School-age childcare

Swedish childcare includes pre-schools for children between one and five years of age and school-age childcare for schoolchildren between six and twelve years. The pre-school system consists of pre-schools, family day-care homes and open pre-schools. School-age childcare consists of family day-care homes and out-of-school centres.

The task of school-age childcare is to supplement school, offer children meaningful leisure time and support their development.

Municipalities are obliged to offer school-age childcare to children attending pre-school classes and school up to 12 years of age to the extent necessary to enable parents to be gainfully employed or to study, or if the child has a need for such childcare in his/her own right. The Education Act contains quality requirements describing the preconditions necessary to meet children's needs for care and good educational activities. These requirements concern the composition and size of children's groups, premises and staff. The requirement for quality reporting now also extends to school-age childcare. The purpose of this is to strengthen ongoing quality management and to improve the basis for dialogue between parents and staff, and the childcare activity and the municipality. School-age childcare is provided in the form of out-of-school centres, open out-of-school services and family day-care homes. Approximately 330 000 children are enrolled in school-age childcare which corresponds to some 74 per cent of all six- to nine-year-olds. The majority attend out-of-school centres, which are generally integrated into, and have the same management, as schools.

Sweden's Government and Riksdag determine the curricula, national goals and guidelines for school-age childcare. Within these frameworks, the individual local authority decides how the activities are to be run.

Out-of-school centres

Out-of-school centres play an important role for the childs development and security, and their educational activities significantly supplement those of the school. The out-of-school centres share their curriculum (Lpo 94) with compulsory school and pre-school classes. This stipulates that pre-school classes, schools and out-of-school centres must develop channels for cooperation so as to enrich the all-round development and learning of each child. Through their experience of explorative, laboratory and practical methods, out-of-school centres can help in achieving the more academic oriented goals of schools. One pre-condition for children to perceive their leisure-time as meaningful is that activities are designed based on their needs, interests and experience. Great emphasis must be given to encouraging students to develop their social skills in their interplay with friends and adults. The child's development must be regarded as a unified whole in which teaching and childcare are integrated.

It is possible to organise activities and integrate school-age childcare activities with scheduled teaching within the framework of the compulsory school. This means that the municipality is able to organise work so that the staff of out of-school centres also work in the compulsory school.

Open out-of-school services

Open out-of-school of services are an alternative for children between the ages of 10 and 12 who do not need the care and supervision given in out-of-school centres and family day-care homes (activities in which the child is enrolled). Activities are to supplement school lessons, offer meaningful leisure time pursuits and support the child's development. Open out-of-school services can be organised in several different ways. To a greater or lesser extent they are often coordinated with other activities, usually out-of-school centres, schools or youth recreation centres.

Family day-care homes

Family day carers in family day-care homes look after registered children in their homes. The task of the family carer system is to offer children social skills and a caring and secure environment, through teaching activities. Family day-care homes must be based on the needs of the individual child, be enjoyable and stimulating and provide good opportunities for learning.