This year, the Ethical Supply Chain (ESCP), is celebrating ten years of its Family-Friendly Spaces (FFS) programme, providing safe and educational spaces for supply chain workers’ children.

Launched in 2016, the ESCP‘s Family-Friendly Spaces (FFS) initiative has supported 10,000 children and their families by providing safe and convenient childcare options. This has enabled families to better balance their work and caregiving responsibilities, in turn strengthening their communities and building better worker satisfaction and retention.

Earlier this year, Products of Change announced its partnership with the ESCP to help companies strengthen social and sustainability standards across global supply chains. The two not-for-profits offer complementary resources that cover the different aspects of social and sustainability compliance.

Beginning as a small-scale pilot in two factories in China, the FFS programme was developed to meet the need independent research uncovered as childcare being the most common reason given by workers when leaving employment.

Since then, the initiative has expanded to 95 factories and community centres, offering both year-round and summer school holiday months cover, through which it has supported 10,000 children across mainland China and, as of this year, Vietnam. However, since 2024, supplier members in Vietnam have been benefitting from Family Days, which have supported 1,200 workers and their dependents. The ESCP continues to scale its childcare initiatives in the region.

Since 2022, the FFS programme has been implementing LEGO Foundation’s ‘learning through play‘ activities, which this year reached 41 spaces. LEGO, also a POC Member, is striving to get everyone to recognise the importance and value of play, to encourage creativity in the minds of tomorrow.

With Unicef reporting that over 45 million children under five globally are left at home without adult supervision in low- and middle-income countries, with three in four parents forced to make major financial choices and sacrifices to pay for childcare. Employer-funded childcare facilities in factories and communities are therefore essential.

“Family-Friendly Spaces is more than just a summer program – it’s a testament to what’s possible when employers, communities, and families come together. We’re proud of how far we’ve come and excited about the future as we expand our impact across Asia.”  – Carmel Giblin, president & CEO, Ethical Supply Chain Program.

The Family-Friendly Spaces programme positively impacts workers, their children and their employers. Between 2016-2024, on average, the program reports 98% of participating workers said their children now had a safe place to go and had a good time during summer school holidays. 93% cited Family-Friendly Spaces as a reason to continue working in the factory and 81% of factory management shared the initiative had reduced their worker turnover rate.

As well as its ten year anniversary, 2025 also marks the biggest year for the Family-Friendly Spaces programme, with a total of 59 childcare spaces in 57 factories and 2 community centres – 17 new and 42 repeating across China and Vietnam, demonstrating its scalability and measurable business benefits.