The Municipality of Rotterdam can now intervene in time to reach toddlers with a learning or developmental delay, so that they can catch up before they enter primary education.

The municipality of Rotterdam has a statutory duty to ensure sufficient pre-school provision across the city for toddlers with (a risk of) a language and/or developmental delay. The Centre for Youth and Family (CJG) determines whether a toddler belongs to this target group based on established criteria. Childcare organisations in Rotterdam receive a subsidy from the municipality for the implementation of the pre-school programmes. Both the CJG and the childcare organizations provide data to the municipality for the purpose of monitoring the reach of these toddlers.

The municipality monitors how many toddlers have participated in a pre-school program (reach) and which have not (non-reach). By linking and analyzing the data, the municipality gains insight into whether there is sufficient supply in the various areas and districts of Rotterdam. Where this is not the case, the municipality carries out targeted interventions to increase the reach.

Previously a time-consuming process

Before using the Roseman Labs platform, the entire process from data collection to analysis was carried out manually. Data was collected from various sources and analyzed, first determining which data points corresponded to each other. The process took an average of three to four months and was only carried out once a year. This meant that it took almost a year and a half before action could be taken based on the insights gained.

"By that time, the three-year-old toddlers who were lagging behind had sometimes already started primary school. The figures came too late to be able to intervene," says Ako Madomi, Product Owner of the pre-school program at the Municipality of Rotterdam.

Safeguarding privacy

Due to the use of personal data, the municipality also felt a responsibility to review the process of data collection and analysis, to assess whether it needs to be adjusted.

"The Municipality of Rotterdam is proud of the fact that we can make decisions based on data, but if you use citizens' data, you also have a responsibility to ensure that you handle it in the most secure way and guarantee their privacy. We saw room for improvement and therefore decided to look for a new (technical) solution. We found these in the products of Roseman Labs", emphasized Ako.

Providing the right care on time

With Roseman Labs, data is collected and analyzed in a fast, secure, and standardized way. The process is now less error-prone, because a large part is automated. In addition, the software is integrated with PowerBI.

"Instead of just conducting an analysis once a year, we now receive monthly reports on the state of affairs," says Ako.

The municipality now has timely insight into the number of toddlers who have been diagnosed with a (risk of) a developmental delay, how many of them have already been placed in a childcare facility with a pre-school program and how many have not. It is also clear in which areas and neighbourhoods these children are located, so that the municipality can carry out targeted interventions in the places where they are most needed, such as deploying additional staff or setting up further learning programs.

"We now know where to intervene. We reach the toddlers on time, before they go to primary school. And all this, from start to finish, without being able to trace the data back to individuals!"

The commitment of Roseman Labs to the Rotterdam Early Childhood Education Monitor has made an impression within the municipality. "At the moment, there is one other team within the municipality that uses the products of Roseman Labs. I imagine that as this practice becomes more widely known, more departments and teams will turn to Roseman Labs for their data needs," said Ako.

You can find the Dutch translation of this article here.

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