Sweden - Centre for Early Childhood Development & Education

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Chapter 4SwedenMost notable when looking at the issue ofquality in Sweden is the lack of centraliseddefinitions and the absence of mechanismsfor monitoring quality at a national level.Responsibility for quality assurance lieswith the local authorities and individualsettings (Mooney et al., 2003). Thegovernment once regulated ECCE servicesin a strict manner in Sweden and raised thestandards and the expectations of serviceusers nationally. According to Mooney etal. (2003:12):Once services are generally of a highstandard and communities have cometo expect this level of service,governments appear more able todevolve responsibility for qualityassurance and have less need of acentralised approach.4.2 Context for Quality4.2.1 PhilosophyECCE in Sweden is linked to a societalvision for children in the future. Childcarein Sweden has two primary aims; tosupport and encourage children'sdevelopment and learning and to enableparents to combine their childcareresponsibilities with education oremployment (OECD, 2001). ECCE has hadhigh priority for several decades and is acentral component of family policy inSweden (Kamerman, 2001). Lohmander(2002) describes childcare as a cornerstoneof the Swedish publicly funded socialwelfare system. There is a strong belief thatchildhood should be valued in and of itself(Mooney et al., 2003) and the provision ofhigh quality ECCE service is seen as animportant task for society (Lohmander,2002). Pre-school provision is alsoidentified as the first step in the life-longlearning process (Prieto et al., 2002) andthe need for a smooth transition from preschoolto school has been a concern ofpolicy makers in Sweden for many years. InSweden, special emphasis is placed on well-educated staff, size and composition ofgroups and the suitability of the premisesand "…the declared goal is childcarewholly free of charge." (cited in Pestoff andStrandbrink, 2002:16)Mayall (1996:56) notes there has been achange in the conceptualisation of childrenin Sweden in recent years as a distinctsocial group, with a shared responsibilityfor them between parents and the State4.2.2 PolicyIn Sweden, the locus of policymakingregarding ECCE is both national and local(Kamerman, 2000). While overall nationalgoals and guidelines for ECCE are set atnational level (these goals are set out in the1998 School Act, the curriculum and otherordinances), the municipality decides howthe goals should be made concrete (OECD,1999a). The National Agency for Educationmonitors the fulfilment of these goals.Municipalities are charged with providingsufficient numbers of pre-school andleisure time places, with monitoring thequality of ECCE services and with providingsufficient resources. Following thedecentralisation of responsibility for ECCE,most local authorities establishedcommittees to deal with issues of relevanceto children and adolescents (Lindon,2000). Teachers, heads of ECCE centresand of out of school provision arerepresented on these committees.In 1996, responsibility for public childcarewas transferred from the Ministry of Healthand Social Affairs to the Ministry ofEducation and Science. This representsrecognition of the educational benefits ofECCE services and a desire to facilitate theintegration of the childcare and the formaleducation system (OECD, 1999b).4.2.3 FundingThe main source of subsidy for parentalchildcare costs is supply funding(Candappa et al., 2003) in the form of51
Chapter 4Swedenvouchers. Since 1992, private for-profitcommercial firms were eligible to receivepublic funding for running day careservices (Pestoff and Strandbrink, 2002).In January 2002, a nation-wide fee ceilingknown as the "Max Tax" was introduced(Petrie et al., 2003), meaning that feescannot exceed a certain sum, which had theeffect of reducing the cost for many families(OECD, 1999b). Under the "Max Tax", theparental fee for one child attending a preschoolcentre is three percent of householdincome, before tax, up to a maximum ofSEK1,140 a month (€122 as of July 2002);for a second child parents pay two percentof household income and for a third childone percent. No fees are charged on fourthand subsequent children. According toPestoff and Strandbrink (2002:25), this hasstandardised the funding of childcareprovision through the voucher system forall children in SwedenThe 1998 School Act requires localauthorities to provide childcare at a preschool,at a leisure time centre or in afamily day care home without undue delay(generally interpreted as within a threemonth period) to facilitate parents to workor study (Swedish Institute, 2001). FromJuly 2000, local authorities are required tooffer a pre-school place for at least threehours a day to children of unemployedparents. From January 2002, this alsoapplied to children from families where oneof the parents is at home on parental leavelooking after a brother or sister (SwedishInstitute, 2001). As of January 2003, allfour and five year olds are entitled to threefree hours of pre-school a day from theautumn term of the year they turn four.Provision of this is mandatory by localauthorities but children's attendance isvoluntary.Though compulsory schooling begins atseven, since 1998 municipalities have beenobliged to provide all six year olds with aplace in a pre-school class for at least 525hours per year. Though attendance at theseclasses is voluntary, virtually all six youolds attend. Sweden is moving to universalprovision; the government's long-term goalis the provision of free childcare facilities,which are available to all (Skolverket,2000).4.2.4 Delivery StrategyThe delivery strategy in terms of ECCE inSweden is a supply strategy, as mostprovision is publicly funded and publiclydelivered. However non-municipalprovision of day care services (alternativdrift [alternative provision] or enskild[private] services) expanded following 1985(Pestoff and Strandbrink, 2002).In 1991, the conservative governmentintroduced the idea of freedom of choice;that pre-school provision would beprivately organised but publicly funded.This led to an increase in non-municipalday care services. Pestoff and Strandbrink(2002) note that the development of nonmunicipalday care services has proceededvery unevenly with privately owned servicesmore likely to develop in urban than ruraland sparsely populated areas.Non-municipal day care services includeparent co-ops, voluntary organizations,worker co-ops, organizations with specialpedagogies, and a combination of these orother forms. In particular, parent co-opswitnessed an increase in the early 1990s, asthey were often the only chance for parentsto obtain a day care place. Parent co-opsare based on parental participation andinfluence, and parents have more roles thanin municipal day care services. In 1986,there were only eighteen parent co-ops inStockholm, but by 1990 it had grown to140, and by 1995 there are about 200parent co-ops (Pestoff and Strandbrink,2002).According to Pestoff and Strandbrink(2002), nearly two-thirds of the nonmunicipalday care facilities in 1995 wereeither provided by parent and worker52
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Sweden - Centre for Early Childhood Development & Education

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