Why Practices?

Creche Initiative aims to provide safe spaces and nutritious food for the children between the 7 months to 3 years of age group. The core objective of the initiative is to improve children’s nutritional status through the provision of three nutritious meals a day, including an egg, along with early identification and management of malnutrition.

In this initiative, creche caregivers are the cornerstone of quality and care. They play a pivotal role in ensuring that each child is safe, well-fed, and meaningfully engaged throughout the day. Recognizing this, based on the experience of running creches for the past 3 years, the Foundation has developed a structured set of Caregivers Practices to guide caregivers in performing their roles effectively and consistently across all creches. These practices spread across various domains like childcare, food & nutrition, health & hygiene, child engagement, safety and security etc. Well-defined practices help ensure the processes are implemented uniformly and responsibly across all creches, reducing variation in quality and strengthening operations.

Further, these practices are observable in day-to-day functioning, making it possible to identify gaps and address it promptly. In this way, Caregiver Practices guide not only implementation but also ongoing capacity building and supportive supervision.

All training Modules are built around these structured practices. The extent to which caregivers internalize and implement them and ensure overall program quality. By placing Caregiver Practices at the centre, the Creche Initiative ensures that all efforts from training to supportive supervision remain focused on delivering safe, nurturing, and enriching environments for every child.

As the initiative is implemented across multiple locations and in partnership with different civil society organizations, maintaining consistency in quality becomes crucial. A defined set of practices serves as a shared reference point for caregivers, supervisors, and program teams, ensuring coherence in implementation. This common framework supports alignment across creches and helps uphold standards of safety, nutrition, and care.