What on earth is sustainable supervision of early childhood education and care – a new understanding through Nordic cooperation

The Nordic cooperation project Creating Tools Together – Sustainable ECE and Administration in Nordic Countries (2024–2026) coordinated by experts in early childhood education and care from the Finnish Supervisory Agency is gradually approaching completion. The project’s closing seminar will be held in Lappeenranta during 26–28 August 2026. 

Where did it all begin and what has been learned along the way about sustainable supervision of early childhood education and care?

Sustainability is more than just environmental friendliness

The project’s first steps were taken at an online meeting held in August 2024, where there was tentative discussion about what sustainability means from the perspective of the supervision of early childhood education and care. Is sustainability primarily about environmentally friendly practices? Or that equality, inclusion and sense of community are taken into account in supervision? What about taking cultural diversity into account or respecting and preserving traditions? Is sustainability about using resources efficiently and responsibly? Or could it mean sustainability in the operating culture, that is, taking into account the long-term perspective and responsibility in supervision? 

An understanding of sustainability in the supervision of early childhood education and care was developed together with Icelandic, Norwegian and Danish early childhood education and care supervisors, teachers and researchers. Our understanding has evolved during the course of the project so that it now covers all the above-mentioned perspectives on sustainability.

Different emphases in supervision

What exactly are we supervising when we supervise early childhood education and care? The simple answer that emerged in the project’s in-person meetings and online discussions is that supervision focuses on different issues in different countries. 

In Finland, the Finnish Supervisory Agency is the legality supervisor responsible for ensuring that early childhood education and care provided by municipalities and private service providers is carried out in accordance with the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care. The municipalities themselves act in a very similar role as supervisory authorities for private early childhood education and care. Pedagogical activities in early childhood education and care, in turn, are guided by the Finnish National Agency for Education, and the quality of early childhood education and care is evaluated by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (Karvi).  

Where supervision and the evaluation of (pedagogical) quality are two separate matters in Finland, in some of the project countries they appear to be more closely integrated under the same concept – supervision. Among others, this kind of understanding is valuable when comparing the practices of different countries in the preparation of legislative changes. 

In addition to a shared understanding, the project has established a common material bank for collecting the materials produced in the workshops and seminars. The material bank will be open and available to everyone once it is completed.

Read the project’s blogs and materials on our website for the Nordplus project at lvv.fi/en/education-and-leisure/nordplus-project