Pedagogical policy officer childcare

If you run a childcare centre, you must have a pedagogical policy officer/coach for a mandatory number of hours. A pedagogical policy officer is responsible for your pedagogical policy, and coaches your pedagogical staff.

You can choose to have 1 or 2 people to do the work of the pedagogical policy officer. The options are:

• a pedagogical policy officer (policy only) together with a pedagogical coach (coaching only), or
• a pedagogical policy officer/coach (policy and coaching)

What is a pedagogical policy officer?

A pedagogical policy officer:

• coaches your pedagogical staff in their daily work, for example with tips on child raising, care, and development
• develops and monitors your pedagogic policy, for example by drawing up a pedagogical policy plan
• can assist in the group

What qualifications must a pedagogical policy officer have?

The pedagogical policy officer must have the correct qualifications. You can find all appropriate training programmes in annex 13.2 Quality requirement pedagogical policy officer/coach (Bijlage 13.2 Kwaliteits-eis pedagogisch beleidsmedewerker/coach) of the Collective Labour Agreement for Childcare (CAO Kinderopvang, in Dutch).

Do you have a foreign qualification that is equivalent to a Dutch qualification listed in annex 13.2 of the CAO Kinderopvang? You can have your credentials checked by applying for a credential evaluation by the International Credential Evaluation (Internationale diplomawaardering, IDW). You must apply for recognition of your foreign professional qualification to the Education Executive Agency (Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs, DUO).

How many hours must you deploy the pedagogical policy officer?

You must deploy your pedagogical policy officer for an obligatory number of hours per year. A pedagogical policy officer must:

• dedicate at least 50 hours per year to the development and implementation of the pedagogical policy at each childcare centre.
• provide your educational staff at least 10 hours of coaching per FTE per year. This applies to every full-time, flexible, or temporary employee. You may divide the hours of coaching among employees yourself. You must keep track of these hours.

With the calculation tool Pedagogical policy officer in childcare (Rekentool pedagogisch beleidsmedewerker kinderopvang) you can calculate how many hours are mandatory in your situation (in Dutch).

Professional childcarer-child ratio

Does the pedagogical policy officer work in the group? These hours count towards the professional childcarer-child ratio (beroepskracht-kind ratio, BKR). This only applies to hours worked as a pedagogical staff member (helping with the care, upbringing, and development of the children). If the pedagogical policy officer only carries out policy work, watches, and coaches, they do not count toward the BKR.

Pedagogical policy officer childminding agency

Do you run a childminding agency? You must supply your childminders with at least 3 hours of pedagogical coaching each year from a pedagogical policy officer (pdf, in Dutch). To do this, you must have or hire a pedagogical policy officer.