The thesis is a small-scale evaluative research. The day care start folder, which provided practical and detailed information about starting Finnish day care to support multicultural parents in Otaniemi day-care centre and Servin-Maija day-care centre, was assessed among nine Chinese parents of children in five municipal and outsourced day-care centres in the City of Espoo.

The purposes of the current research were to find out how Chinese parents perceive starting day care in the City of Espoo and their difficulties and suggestions concerning starting day care in the City of Espoo; to evaluate how the day care start folder is experienced as a working method in opinion of Chinese parents living in the City of Espoo; and to further improve the day care start folder as a working method for multicultural families and personnel in Otaniemi day-care centre and possibly for other day-care centres in the similar situation.

Two types of interview, namely semi-structured individual interview and focus group interview, were utilised as the primary qualitative data-collecting methods in the current research. In addition, questionnaire as an assistant quantitative data-collecting method was employed as well to ensure verification of the consistency of the data, and supplement the abundance of the narrative data collected from interviews.

The qualitative data gathered from the six interviews was coded, categorised and analysed in accordance with the method of content analysis. The results showed that the participating Chinese parents basically concerned about the information on starting day care; their child’s language learning; their communication and cooperation with day-care staff; cultures, religions and festivals; playing, learning and friends; child protection and legislation and so forth.

Furthermore, these Chinese parents also put forward some important problems and suggestions on Finnish day care, such as problems caused by cultural differences, different opinions on learning by playing and Finnish as a second language-teaching, difficulties to obtain enough English information about Finnish day care, and the lack of mediums for foreign families to receive help concerning Finnish day care. In addition, these Chinese parents perceived the day care start folder as useful and adequate. The results based on the questionnaires supported and verified the results generated from the qualitative data analysis.