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Good practice

Switzerland Federal Childcare Grant Programme — Financial Aid for Family-External Childcare (2003–2026)

Switzerland · Bern · See the Switzerland profile

Switzerland's federal childcare grant programme (since 2003) co-funded ~63,000 new family-external care places by 2020, helping parents — mainly mothers — combine work and family. Extended to 2026, a permanent successor law is being drafted by the Federal Council.

~63,000
New care places co-funded (2003-January 2020)
~100,000 across ~3,200 facilities
National total care places (2020)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Federal Social Insurance Office (BSV / OFAS)
Period
2003–present
Keywords
government, early childhood education, social policy

Context

Switzerland's Federal Act on Financial Aid for Child-Care outside the Family (in force since 1 February 2003) provides start-up grants to cantons, communes and non-profits to create regulated childcare places, on the explicit rationale that unaffordable childcare is the primary structural barrier to mothers' labour-force participation.

Results

Between 2003 and January 2020 the programme co-funded approximately 63,000 new care places, contributing to a national total of around 100,000 places across roughly 3,200 facilities. A peer-reviewed natural-experiment study using cantonal variation in childcare supply found that expanded childcare availability significantly increases maternal employment hours, providing causal evidence linking programme outputs to gender-equality outcomes.

Conclusions

The programme has been extended three times, most recently to 31 December 2026, and the Federal Council is drafting a permanent replacement law; 58% of employed Swiss women still work part-time (2023).

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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