Private early childhood education and day care centers

Private day care allowance can be granted if your child attends a private day care centre or family day care, or if your family employs a caregiver approved by the municipality. Private day care allowance includes care allowance, a care supplement which depends on your family’s income, and a municipal supplement to Espoo residents.

To get private day care allowance and a municipal supplement, the child’s parent/guardian needs to send an application to Kela. Kela always pays the allowance directly to the private service provider.

If your child is granted private day care allowance, the child cannot attend a club organised by the city.

Any allowance paid in excess will be recovered from the parents of the child that has received the allowance decision. To avoid this, always notify Kela immediately if your child stops attending private early childhood education.

In addition to Kela’s allowance, the City of Espoo pays a sibling supplement to families if at least two children of the family in question attend early childhood education produced by a private service provider in a day care centre, group family day care or family day care at the home of the caregiver. The sibling supplement is also paid if some of the children in a family attend private early childhood education, for which private day care allowance has been granted, while others attend municipal or outsourced early childhood education.

The maximum sibling allowance is EUR 177 €/month. The city pays the sibling allowance directly to the early childhood education provider starting from the second child in the family who attends early childhood education. Apply for the sibling supplement with a separate form with more detailed instructions.

For the allowance to be paid, the service provider must agree to subtract the sibling supplement from the early childhood education fee it invoices from the family, starting from the second child who attends early childhood education. The agreement form and the related service fees are available on the site Private early childhood education forms.

Please direct any questions concerning the sibling supplement to the Financial Management unit of the Education and Cultural Services of the City of Espoo on weekdays at 9–13: tel. +358 9 81627400.

If your child attends early childhood education in addition to pre-primary education, you may apply for private day care allowance.

Upon the family’s application, Kela pays private day care allowance to the service provider, for each pre-school-age child attending private early childhood education, from the beginning of August until the end of May next year. Private day care allowance includes

care allowance: EUR 70,75

a municipal supplement: EUR 110

a care supplement: EUR 0–132,93 (as of 1.3.2023) depending on your family’s income. If you are granted income-dependent care allowance, you will also get a municipal supplement of EUR 100/month as an Espoo resident.

You may apply for allowance for full-time early childhood education for your child for the months of June and July before basic education begins.

If a child residing in Espoo attends pre-primary education in a private day care centre or school located in another municipality, the payment of private day care allowance may vary.

The City of Espoo will pay the difference between the sums above also for children who attend pre-primary education provided by other parties (other municipalities, pre-primary and basic education providers approved by the state) in August before pre-primary education begins if the service provider and the child’s guardians have signed a contract concerning the child’s early childhood education for that period of time. In this case, the amount of allowance paid depends on the number of days the child attends early childhood education.

When the child is receiving pre-primary education, the pre-primary education provider pays]  reimbursement for pre-primary education to the private service provider. Alternatively, the pre-primary education provider can get central government transfers for organising pre-primary education. If you child’s early childhood education has been organised in some other way, this does not entitle you to other forms of allowance in addition to those paid by Kela.

Telephone
Guidance and infomation is available to guardians at this number:
+358 9 816 31000

Instructions for starting, modifying and terminating your operations is available in the Starting or ending private early childhood education operations and changes in operations 

Espoo supports the setting up of a private day-care centre or group family day-care centre by providing a start-up grant.

Private early childhood education operations are supported by paying private day care allowance for children in private early childhood education.

Play parks are public playing areas built by the City of Espoo meant for use by the residents. Private play park carers may offer their services in the play parks. The activities are subject to a fee and the play park carers choose themselves the children attending the activities. The city monitors the play park carer activities.

Further information from specialist of private early childhood education Miia Mynttinen, miia.mynttinen@espoo.fi 

Providers of private early childhood education can apply for a start-up grant from the City of Espoo to help with setting up new operations. The start-up grant can be applied for all year round.

To what is the start-up grant meant for?

The start-up grant is granted for costs arising from acquiring and modifying the premises of day-care centres and group family day-care centres operating with the help of the private day care allowance as well as for acquiring the movables, operating equipment and materials required in starting the operations. The start-up grant is granted for premises acquired by early childhood education providers or leased by them for at least three years.

The purpose of the start-up grant is to support the creation of early childhood education places in areas where there is particular demand for new places. Private day-care providers acquire their premises by themselves. The early childhood education expert of the area in question must be contacted prior to applying for the start-up grant (see the bottom of the page). An assessment of the suitability of the premises for use as early childhood education premises must be requested from the expert.

How much is the start-up grant?

The maximum amount of the start-up grant is €3,000/early childhood education place to be established for children living in Espoo. For the purpose of acquiring operating equipment and materials, the maximum amount is 15% of the €3,000/place to be established. The start-up grant cannot exceed the actual start-up costs/place to be established.

What is needed in the application?

• start-up grant form
• plan for the use of the start-up grant
• valid registration extract
• budget for operational economy
• operating plan
• lease (for at least three years)
• tax debt certificate
• bank security in the euro amount corresponding to the applied support
• plan for ensuring the high-quality of the services
• statements by the fire, health and early childhood education authorities
• permit by the building inspection authority to use the premises for day care
• report of any other possible information that the applicant wishes to resort to
  

In addition, a separate commitment is required from a private early childhood education service provider stating that he/she will return the start-up grant if the operations are not launched within one year or if the operations are discontinued within two years from their launch. If the operations are discontinued within three years from their launch, the early childhood education service provider must return half of the start-up grant.

The decision about granting a start-up grant is taken by the director of Finnish Early Education.

The recipient of a start-up grant must provide all the information seen necessary by the city for processing the start-up grant application, granting the start-up grant and monitoring its use.

Further information:

Early Childhood Education District Manager Kirsi Tarkka tel. +358 40 6369379

The forms are in PDF format and work with Internet Explorer. If you wish to use Chrome, please save the form on your device before opening it.

Starting as a private family day-care provider

Private family day cares in Espoo(external link)

vaka.yksityinen@espoo.fi(external link)

Lucia Bigos
puh. +358 50 3216919
lucia.bigos@espoo.fi

Read more about hiring a caregiver at home.