• The more teachers worked at the FCFS, the less worried parents were about their children’ s safety and the more satisfied they were with the FCFS.
The spillover effect of the program is not entirely conclusive; however we could observe that retention significantly increased for non-‐ participants compared to the baseline. This might not only be due to the FCFS; however, in two of the participating factories with the larger program, managers and workers stated in interviews that the general atmosphere in the factory improved since setting up FCFS. On the other hand, we understood that in some factories non-‐ participants were not well informed of the program, and thus were not aware of the positive changes in their factory and the potential benefits they could receive. Furthermore, we need to consider that the impact assessment was carried out less than 4
months after the program began – a rather short period to observe a lasting impact and a significant spillover effect.
5.2 Challenges
5.2.1 Duration of FCFS
“ I was always worried about my kid’ s safety during the summer vacation, as every year I heard about accidents involving children such as children drowning in ponds or dying from electric shocks. I always remind my child not to eat unknown mushroom types from the hill and to not go swimming in the pond without adult supervision. FCFS has four teachers to look after my five-‐ year-‐ old son. I feel much more at ease now and can focus on my work.”-‐ A father
When we asked parents what the biggest challenges they face are, the number one challenge for parents in both the baseline and the final evaluation turned out to be“ looking after my children”. This confirms our assumption that parents, especially migrant parents, have a strong need for childcare support. Although FCFS enabled families to live together during the summer months whilst simultaneously reducing compliance risks associated with children entering production areas, parents still face the struggles of being separated from their children throughout the rest of the year or the challenge of providing childcare solutions when FCFS is closed. The two small sized factories decided to run the FCFS as a continuous, yearlong program, but in the two larger sized factories where most beneficiaries are, the pilot program only covered the summer months as planned.
In the future, one challenge for us to address will be how to scale it up to cover more workers. Another challenge is how to extend the service beyond the summer. We’ ve noticed that some parents seem to be helpless when they have to work and their children are not of school age yet, and this problem exists not only during the summer vacation. Now we have asked the production management to see how many workers would need such help."
-‐ A general manager from a participating factory
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