TKW Consulting

British policymakers frequently cite Sweden as a good example of childcare provision, so what do the two countries do differently?

Childcare options
The British pre-school options for parents consist of day nurseries, toddler groups and pre-schools. In addition there are crèches (for children up to eight years old), or childminders and nannies (for children up to 12 years old). Parents also have the option of sending their child to playgroups or out-of-school clubs after they have started school. All childcare has to be registered and inspected by Ofsted.

Childcare in Sweden is organised in a similar way with pre-schools (day nurseries), family daycare homes (run by municipal childminders), open pre-schools and leisure time centres (equivalent to out-of-school clubs). All pre-school establishments also have to be assessed by the government and meet certain standards. However, while most pre-school childcare is provided by the private sector in the UK, Swedish nurseries are financed partly by central government grants, partly by tax revenue and partly by parental fees. Community and council nurseries do exist in the UK but they are not as commonplace as private nurseries.

Free early learning
Four and five-year-olds in Sweden are offered at least three free hours a day during school term. Sweden also has a maximum fee policy which states parents should only have to spend between 1% and 3% of the family's income on childcare, depending on how many children they have.

The UK government offers three and four-year-olds 12.5 hours of free early learning a week; this should apply to all forms of childcare for at least 38 weeks of the year, but there is no guarantee of getting a place with a particular provider.

Childcare fees
Sweden's maximum fee policy means everyone has affordable childcare. Parents do not have to rely on other welfare benefits to the same extent to cope with pre-school costs. The maximum rate is limited to 1,260 SEK (around £102) a month for the family's first child (based on full-time care). Usually a family pays less for their second and third child - around 0.25% or 1% of the family's income.

There is no such thing as a maximum fee policy in Britain. Those with children under three may have to dig deep to pay for care. According to a recent survey by childcare charity the Daycare Trust, the cost of a nursery place for a two-year-old has increased more than twice the rate of inflation in England. Nurseries are more expensive than childminders, and a typical nursery place for a child under two is now £8,268 a year in England, £7,384 in Wales and £7,332 in Scotland.

Help with costs
The UK government provides means-tested funding to help families. Claims of up to 80% of childcare costs can be made through the UK working tax credit. There are also job grants for those who have been unemployed and are returning to work, or child maintenance premium for those receiving income support or jobseekers' allowance. In addition there is a tax-efficient employer-supported childcare system, which is worth up to £1,066 a year.

Britain also has the New Deal for Lone Parents to support unemployed people with affordable childcare while they work towards getting off benefits. New welfare reforms, due to come into force in October, state that income support will no longer be available solely on the grounds of being a lone parent.

The paradox that parents are faced with is that although help to get a job should increase equal opportunities, it is also a worry since out-of-school fees have escalated as well. The Daycare Trust reports they have risen by more than six times the inflation rate, with typical costs of £43 for 15 hours a week.

The workforce
Mother-of-two Ditte O'Connor is Swedish but has lived in the UK for several years. Her eldest son, Kai, was born in London. He started with a childminder when he was seven months old and is now at nursery in Sweden.

"In the UK I only ever saw up to three children per adult in nurseries for children under three, whereas in Sweden the groups are larger with fewer adults. On the other hand there is a larger mix of ages, which is not a bad thing," says O'Connor.

There are also more men working in childcare in Sweden than O'Connor has seen in the UK. "I think this makes a big difference because activities do vary slightly where there are more male carers. There is a different atmosphere and it's great to have a good gender balance for the children in general," she says.

The Swedish workforce in childcare is made up of almost 5% of men in pre-schools and nurseries. In the UK the proportion of male nursery staff has stayed at 1% for over 10 years.

Reading and writing
Ninni Olofsdotter Schulman is Swedish and lives in Stockholm. She has two children, Signe and Sven. Sven started nursery when he was one, spending three days a week there for the first six months, while Signe stayed at home for 18 months.

