The evolution of day care provision for children under 4 in Visegrad countries

Led by the Budapest Institute, the project collects and shares existing information on day care services for children aged 1-4. The first phase focused on factors that have influenced changes in such services in the Visegrad 4 since 1989. The second phase looked at the impact of day care provision on employment, fertility, redistribution and equal opportunities.

On 11-12 November 2009, we held a workshop for researchers of the above issues. Based on papers presented at the workshop we prepared an electronic book that describes and explains the evolution of day care services in the Visegrad countries from 1989 to 2009. This was published in January 2010. Project participants collected administrative data in a uniform framework on regulations and use of day care services for children as well as relevant academic literature.

In the second phase of the project we held a workshop on 20-21 September 2011 to collect and share existing research on the impact of day care provision in the Visegrad countries, while the workshop held on 30-31 March 2012 was devoted to present and discuss the preliminary research results. The programme of the workshop and the presentations are downloadable. 

As the final outputs of the project the following studies were prepared:

1. Michal Polakowski: Childcare and female employment - Review of selected work in Visegrad countries
2. Dorota Szelewa and Hana Hašková: Fertility and availability of childcare services for children under three in Visegrad countries - a review
3. Zsuzsa Blaskó and András Gábos: Redistribution effects of the childcare system in Hungary - Who is cared for?
4. Hana Hašková and Dorottya Szikra: How did we get the ‘magic 3’? The timing of parental leaves and child care services in the Visegrád-countries
5. Jana Válková: What is the direction of childcare policy in Visegrad countries? 

All project outputs are downloadable (see below). Support from the Visegrad Fund is gratefully acknowledged.

Partners:

Judit Takács, Institute of Sociology of the HAS, Hungary (in 2009-2010)

Daniel Gerbery, Institute for Labour and Family Research, Slovakia

Blanka Plasová, Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Ewa Fratczak, Warsaw School of Economics, Poland (in 2009-2010)

Dorota Szelewa, International Centre for Research and Analysis, Poland (in 2011-2012)