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As part of Pilke’s activities, responsibility stands for matters related to quality, sustainable development, social responsibility and transparent financial reporting.
We value responsibility as we strive to build a world that supports the learning and growth of children. We operate in compliance with the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care (540/2018), the National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care as well as municipal early childhood education plans.
”We value responsibility as we strive to build a world that supports the learning and growth of children.”
Pilke provides its interest groups with responsibility reports on a regular basis. We prepare annual reports to our owners based on the results of our quality management system audits. As part of our cooperation with municipalities, we engage in discussion on the perspectives of responsibility.
Our quality certificate is on view in our daycare centres, pre-schools and after-school clubs, and we inform the children’s families about our responsible activities in presentations and parents’ evenings, for example.
Open discussion on the themes of early childhood education and childcare is a cornerstone of Pilke’s quality and responsibility programme. We wish improve ourselves, and we gladly receive feedback and ideas on how to develop our responsibility. Share your ideas about supporting our corporate responsibility work!
Pilke’s quality management system and the quality certificate granted to us address the quality of service provision at our daycare centres, pre-schools and after-school clubs. As part of Pilke’s quality assurance, an external auditor inspects Pilke’s early childhood education and care, everyday pedagogy, management, operational assessment and development, pre-primary education and after-school club activities. We have held a quality certificate since 2017. Read more here.
Pilke’s certification programme involves an annual quality audit in all of our operational units. An internal observation is carried out at each unit in intervals of approximately three years, and an external audit is performed at a few predetermined units annually.
Our quality certificate proves that our quality management system meets the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 standard (linked text in Finnish). Audits are carried out by an external auditor in compliance with the quality certificate on an annual basis. Thus, we can safely say that Pilke’s capacity to provide children with good days is well-proven.
Sustainable development and shared responsibility for the environment play a major role in a world that supports children’s learning and growth. In Pilke’s everyday activities, these themes are concretised through, for example, nature-oriented daycare centres, At Home in Nature network, Green Flag daycare centres, the construction of new daycare centres around Finland, log-built daycare centres, environment education and daily activities to reduce our carbon footprint.
Pilke has specialised nature-oriented daycare centres where children learn a positive attitude towards nature and an ecologically sustainable life style. The activities of our nature-oriented daycare centres place emphasis on wondering and exploring various natural phenomena, regular trips and outdoor activities in nature.
Seven of our nature-oriented daycare centres are part of the At Home in Nature network and base all of their activities on outdoor life. For example, the children can occasionally take outdoor naps in lean-tos or hammocks. At Home in Nature (linked text in Finnish) is a concept coordinated by the Finnish Outdoor Association since 1999. It aims to provide children in early childhood education and after-school clubs with nature exercise and environment education.
What is the daily life in nature-oriented daycare like? How do the daycare centre’s activities implement responsibility and sustainable life? What are the building blocks of a naturally good day?
“We lead an unhurried outdoor life and learn in nature with the children every day. Our nature-oriented daycare centre provides an excellent framework for child-centred early childhood education and care,” says Elina Salmela, Manager of the Ylivieska-based At Home in Nature daycare centre Taikaniitty.
Green Flag is the Foundation for Environmental Education Finland’s (linked text in Finnish) sustainable development programme for daycare centres, schools, educational institutions and providers of children and youths’ free-time activities. The programme steers its participants towards far-sighted, productive and inspirational operation that realises the various aspects of sustainable development. Green Flag activities are recommended by the UN’s environmental organisation UNEP and are part of the international Eco Schools programme with 68 participating countries.
Green Flag activities are implemented through one- or two-year-long projects. When a daycare centre meets the programme’s criteria, it is awarded with a certificate and a green flag. The right to hoist the green flag can be granted at the earliest after completing the first project, that is, a year after starting the activities.
The nature- and sports-oriented daycare centre Kanttarelli has implemented Green Flag education in Oulu already for ten years. The principles of sustainable development are implemented at Kanttarelli through waste sorting, recycling and environmentally friendly activities, for example.
Pilke daycare centre Kanttarelli was granted the Green Flag award in 2019.
Since 2012, Pilke has invested 100 million euros in the construction of daycare centres around Finland and built more than 50 new units. When building new daycare buildings, we take account of the following crucial environmental issues:
Jointly with construction companies Honkarakenne and Mediset, Pilke developed a concept of log-built daycare centres with clean, sensory-friendly indoor air. Read more about Pilke’s log-built daycare centres here.
We realise our environmental responsibility in various ways as part of the children’s daily life. Environmental education is an integral part of our early childhood education activities. For example, we favour natural materials and pay attention to reuse. We make use of the natural surroundings of our daycare centres and other units on educational trips that teach children to appreciate nature.
We strive to lighten the carbon footprint of our daily operation by, for example, reducing waste and food loss and by recycling and sorting our waste materials. Our responsibility principles also concern our supply chains, and we expect our catering providers to favour local food.
Our sustainable operating methods vary depending on the daycare centre location as there are differences in municipal recycling systems, for example. We train our personnel and provide information and tools to integrate responsible operating methods into the daily activities of Pilke’s early childhood educators. Read about three environmentally friendly daycare activities implemented daily with children.
As part of our corporate responsibility, we support the professional development and occupational well-being of our employees. We prepare an occupational well-being plan annually to support the personnel’s coping at work. In addition, we actively monitor our employees’ satisfaction. In the most recent personnel survey, Pilke’s score was 4.02/5. Here you can read more about Pilke as an employer.
Pilke’s operation complies with the relevant collective agreements. We provide our managers with training to support equitable leadership and to enable consistent management quality to all of our good day makers.
Finland is constantly becoming more international and multicultural. Pilke’s work communities, client families and child groups are marked by diversity. We have numerous language-oriented daycare centres, and the communities of our English-speaking daycares in particular are highly international. We value diversity and are committed to equality and non-discrimination.
Pilke’s services are primarily funded by tax resources. Therefore, we are responsible for ensuring that the municipalities purchasing our services and our client families are satisfied with our services.
We know that the aspects valued the most by our municipal partners are our high-quality services, reliability, versatility and friendliness.
