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2013-03-19 09:06:14
By Maddy Savage BBC News, Sweden
As working parents around the world juggle their childcare issues, are Sweden's
night nurseries the solution to unsociable hours?
Sweden has long had a glowing reputation for its generous childcare facilities
and is regularly ranked as one of the best places to raise a family.
Each child is guaranteed a place at a public preschool and no parent is charged
more than three per cent of their salary, with fees capped at SEK 1260 ($197,
132) a month for the country's highest earners.
All other costs are covered by the state, which spends SEK 56.6bn ($8.9bn,
5.0bn) a year subsidising preschool services, more than its annual defence
budget.
Most public nurseries offer care from around 06:00 to 18:00. But with the
numbers of parents working flexible or unconventional hours going up, local
councils are increasingly providing more overnight and weekend services.
In south-east Sweden, the small, former industrial city of Norrkoping is among
those already leading the way in out-of-hours care. There are four council-run
nurseries open overnight here, the first of which launched 20 years ago.
The British expat's story
Gina Tse, 33, is prima ballerina for the Royal Swedish Ballet Company, Prima
Ballerina. She lives in Stockholm with her four-year old son Jacy.
"As an expat mum, I have the same rights as a Swedish national in terms of
maternity leave and access to childcare. Being a ballerina, I regularly perform
at night and at weekends.
For my son, the night nursery is in the same location as his day nursery, so he
has the same teachers and it feels familiar.
When he was one they would put him to sleep in his pram so I could just roll
him home after my performance and he wouldn't even wake up.
When I speak to British friends back home I realise how lucky I am as the cost
of childcare is tremendous compared with Sweden. I pay a total of SEK 890
($138, 93) a month."
"At first it was very hard to take my kids to sleep somewhere else and my heart
was aching," says mother Maria Klytseroff, 39, a part-time care assistant for
people with learning difficulties.
Her children spend about two or three nights a week at one of the preschools,
which is more like a homely apartment than an education centre.
"I am a single mum and I wanted to go back to my job, which is at night,"
explains Maria.
"The children soon got used to it, they have friends and they adore the workers
who look after them."
Eighteen children are registered at the nursery.
The toddlers arrive in time to eat dinner, clean their teeth and then enjoy a
bedtime story with a member of staff.
Two-year-old Leon is dressed in blue striped pyjamas and cuddles several teddy
bears as he curls up beneath a duvet covered in cartoon characters.
Child being read to in Swedish nursery
His older sister India, three, is wearing her favourite strawberry-print
nightwear and has just finished a glass of milk.
In the morning, staff will zip them into their padded snow suits and wheel them
by buggy to a nearby day centre while Maria sleeps off her night shift.
"I have travelled a lot, so I know that I am lucky compared to people in other
countries," says Maria, who pays a total of $112 (SEK 720, 75) a month in
preschool fees.
Just over 78% of mothers with children under seven went out to work in 2012,
according to Statistics Sweden's latest Labour Force Survey.
In Sweden, it is up to local government regions (known as municipalities) to
decide whether they want to offer publicly funded out-of-hours care.
It is currently available in 123 out of 290 areas and used by almost 5,000
children.
Both single parents and couples are eligible to apply as long as their employer
provides evidence of their shift patterns.
Sweden's welfare state
Both parents entitled to combined total of 16 months paid leave per child
First 13 months paid at 80% of the parent-on-leave's most recent income, up to
ceiling of approximately SEK 440,000 ($68,500, 45,900), rest is paid at flat
rate of SEK 180 (SEK $28, 19) per day
Public childcare guaranteed to all parents with most facilities open between
0630 and 1830, with fees capped at 3% of parental income, up to SEK 1260 ($197,
132) a month for first child
Free pre-school for children between three and six, for up to 15 hours per week
All parents entitled to monthly benefit of SEK 1,050 ($163, 109) per child
with supplements for large families
Swedish Government
Hospital workers, restaurant workers, transport workers and shop staff affected
by longer opening hours in recent years, are among those who benefit from the
service.
From July, the governing centre-right Alliance has promised to spend $17m (SEK
108.5m, 11m) over the next four years to help more areas improve their
services.
It says a lot about the nation's long-standing love affair with the welfare
state that the main argument from opposition parties is whether that figure
will prove to be enough.
"Sweden was earlier than other countries in terms of increasing women in the
workforce and to make that possible we built up childcare," says Sweden's
minister for gender equality, Maria Arnholm.
"We believe it is important that families can combine parenthood with work and
that shouldn't just include those who work nine-to-five but also those who work
inconvenient hours," she argues.
But not everyone is sold on the so-called Scandinavian model and its move
towards 24-hour services.
"In terms of night care, I definitely don't agree with the plans to expand it,"
says Madeleine Wallin, president of the European Federation of Parents and
Carers at Home, which represents its members at EU level and at the UN.
She sent three of her five children to public nurseries before deciding to
raise the others at home in Hyssna, a small village in west Sweden.
Swedish children
"Spending hours and hours away from their parents can be incredibly stressful
for children. You only have to look at their body language when they get
dropped off at preschool," she says.
Wallin, who now runs a business with her husband, says she felt pushed into
using childcare for her first children, because of a "social stigma" against
stay-at-home mothers.
"Sweden is an expensive country and when I gave up work for a while to look
after the kids it was a struggle financially. But I was fed up of being told it
was better to leave them with someone else," she adds.
Since 2008, about a third of municipalities have started offering a special
allowance to parents who choose not to work while their children are under
three.
But this amounts to about eight per cent of an average monthly salary in Sweden
and very few have taken up the benefit.
The European Federation of Parents and Carers at Home believes that offering
parents more money could increase the numbers who stay at home.
However others argue that high employment among parents of young children is
here to stay in Sweden.
"The problem is that once you have persuaded the majority of people to put
their one and two-year olds in day or even night care, it is hard to have a
debate," says analyst Jonas Himmelstrand.
"It is painful putting your children in nursery and discussing it reminds
parents of a choice they didn't really want to make."
Start Quote
We do pay high taxes but we get something back and I think that's a great
system
Maria Klytseroff
A strong advocate of home teaching, he has also published controversial
research suggesting that preschools can damage children's mental health and
lead to discipline problems in later life.
Now living in Finland, he is currently advising the Mothers at Home lobby group
in the UK, where the government has promised to expand free early education to
give more parents the choice of returning to work.
But when you speak to mothers and fathers back in Sweden, most do appear fully
sold on the country's public preschool model.
"Thanks to affordable childcare, I was able to study and retrain as a nurse,"
says Martina Stenbom, 44, a mother-of-one who lives in Stockholm.
"In my area there is out-of-hours care, so I have had the chance to work and
study at evenings and weekends."
She also supports the expansion of overnight services, even though they didn't
work for her daughter when she was very young.
"We did try the night nursery when my daughter Pixie was 18 months old, but I
didn't enjoy being apart from her for so long. I would try it again in future
though, if she felt happy with the idea."
In Norrkoping, Maria Klytseroff remains passionate about the preschool
facilities in her snowy city.
"It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor or in between like I am, the
nurseries mean that everyone here has the chance to work," she says.
"We do pay high taxes but we get something back and I think that's a great
system. I am very happy to be a mother in Sweden and I wouldn't want to bring
up my children anywhere else."