The city of Espoo is committed to assigning a child, who has temporarily discontinued early childhood education, with a care place in the previous day-care centre from the beginning of the next operating year, provided that the child enters early childhood education in August.

A precondition to receiving the same early childhood education place is that the child’s care relationship has lasted uninterrupted for at least four (4) months before discontinuing care.

In family and group family day care the care place guarantee is conditional and requires that places become available in the group in August.

Day care can be discontinued on the account of

  • maternity leave, parental leave, child home care leave,
  • alternation leave,
  • sick leave,
  • unemployment,
  • temporary lay-off,
  • temporary moving
  • or some other reason

The care discontinuation must last uninterrupted for at least four (4) months and a written agreement about the discontinuation must be concluded no later than two (2) weeks before the discontinuation. The family can apply for child home care allowance from the Social Insurance Institution (Kela) for the duration of the discontinuation. Early childhood education can be discontinued two (2) times under the terms of the care place guarantee.

The family must notify the care place in writing or via e-mail no later than four (4) months before the end of the agreement period, whether the child will be returning to care or will the care discontinuation continue for the next year of operations (1 August–31 July).

The agreement will become void if early childhood education is needed for the child before the end of the agreement period regarding the care place guarantee due to the parents’ employment or studies. In this case, the family must apply for an early childhood education place according to the deadlines set by law. If the child will return to early childhood education in the middle of the agreement period for some reason other than the parents’ employment or studies, the early childhood education place must be applied for at least four (4) months before the start of care need and the place will be assigned according to the available care places.

The purpose of the care place guarantee is to encourage families to care for children at home when the parents are at home. Families can use the services of open early childhood education during the care place guarantee, such as clubs, open day-care centres and residents’ parks.