"I did a lot of reading and writing at home with my kids," says Olofsdotter Schulman. "Signe can read and Sven knows all the letters in the alphabet. I don't think their knowledge came entirely from their time at nursery. In a way I think Swedish pre-schools could be a bit more educational, in a playful way of course."

Outdoor play and social interaction
David Brown is English but lives in Sweden with his family. He is sceptical about early years education in the UK.

"I believe there is too much pressure on children in the UK too early on. I think guidance is more than enough," says Brown.

He also points out that outdoor activity is part of the key structure in Swedish pre-schools. Sweden has vast outdoor spaces but green parks and other child-friendly public areas are limited in big cities in the UK.

"My kids play outdoors all the time and the nursery takes them out on forest excursions and visits to the park on a regular basis. Sweden definitely focuses more on interpersonal skills than the UK does," he says.

Although the British pre-school curriculum acknowledges the use of learning through play, it also emphasises goals and assessing the child's progress. The Swedish system is more concerned with guidelines and basic values such as care and consideration towards others, solidarity, gender equality and tolerance, none of which can be measured on an academic level.

Why, then, do only 20% of licensed family child providers have business liability insurance? The answer is probably threefold. First of all, many do not consider family child care as a business and therefore why do they need insurance. Secondly, a lot of providers who know better choose to ignore the issue, thinking that since they are licensed they are somehow inoculated and won't be held liable, or that accidents are unlikely because their home has been inspected. Finally, many providers think that insurance is just too expensive, and since they have never had a problem, it is a waste of money.

However, in the event of an accident, a lawsuit, or a criminal charge, uninsured providers can be wiped out financially and become unable to afford adequate criminal defense that may keep them out of jail. The equity in their home, their children's college fund, their savings and retirement investments, their future earnings greatly reduced — all these things can be affected by a legal judgment against them.

The Real Risks in Family Child Care
Here are several true stories in family child care:

• A day care child pulls down a bottle warmer on top of another child: $525,000
• A three and a half month old child dies of SIDS: $435,000
• An older child drops an infant on the floor: $300,000
• A bookshelf falls on a child: $273,000
• A provider is accused of negligence in the death of a child: $240,000
• A two-year old is poisoned with E. Coli: $130,000
• A parent alleges that the provider's son assaulted their daughter: $118,000
• A child falls and breaks her leg: $90,000
• A child falls off monkey bars: $75,000

In each case the provider's business liability insurance policy paid out these amounts to the parents of the child involved.Every family child care provider knows that caring for children in her home increases the risk of damage to property and injury to children. There is no way to eliminate these risks, but there are many things providers can do to reduce them. The most effective way of reducing the risks of your business is to purchase professional business liability insurance. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of all licensed providers have taken this step.

7 Reasons For Starting a Day Care
By Christine Groth

As more and more mothers choose to work outside the home, the demand for quality day cares continues to increase. Parents want a safe, fun, caring, and challenging place to leave their children while they work. Starting a day care offers many benefits for a mother.

1. Starting a day care would provide a mother the chance to be with her children during their early childhood. Many mothers would rather stay home with their kids, but are unable to because of financial reasons. Starting a day care would allow one to earn an income while spending quality time with her children.

2. Starting a day care may also be more fulfilling to many women than other career options. This would give one the chance to help children learn and grow. Seeing the smiles on the faces of the children she cares for may be worth more than any income earned.

3. At the same time, starting a day care would provide the income a woman would need to survive or even build a better life. A quality day care with a loving environment is invaluable to most parents, so they would be willing to pay more for great childcare than a mediocre babysitter. This would provide financial stability for a mom starting a day care.

4. Starting a day care could also provide one with a chance to improve parenting skills. While you should already be dependable and reliable, caring for other’’s children would help you learn patience. This would also expose you to children of various ages and backgrounds, making it easier to understand some of your children’’s behavior or problems. You will learn about different personalities and moods. Learning to handle them will prepare you for anything!

