The ERiK study aims to develop an indicatorbased monitoring that observes the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Germany at the national level, as well as to provide comparison between ECEC quality in Germany's sixteen federal states. In addition, the monitoring system intends to record changes in ECEC quality over time, and  considers the perspectives of all involved stakeholders.

The monitoring effort includes:

  • the development and revision of indicators and survey instruments that study the framework conditions of ECEC quality
  • the conceptualization, collection, and analysis of multiperspective survey data
  • the data management, the preparation and provision of data as well as the publication of data analyses

Parents, children, youth welfare offices, providers of childcare, directors and pedagogical staff in day-care centres, and family day-care workers are surveyed in order to map the views on ECEC quality of the various actors.


ERiK Research Report I (German) und Methodological Report I (English)

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Contact

+49 89 62306-387
Deutsches Jugendinstitut
Nockherstr. 2
81541 Munich

Information about the project

ERiK Target Populations

The ERiK-Survey of parents is based on the DJI Childcare Survey (KiBS).
The KIBs contacts approximately 33,000 parents throughout Germany every year. This sample allows for representative reporting of parents' views of the ECEC system at both the national level as well as regarding the German Federal states.
While KiBS already addresses access to child day care services and the type and volume of child day care services ideally requested by the parents, the parent survey focuses, among other things, on the cooperation of child day care facilities with families, additional counselling and information services for parents and the individual support of children.

The KiBS sample consists of three groups:

(1) A part of the sample agrees to be contacted repeatedly for participation in the annual surveys and can thus be surveyed again in the following year.

(2) Aditional parents are contacted and included in the sample at least bi-annually, in order to ensure sufficient case numbers per age cohort and federal state.

(3) In order to be able to include the views of parents whose children are still very young and who are only beginning to think about possible (future) care arrangements, parents of newborns are also contacted at least every two years and asked to participate.

 

Children are the main addressees of day-care services. It is thus important to take their views on the quality of day-care into account. Therefore, about 490 children were surveyed in the summer of 2022. The aim of this survey is, amongst other things, to find out how the children evaluate the rooms and the food in their day-care centre, how they experience the pedagogical staff and whether they have a say in the day-care centre. Since surveying children involves methodological and ethical challenges, child-friendly survey methods were developed and tested in advance.

In 2020 and 2022, all 575 youth welfare offices in Germany or the respective responsible units for day care for children have been surveyed on central offers and measures of quality assurance and development, on local demand planning and and to what extent the available childcare options meet the demand as well as regarding the organisation of day care for children.
In addition, questions regarding the view of the youth welfare offices on the local situation and the local challenges of child day care with regard to quality are included in the questionnaire.

The landscape of providers is diverse. Equally diverse are the possibilities and prerequisites of the providers to shape the framework and development conditions of quality in child day care facilities.
The objective of the surveys in 2020 and 2022 is to record the challenges involved. A total of about 2,000 public and independent providers was surveyed nationwide, primarily on topics of professionalisation, securing skilled workers and quality control.

 

There is great regional variety regarding the situation of family day care in Germany.  Many different forms of family day care exist, some of which have newly emerged.
In 2020 and 2022, 4,000 randomly selected family day care workers have been surveyed nationwide on the framework conditions of their pedagogical work and consitions for quality development. Questions on qualification and further training as well as on the working conditions of the family day care workers form an important part of the survey.

The largest group of respondents of the ERiK surveys consists of directors and pedagogical staffin day care centres.
The framework conditions in the ECEC system have a significant influence on their pedagogical work.
In 2020 and 2022, more than 4,500 directors and more than 6,000 pedagogical staff members nationwide have been surveyed on the staffing and resources of the institution in which they work, as well as on qualification and further training.

ERiK project team

ERiK Organisational Chart

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