Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0346/03464.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 23KB | 439 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03464}
$Pretitle{441}
$Title{Sweden
Child Care in Sweden}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Swedish Institute}
$Affiliation{Swedish Embassy, Washington DC}
$Subject{care
child
children
pre-school
parents
day
work
centres
family
time}
$Date{1990}
$Log{Table 1.*0346401.tab
Table 2.*0346402.tab
Table 3.*0346403.tab
Table 4.*0346404.tab
Table 5.*0346405.tab
}
Country:     Sweden
Book:        Fact Sheets on Sweden
Author:      Swedish Institute
Affiliation: Swedish Embassy, Washington DC
Date:        1990

Child Care in Sweden

     A family policy which protects the child and its rights is regarded as
very important in Sweden. With around 80% of all Swedish women with children
under the age of seven gainfully employed, extensive measures from the
community are necessary to ensure that children can enjoy security and support
in their upbringing.

     Among the aims and measures of the family policy pursued in Sweden can be
mentioned public child care for children between the ages of eighteen months
and seven years and leisure time centres for younger schoolchildren aged 7-12.
Other important provisions for families with children are free maternity and
child health care, child allowances, and a system of parental insurance
whereby the parents receive compensation for loss of income when they stay at
home to look after babies and sick children. There is also legislation against
corporal punishment in the home, in the pre-school and at school. In the event
of a divorce, there is a law giving the child access to both parents.

High demand for child care

     Swedish women have one of the highest employment rates in the western
world-although it should be pointed out that an unusually large number work
part-time. Some of the factors which contributed to this development are a
heavy demand for labour in the 1960s, the expansion of the public care sector
in the 1970s, and changes in family law. The latter included the separate
taxation of spouses, an equality-promoting measure based on the principle that
each individual should be financially independent. The consequence of these
various developments is that in the majority of Swedish families both parents
work outside the home or are studying.

     It is clear that these families have special needs. One is for a parental
insurance system which enables parents to stay at home to care for babies and
sick children without being financially disadvantaged. Another is high-quality
care for young children when their parents are at work. To meet this need, a
system of public child care has been developed in Sweden which aims to enable
parents to combine parenthood with professional work or studies as well as to
meet children's need for support and development.

[See Table 1.: Population]

Parental insurance

     The parental insurance system is based on the principle of compensation
for loss of income for parents staying at home to look after a child. Most
parents first come into contact with the parental insurance system in
connection with the birth of a child. For children born after 1 October 1988,
parents receive benefit for a period of 450 days. For the first 360 days, the
amount received is approx. 90% of the parent's normal income. For the final 90
days, a standard amount of SEK 60 per day is paid. An extension of the benefit
period is now being planned, as the result of a parliamentary decision. If
this plan goes through, parents will be entitled to eighteen months' parental
benefit in connection with the birth of a child, receiving 90% of normal
income for the entire period.

     This benefit can be utilised in various ways. It can be used by one
parent or shared between them. It can be used to stay at home full-time or it
can be combined with part-time working, in which case, the parent receives a
combination of salary from the employer and benefit from the insurance system.
Payment of benefit may be deferred until the child's eighth birthday, at
latest.

     The parental insurance system also provides compensation for loss of
income when one of the parents stays at home to care for a sick child (max. 90
days annually per child up to the age of 12). Parents with children aged
between 4 and 12 are also entitled to take two days off work per child and
year, with compensation for loss of income, to take part in parental education
or visit the child's pre-school, leisure time centre or school.

     One of the ideas behind parental insurance is that it should be shared
between the mother and the father. However, it has proved difficult to
encourage this in connection with the birth of a child. In by far the majority
of cases it is the mother who takes most of the parental benefit. When it
comes to caring for children when they are ill, however, fathers seem nowadays
to take as much responsibility as mothers.

     Parents also receive a child allowance for children under the age of 16.
Families with three or more children receive a supplementary allowance. These
are universal benefits, independent of income. At present, the child allowance
is SEK 5,820 per child per year.

Responsibility for public child care

     The Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen) legislates in matters concerning the
aims, expansion and financing of child care. The Ministry of Health and Social
Affairs (Socialdepartementet) is responsible for the preparation of laws and
proposals related to child care. The National Board of Health and Welfare
(Socialstyrelsen) and the county administrations are together responsible for
supervising the pre-schools and other forms of child care nationwide. This
involves, for example, disseminating information, providing guidance, helping
to develop skills, following up the quality and contents of the work of the
pre-schools, and the planned expansion of services.

     Main day-to-day responsibility for public child care is borne by the
country's 284 municipalities. These supervise the expansion, running and
development of day care centres, leisure time centres, part-time groups and
family day care.

Forms of child care

     Child care services in Sweden take a number of different forms.
Pre-school (forskola) is the general term used to denote day care centres,
part-time groups and open pre-schools.

     Day care centres (daghem) care for children aged 0-6 years whose parents
are gainfully employed or studying, as well as those children who need extra
support for their development. Day care centres are usually open between 6.30
in the morning and 18.00 in the evening, Monday to Friday, all year round.
Today, grouping according to age is no longer the rule. Children are instead
usually divided into mixed-age groups, since it is considered valuable for
them to grow up together with children of other ages. There are infant groups
for small children up to the age of three, sibling groups (usually 2.5 to 6
years), or extended sibling groups which can include children of all
pre-school ages as well as younger schoolchildren. This mixed-age grouping
means that the children do not have to change groups as often as they would do
otherwise and it creates greater stability. The average day care centre will
have four groups or sections, each with some 15-18 children. Each section will
usually have three members of staff, two pre-school teachers (forskollarare)
and one child care attendant (barnskotare) or one pre-school teacher and two
attendants.

[See Table 2.: The distribution of pre-school child care (16-21 January 1989)]

     Part-time groups (deltidsgrupper), which cater for children aged 4-6,
follow the school year and usually comprise 20 children, one pre-school
teacher and one child care attendant. These groups normally meet for three
hours daily, morning or afternoon.

     The activities of the open pre-school (oppen forskola) are targeted at
pre-school children without any other kind of pre-school place, who attend a
few times a week in the company of a parent or family child minder. A
pre-school teacher is employed to organise activi