5. Starting a day care would also provide an opportunity to be creative. Games, crafts, toys, snacks, and meals are all areas where you could experiment. Different children will like or respond to different things, so you can play around until you find your perfect fit. The children will love the variety, and even things that do not become daily activities can be pulled out as needed.

6. Starting a daycare would also provide your children with new experiences. They would get the chance to make new friends, and would love having playmates all day long! They would also get to try out new activities and foods that they might not otherwise have. They would learn about sharing, manners, and helping out. This alone could make starting your own day care worth it.

7. Starting a day care would also provide a terrific community service. Many people are concerned with sending their children to large childcare facilities. Starting your own day care would provide a family environment as an alternative to a corporate giant. Most people would rather their children be with another mom, especially one who would provide educational experiences and a loving environment, than to be in an impersonal environment.
(C) CG Groth Inc 2007

Chad Messer is a lead teacher at the Marshall University Child Development Academy. That means it's his job to encourage good behavior and discourage the bad.

“It’s okay if they lose their cool. We just have to teach them,” Chad said.

They’re teaching, not disciplining. At the academy, there's no such thing as time out.

“It’s not enough to make them go over here if having outlandish behavior,” Chad said.

Here, the method of discipline is called positive guidance. That means helping children turn their negative behavior into a positive through a learning process in problem-solving.

“We need to get away from this punitive action. How will they learn from that? How will the next situation be better than that?” MU Child Development Academy Director Susan Miller said,” I think research is showing time out is not working, but what we do instead is the problem,” Susan said.

The academy already serves as a learning lab for Marshall students from the School of Education and Human Services. Now, they're getting a lesson in discipline alternatives as well.

“I know if a student knows early on, problem solve,” MU student Gloria McClure said.

“When they learn positive guidance at this level, can take into their own classroom, we want them to get experience in problem-solving and they learn there's something to do other than time out,” Dr. Janet Dozier of the MU School of Education and Human Services said.

Dr. Janet Dozier is Marshall University's coordinator of early childhood education and an assistant professor. She’s studied the effects of many forms of discipline on younger children. She’s a big believer in the benefits of positive guidance.

“When we do punitive, all that does is stop a wrong behavior. It doesn't begin a right behavior,” Dr. Dozier said,” We can identify the problem, go over some solutions, pick the best solution, work through them with the child and then give affirmation.”

“Our teachers prefer time out. They're away from their toys and their friends and they understand they've done something wrong,” Kenova Church of God Early Child Development Center Stephanie Arrowood of said.

Stephanie says the 2007 State Daycare Center Licensing rules now require all centers in West Virginia to adopt positive guidance and redirecting behavior for children under three, which is a change from even just a few months ago. She says as she sees it, the best discipline is a combination of both.

“You explain to them why they're in time out and in trouble and they understand this is a consequence for what I’ve done,” Stephanie said.

“I think anytime you use something positive, it's new, but it's better than punishment,” Chad said.At Marshall's Child Development Academy, a donation by Chad Pennington's First and Ten Foundation made a recent training seminar on positive guidance possible.

The center plans to take the information from that workshop to help train professionals at other daycare centers. For parents who are interested in learning more about positive guidance and what it means.

The Brat Race: In Diapers And on a Day-Care Wait List
For many young people and their families, enduring the wait list has become a rite of passage to gain admission to college, private school and even preschool.

Now, children are being wait-listed even younger -- in utero. After Kate Ferry learned last summer she was pregnant, she and her husband put their unborn baby on a wait list for admission to a child-care center next fall. "It was a running joke, that we told the day-care center before we told anyone in the family" that she was pregnant, says the Downingtown, Pa., mother-to-be.

As competition for good child care intensifies, parents in many regions are finding themselves on long wait lists, particularly for infant and toddler care; some are trying to nail down slots even before their babies are conceived. The trend poses a challenge for parents, who may not know how far to plan ahead and how to navigate the wait lists.

Data from the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, a nonprofit organization of community family-support agencies, show the number of preschoolers with working parents exceeding the number of child-care slots by 25% to 75% in half the states, including California, Pennsylvania and New York.