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Demokratiskolan
The Childcare card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 7 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaWelfare & health
  • Centre of gravityThe municipality
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe municipal election
Welfare & health

Childcare

Day-, nightcare & pre-school

Preschool (förskola), after-school care and night care decide whether daily life holds together for families, and they are a child's first meeting with the public sector. Almost all power over childcare sits in the town hall: it is the municipal election that decides fees, opening hours and how many children are in each group.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · places, fees & opening hours · approx 70 %
  • State · education act, curriculum & fee cap · approx 30 %

Childcare is the municipality's responsibility from start to finish. The central government sets the frame in the education act, but how it is filled in is decided in the municipal election.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe responsible authority · centre of gravity
The regionNo formal role
Central governmentThe framework
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige) and the education committee, which is sometimes called the children and education committee.
No formal role. The region meets children in healthcare, not in childcare.
The Riksdag, the Government, the National Agency for Education (Skolverket) and the Schools Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen).
What do they decide?
Runs preschools and after-school centres, allocates places, sets fees within the fee cap and decides whether night care should exist.
The child health centre follows the child's health but governs nothing in preschool.
The education act, the preschool curriculum, the right to a place within four months and the ceiling of the fee cap.
Where are decisions made?
In the education committee and the municipal council. Documents and minutes are public.
Not here: decisions about childcare are made in the town hall and the Riksdag.
In the Riksdag and at the agencies. The Schools Inspectorate checks that municipalities carry out their task.
Who pays?
The municipal tax covers most of it, parents' fees a smaller part.
Nothing of childcare. The regional tax goes to healthcare.
Central government grants, among other things to municipalities that keep fees under the fee cap.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election The preschool's parents' council, a citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag), email to the committee's politicians.
Regional election No direct way here. Questions about the child health centre go through the region.
General election A referral response (remiss) when the education act changes, a report to the Schools Inspectorate.
EUThe EU has no direct power over Swedish childcare. Family policy is national, so the European Parliament election weighs lightly here.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case A preschool place comes to be
  1. State

    The education act gives the right to a place

    The education act says that the municipality must offer a preschool place within four months of application, and the curriculum governs what preschool should do. The fee cap sets a ceiling on what the place may cost you.

    Point of influence

    The general election decides the education act and the fee cap. Changes to the law go out for referral (remiss) before a decision.

  2. Municipality

    The committee plans the places

    The education committee assesses how many children are coming, where new sections need to open and how much money each preschool gets. This is where group sizes and opening hours are in practice decided.

    Point of influence

    The municipal election governs the committee. Many municipalities accept a citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag) about preschool.

  3. Municipality

    You join the queue

    You apply through the municipality's e-service, usually with a preference for which preschools you would most like. From the application, the four-month guarantee period starts to count.

  4. Municipality

    The placement is decided

    The administration offers a place based on queue time and the municipality's rules, often with priority for siblings. The fee is calculated from the household's income, within the fee cap.

    Point of influence

    Unhappy with the offer? You can decline, stay in the queue and point out errors to the administration.

  5. Your everyday life

    The settling-in begins

    The child hangs their jacket on a hook of their own with their name above it. The path here went through the Riksdag, a committee and a queue, and every part could be influenced.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. What matters most to you in a preschool: proximity, group size or teaching approach, and what are you prepared to pay for it through tax?

  2. Night care exists only in some municipalities. Who should have the right to care at night?

  3. How big is a group that is too big, and who should decide that: the central government or your municipality?

  4. What do you know about how your municipality prioritises preschool in the budget, and how would you find out?

  5. If you could change one thing about childcare where you live, what would it be?

Glossary

Maxtaxa
A central government ceiling on the preschool fee. Municipalities that follow it receive a central government grant.
Huvudman
The body responsible for an activity. For municipal preschools it is the municipality.
Allmän förskola
Fee-free preschool a few hours a week, from the autumn of the year the child turns three.
Utbildningsnämnd
The elected members in the municipality responsible for preschool and school.
Medborgarförslag
The right, in many municipalities, to put a proposal directly to the municipal council.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.