessica
Kingsley Publishers.

 Early childhood education and care in Finland.
http://pre20031103.stm.fi/english/pao/publicat/earlychildhood/brochure02_3.htm
accessed 3rd August 2009.

 Forssen, Katja. 1998. Children, families and the welfare state, Gummerus
Printing, Jyvaskyla.

 Ministry of social affairs and health
http://www.stm.fi/en/social_and_health_services/children/services

 The library of congress- country studies
http://reference.allrefer.com/country-guide-study/finland/finland78.html
accessed 3rd August 2009.


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