Child Friendly Spaces

The Centre’s Child Friendly Space (CFS) programme works with suppliers to establish safe and secure childcare facilities at factories and farms to support parent workers. CFS enables the children of workers to play, access learning opportunities, develop social skills through interactions with other kids and participate in joint activities with their parents. 

Each summer holiday, there is a spike in the number of children left unsupervised and in dorms or work camps, and of children on production floors or in harvesting fields.   

Launched in 2015, CFS responds to an urgent need to provide childcare when children are out of school, keeping them away from production areas and ensuring they are well looked after. This allows parents to put their minds at ease during their work shifts. CFS also enables migrant parent workers and their children to spend valuable time together during the summer school holiday period. CFS operates during the summer but can also run on a year-round basis and/or as an after-school centre. 

For suppliers, CFS helps prevent the risk of children being brought to production areas by and hence reduces major compliance risks including children’s involvement in work. 

Close to one hundred factories in China have opened child friendly spaces so far, supporting over 10,000 parent workers and their children, with the majority continuing to run the programme independently after the first year, and some even extending the service to a year-round after-school centre. 

We continue to expand and innovate the CFS programme to meet the needs of suppliers in a variety of additional countries,  contexts and sectors, including both agricultural and manufacturing settings. In 2021, The Centre pioneered the first ever tent-based Child Friendly Space in rose gardens in Turkey. 

Year on year, our CFS programme delivers a range of benefits for parent workers, children and suppliers alike. Positive outcomes from Child Friendly Spaces run in 2021 include:

• 54% increase in workers absolutely trusting factory management

• 77% increase in workers being very satisfied with their factories

• 30% increase in workers planning to stay at their factories for two years or more

• 45% of workers reported being more efficient at work because of the CFS

• 34% increase in workers who believe management understands their challenges as parent workers

• 75% were less worried about their children at work

In our Stories section, you will find a range of real-life stories about how the Child Friendly Spaces impacted families and employers. 

Please read/download our 2021 WeCare and Child Friendly Spaces Programme Impact and Achievements brochure at the bottom of this page. Visit our 2021 Weekly Updates and Highlights from Family-Friendly Factories in China page for weekly updates and photos from the 2021 CFS programme.

If you or your supplier is interested in learning more or joining this programme, please contact us.