Children in Finland are increasingly starting daycare at earlier stages in their lives.
Although their numbers are still quite small, the proportion of children younger than 12 months being placed in daycare has risen in recent years.
At the far end of the spectrum, some centres take care of infants as young as eight months.
According to the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI), around 43 percent of children under the age of two were in early childhood education programmes last year. That reflects a five percentage point increase compared to four years prior.
That is a clear trend, according to EDUFI’s education advisor, Heidi Sairanen.
Despite the country’s shrinking birthrate, the overall use of early childhood education services is rising. Boosting daycare participation rates was mentioned in Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s (NCP) government programme.
Pros and cons
In Kokkola, the parents of 16-month-old Livia Tynkkynen decided to send her to daycare two days a week, as her father Jonatan Tynkkynen is on parental leave and cares for Livia on the weekdays she’s at home.
Livia’s mother, Roosa Ojala, returned to full-time work after receiving a job offer she couldn’t refuse.
Livia’s parents knew that getting back to work by this autumn was necessary, as the family saw a dramatic decrease in income after going on parental leave.
A municipal childcare benefit would have helped them, but the allowance programme came to an end in Kokkola last spring.
“I don’t know of any more fulfilling way to spend your savings than being at home with your own child, but in many ways families with children are being pushed to the limit,” Ojala explained.
Livia’s parents say she has had a good start at daycare, and provided stimulating activities and new social relationships.
According to Ojala, her daughter will likely learn important life skills at daycare, but added that “it still seems crazy to put someone so young there. It has its pros and cons”.
Experts’ reasons
The poor financial situation of families with children has led to some parents returning to work earlier than they may otherwise have. One reason for this is that the level of home care benefits have not risen in line with prices in general, according to the director of early childhood education in Seinäjoki, Aija-Marita Näsänen.
Job uncertainty is another factor, according to research manager at health agency THL, Johanna Lammi-Taskula — and that has also increased the pressure on parents to get back to work.
In Tampere, for example, fewer parents are caring for their kids at home until they turn three. Parents who do so commonly point to the rising cost of living and pressures to return to working life.
However, a weak financial situation does not always drive parents back to work. According to Lammi-Taskula, for some of the most vulnerable families that receive home care support, unemployment may also be a factor.
“Saying you get home care support might sound better than saying you’re unemployed. There is not much [monetary] difference between receiving a small home care support allowance and unemployment benefits,” she said.
However, there are regional differences.
Some areas may offer municipal home care benefits, which encourages parents to delay placing their children in daycare. At the same time, if municipalities reduce or abolish such benefits more kids might be sent to daycare earlier in their lives.
The latter scenario has been the case in Helsinki, according to the City’s Director of Childhood Education, Miia Kemppi.
The proportion of children under the age of three at the city’s daycare centres has rapidly grown throughout the 2000s. Meanwhile, a decision in 2021 to eliminate a benefit for children who have turned one may have contributed to the increase, according to Kemppi.
In some municipalities, early childhood education is free-of-charge, which Lammi-Taskula thinks might encourage parents to send their children to daycare earlier.
Attitude changes
According to the experts, the biggest shift has been the attitudes of parents about the issue.
According to a joint survey by THL and benefits agency Kela in 2022, mothers in particular are increasingly willing to put their children in daycare earlier than in the past.
It found 40 percent of mothers and 36 percent of fathers thinking that 1.5 to 2 years old is the right time to send their children to early childhood education programmes.
But the age threshold appears to be getting lower, with an increasing number of parents thinking they could send their 1 or 1.5-year-old children to daycare.
“It is a clear change in mindset,” Lammi-Taskula explained.
Socioeconomic, birth rate factors
Those attitude changes seem to especially be found among highly educated parents, a group that increasingly sends quite young children to daycare, according to Lammi-Taskula.
The reason for this is that these days a relatively larger proportion of parents with young children are highly educated. At the same time the country’s birth rate has been on the decline, particularly among less educated segments of the population.
“Mothers with less education stay at home with their children much longer, thanks to home care support [benefits]. On the other hand, highly educated mothers return to work more quickly because they have better positions, higher salaries and interesting jobs,” Lammi-Taskula explained.