Private day care allowance

You can apply for the private day care allowance and the related Espoo supplement from Kela. Read more about the private day care allowance on the Kela website.(external link, opens in a new window)

You can receive the sibling supplement of private day care allowance paid by the City of Espoo if you have more than one child in private early childhood education. The sibling supplement is also paid if you have children in both private and municipal early childhood education.

The sibling supplement is sixty per cent, but no more than EUR 177 a month (as of 1 August 2024 EUR 186.60 a month), of the child’ early childhood education fee paid by the family. The sibling supplement is paid on the condition that the private service provider commits to reducing the child’s early childhood education fee paid by the family by an amount equal to the sibling discount.

The sibling supplement is applied for by the child’s guardian, after which the City of Espoo pays the supplement directly to the service provider. We decide on the sibling supplement for a maximum of one operating year at a time (1 August–31 July). No sibling supplement is paid if the children are looked after at home by a caregiver hired by the family.

You apply for the sibling supplement from the City of Espoo with a separate form. Fill in the form and submit it to Financial Administration of the City of Espoo Growth and Learning Sector. The form can be found here on the page Early childhood education forms. The form contains more detailed application instructions. The sibling supplement is granted retroactively for a maximum of six months.

The sibling supplement is primarily paid for the siblings of the family’s youngest child. The supplement is paid to the older siblings’ private early childhood education and care unit. If the youngest child attends private early childhood education and the older sibling attend municipal, service voucher or outsourced early childhood education, the sibling supplement is paid to the youngest child’s early childhood education unit.

If you have questions about the sibling supplement, please contact Financial Administration of the City of Espoo Growth and Learning Sector (contact information at the end of this page).

In Espoo, children are entitled to twenty hours of free early childhood education and care a week in the year that they turn five. Free early childhood education is offered from the beginning of August to the end of July of the following year. More information about five-year-olds’ free early childhood education is available here.

For this purpose, Espoo has a municipal supplement for five-year-olds with which private service providers can give discounts on the fee for early childhood education and care. In this way, a service provider can provide five-year-old children with free early childhood education and care, four hours a day and a total of twenty hours a week. The provision of the free twenty hours of early childhood education and care a week is voluntary for service providers. You can ask your child’s day-care centre, group family day-care centre or family day-care provider whether the service provider has this service.

As of 1 August 2024 the municipal supplement of the twenty hours a week of free early childhood education is twenty per cent, but no more than EUR 62/month, of the child’s early childhood education fee paid by the family. The supplement is paid on the condition that the private service provider commits to reducing the child’s early childhood education fee paid by the family by an amount equal to the municipal supplement.

The City of Espoo pays the supplement directly to the service provider on the basis of the service provider’s application, Instructions for applying for the municipal supplement and the application form are delivered to private service providers operating in Espoo at the turn of July–August. Service providers operating in other municipalities can request the instructions and the application form from Early Childhood Education Service Guidance of Espoo vaka.palveluohjaus@espoo.fi

If your child requires early childhood education and care in addition to free pre-primary education (twenty hours/week), the education and care are subject to a fee. You can apply for the private day care allowance from Kela(external link, opens in a new window), if your child attends both pre-primary education and private early childhood education and care.

The allowance is paid for children of pre-primary education age who attend private early childhood education. We grant the allowance from the start of August to the end of May of the following year. When pre-primary education ends in the spring, you can apply for the allowance for full-time early childhood education for your child for June and July before the start of basic education.

If your child, who lives in Espoo, attends pre-primary education in another municipality, the payment policies for private day care allowance may vary. In this case, you can contact Early Childhood Education Service Guidance (contact information at the end of the page).

Before children start school, they must attend pre-primary education for a year. Alternatively, children can attend some other activity where the objectives of pre-primary education can be achieved. Guardians may sometimes decide to go with a solution in which the family’s child does not participate in pre-primary education; instead, the child continues to attend early childhood education at a private day care centre full time. In this case, the guardian is responsible for ensuring that the child achieves the objectives of pre-primary education.

Even in this case you can apply for the private day care allowance from Kela.(external link, opens in a new window) For the full-time early childhood education and care of a child of pre-primary education age, Kela pays a lower private day care allowance of a child of pre-primary education age. The allowance is paid from the start of August to the end of May of the following year.

However, you can apply for the difference between the allowance for full-time early childhood education and the allowance for the early childhood education of a child of pre-primary education age from the City of Espoo. The difference is EUR 121.53 a month for the day care allowance, EUR 384 a month for the Espoo supplement and a maximum of EUR 132.93 a month for the income-dependent day care supplement as of 1 March 2025.

1. Fill in the application form for a child of pre-primary education age who attends private early childhood education and care full time. You can find all forms related to early childhood education and care here.
2. Attach to the application a copy of Kela’s decision on the private day care allowance for a child of pre-primary education age. The decision must include the amount (in euros) of the allowance that the child of pre-primary education age receives.
3. Deliver the application and its appendices to Early Childhood Education Service Guidance: P.O. Box 3125, 02070 City of Espoo. The City of Espoo will decide on the matter on the basis of the application.

A child’s family may choose to act as an employer and hire a caregiver of their choice for the child. As a guardian, you can apply for the private day care allowance from Kela(external link, opens in a new window), the allowance is paid to the child’s guardian. For a family to be eligible for the private day care allowance, the caregiver must meet certain conditions and be approved by the early childhood education of the City of Espoo. Read more about hiring a caregiver.