Flexible and expanded services in day care for children are usually not taken into account in the statutory regular financing. However, parents’ needs often extend beyond ‘statutory services’. In view of the changes on the employment market, there is a growing demand on the part of working parents for more flexibly structured services; these include above all the ability for the child to visit the day nursery on a daily or hourly basis, as well as care provision in the evenings and at weekends.
The funding bodies are faced with the question of how to take account of the altered demand situation on the part of families, in view of the existing statutory and thus financial regulations. At the same time, day-care facilities are faced with the challenge of how to incorporate these new types of service into their existing structures of organization and educational approaches.
By evaluating the process of extending child care services in the context of the „Rainbow Children's House“ (Kinderhaus Regenbogen) the projects aims to contribute in answering these questions.