Financing ECEC Services

1
Financing ECEC Services

• Bea Buysse
• Christele Van Nieuwenhuyzen
• Kind en Gezin
• Flanders (Belgium)

2
Content of the presentation

• Background information on ECEC in Flanders
• Improvement of accessibility priority rules and
  income related contributions
• Financing system child care

3
Background information on ECEC in Flanders

• Split system
• Childcare for children under the age of 3 day
  care centres and family day carers.
  Responsibility Minister of Welfare
• Pre-primary starts at the age of 2.5.
  Responsibility Minister of Education
• Further presentation only concerns child care

4
Background information on child care services in
Flanders
INFORMAL CARE FORMAL CARE FORMAL CARE FORMAL CARE FORMAL CARE
Grandparents, relatives, neighbours, au pairs, Accredited and subsidized child care services Independent child care services with a licence Independent child care only registered
Grandparents, relatives, neighbours, au pairs, Centre based Crèches Independent crèches
Grandparents, relatives, neighbours, au pairs, Family setting Services for family day care Independent family day carers
5
Background informationon the use of child care
in Flanders(2009)

• 63,2 of the children from 2 months till 3 years
  are frequent users of child care
• Informal child care 24,0
• Formal child care 73,4
• Out of school care 2,8

6
Frequent users of childcare among children from 2
months till age 3 by origin, social situation
and family situation (2009)
Children from non Belgian origin 32,6
Children from Belgian origin 70,8
Children living in deprived families 21,0
Children in non deprived families 65,7
Children in a one-parent family 54,6
Children in a two-parent family 63,8
All Children 63,2

7
Improvement of accessibility

• Two important measures has been taken
• Adaptation of the priority rules
• Extension of the system of income related
  parental contributions

8
Improvement of accessibility priority rules

• Since February 2009 priority rules has been
  introduced in the accredited and subsidized child
  care services and will be monitored
• Priority for
• Children from families with a low income
• Children from families for whom child care is
  important in view of their economic and social
  inclusion. For instance single parents following
  a training or searching for work
• Children for whom it is desirable for social
  and/or pedagogical reasons to receive care and
  supervision outside their own families during the
  day
• Priority rules apply for at least 20 of the
  capacity

9
Improvement of accessibility income related
contributions

• Extension of the system of income related
  contributions to the independent sector
• System exist already a very long time in the
  subsidized crèches and family day care services.
  Government compensate for the lost of income.
• Contributions fluctuate between 1.42 Euro (1.75
  USD) and 25 Euro (30.9 USD) for a full day.
  Social rate, even a zero contribution, is
  possible after social inquiry
• Independent crèches and family day carers can
  choose for working with income related parental
  contributions. Government guarantees a income of
  25 Euro (30.9 USD) per day for the crèches and 17
  Euro (21 USD) per day for family day care
• At the moment (after quit a bit more than one
  year) about 1 in 4 independent crèches has chosen
  for this system

10
Financing child care

• Situation today
• Plans

11
Financing child care situation today

• Accredited crèches and family day care services
  fully subsidized
• Total amount per place
• Crèches about 11,700 Euro (14,500 USD) per place
  per year
• Family day care services about 4,100 Euro (5,050
  USD) per place per year
• Independent crèches and family day care
• A very limited subsidy for crèches ( requirement
  regarding to the quality of the crèche) about
  550 Euro per per place per year (680 USD)
• No funding for independent family day carers
• Plus a compensation for lost income in case of
  income related contributions

12
Financing child care plans

• A fundamental revise of the financing system in
  the child care
• Fits in the development of a new decree for child
  care in Flanders

• Development of a new law as a reference for all
  future regulations concerning child care
• Defining a new structure for all child care
  services in Flanders
• System of licenses no license no child care -
  No distinction anymore between accredited and
  independent child care services
• Same minimal quality requirements for all
  licensed child care.
• Equal funding of the child care services.

13
A fundamental revise of the financing system in
the child care

• Equal and justified basic subsidy accessible in
  the same way for every facility
• Basic subsidy completed by performance-related
  subsidies
• Every facility should work preferably with
  contributions for the parents according to their
  income
• TIMING implementation January 2012