INNOFINLAND Prize

Suomen Tenava Päiväkodit Oy, Espoo

Suomen Tenava Päiväkodit Oy

Novel day-care concept

Suomen Tenava päiväkoti Oy, established in 1994 by Ms Sari Smedman and Ms Henna Vanhapiha, is the leading service enterprise within child day care in Finland. The enterprise has launched a novel day care concept which integrates day care, substitute, and meal services into a coherent whole, which is pathbreaking in Finland. Further, the concept includes pedagogical services to support the staff. It is also remarkable that the pedagogical services have been linked with concrete customer promises to families. These productified promises include, for example, Tenava Startti (Kid Start) and Minun päiväni -lappu (My Day Info Sheet) as well as various Internet services.

All employees of the enterprise have been involved in the need-based development of the concept. Today, 200 representatives of different professions take care of 1,000 children in 33 units.

The enterprise vision is that the staff should have more time for the children and there should be more room for the children's activities. The ways of action agreed on by the staff and the utilisation of the newest technology ensure that the vision will be reality. Together with the State Technical Research Centre (VTT), the enterprise develops applications to facilitate the everyday work in order to better meet the children's needs. Also, larger premises with improved quality are made available to the children.

Through its example, the enterprise wants to show that a high-quality and yet cost-efficient alternative can be created in the nursing sector by applying the logics conventionally used in service business. The aim is to continue intensifying the co-operation with municipal service production. United, it is possible to turn the unique know-how in this women-dominated business into an international export success.

Contact information:
Managing Director Kim Siren
Solisevantie 2, FI-02760 Espoo
www.tenava.net
kim.siren@tenava.net
Tel. +358 (0)40 553 0401