Do you have a childcare organisation? Then you must keep to the three-hour rule (drie-uursregeling). This rule allows you to deviate from the professional childcarer-child ratio (beroepskracht-kind ratio, BKR) for up to 3 hours a day. During these 3 hours you are allowed to employ fewer childcare professionals than the ratio prescribes.
Three-hour rule
You can deviate up to 3 hours a day from the professional childcarer-child ratio only if:
- your childcare facility is open at least 10 consecutive hours
- you employ at least 50% of the prescribed number of childcare professionals during these hours
- you register the hours you deviate from the childcarer-child ratio in your pedagogical policy plan
- you also register which hours you do not deviate from the childcarer-child ratio
- you may spread these 3 hours however you see fit, but it must be the same each week
- you inform parents when you deviate from the childcarer-child ratio
Deviating from the ratio for out-of-school care
Out-of-school care (buitenschoolse opvang, BSO) may also deviate from the professional childcarer-child ratio:
- up to half an hour daily, only before and after school hours, and on free afternoons
- you have to employ at least 50% of the ratio-prescribed childcare professionals during these hours.
During school vacations and national holidays, the three-hour rule applies to out-of-school care the same way as to other childcare organisations.