Italy, San Donato Milanese, Milan
By: Cooperativa Sociale Solidarietà è Progresso, Municipalità di San Donato Milanese
http://www.comune.sandonatomilanese.mi.it

A flexible, customised professional day nursery for small groups of infants, at a reasonable price, and with a socialising environment

Solution
The service is run for the municipality of San Donato Milanese by a cooperative of 80 members started in 1999 to organise services for infants, the disabled and the. It offers professional nursery care to small groups of two or three children under three years old. Children are assigned to a childminder, who looks after them in her own home. The carers look after and educate the children, and take them also to other activities for infants organised by the local authority to help in the baby’s social development. The service is focused on two main concepts: having a maximum of three children per house, making it easier for the childminder to take them out on her own, and that the childminders should be well-trained.The scheme offers new job opportunities, especially for immigrants, and a new, flexible and personalised kind of childcare. The parents have to drop off and pick up the baby at the carer’s house and provide the baby’s food.

Background
Developed as an industrial area back in the 1960s, San Donato Milanese is home to many young professional people and immigrants, all living away from their families and their help in raising their children. The number of children keeps increasing, and the existing nurseries cannot satisfy the community’s nursery needs. In 1999 more than 60 families were denied places at the nurseries. The local authority developed the service with the cooperative in 2000.

Current state of development
At first, the families only used the service because there were no spaces in the existing nurseries. But today, even if places are available, and even though this service is a little bit more expensive, some parents prefer it to the nurseries. What’s more, families that start using the service for one year usually stick to it until their babies are three. In 2002, the service started being open to foreign residents and using foreign childminders, which was considered an important step in the development of the service. Childminders are paid 3.30 euros an hour per child. The costs are shared between the local authority and the family: 20% is paid by the family, 20% is paid by the local authority and 60% is divided between the two according to the family’s income. The cooperative supplies nappies and changing equipment, mattresses, pushchairs, high-chairs and toys. The initiative brings a monthly income for the cooperative of around 35 000 euros, which is partly reinvested in the service.

The benefits

Society
This service both offers parents a flexible solution to the problem of nursery places and supports the children’s early socialisation. It provides jobs for otherwise unemployed childminders, which was especially important to immigrant residents who otherwise had had to have their children looked after by relatives living far away due to delays getting their visa. By working for the cooperative they can both take care of their own children and work for the community.

Environment
The solution optimises the use of existing private structures for semi-public and business activities, and reduces the number of journeys between homes and nurseries.

Economy
Using the childminders’ own homes is a less costly and quicker solution for the local authority than building and administrating new nurseries. The service provides an income to previously unemployed childminders.

The quality of the experience
For parents, being able to have a trusted, homely nursery so nearby. Being able to take part in the education of their own children and making a small home-based business using their own skills.

Future development possibilities
Creating dedicated spaces for common services (such as small private kindergartens) close to, or inside, residential buildings. Developing methods of allowing teachers and parents to communicate in real time.

Authors:
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Begum Arseven, Chiara Zappalà

Mothers bring their children to the childminder’s house…
…where they meet and start playing games…
…and then go out together to join the other activities.
Later at home, the childminder finds out what food mom has put in the lunch bag…
She feeds the baby with the food prepared by his mother.