The Commission proposes experimental activities, with examples of different models for pre-schools and pre-school hours. In places, including the major urban areas, where there is a pronounced need of pre-school facilities open at night, experimental activities of this kind should be arranged as soon as possible. The central inspecting authority should follow up the effects of pre-school attendance on children and their parents. In the present situation, says the Commission, the pre-school must thus accept a collision between objectives and reality. The essential thing is the children's need for a secure environment, as all-round a development as possible against the existing background, and real assistance to parents in looking after their children while they make their contribution to working life. Governing bodies In the general debate in Sweden, it has been discussed whether the pre-school should continue to have the National Board of Health and Welfare as its central inspecting authority and be managed locally by the Child Welfare Committee/Social Services Committee, or whether the National Board of Education should assume central responsibility, with the Education Committee taking over at the local level. The Commission proposes the Board of Health and Welfare as the central inspecting authority. Its main recommendatior in respect of local administration is the Child Welfare Committee/Social Services Committee. In certain cases, however, administration by a special Child Centre Committee or by the Education Committee could have its advantages. The Commission notes that the pre-school stands in an important relationship to both educational policy and social policy at large. It gives a list of important tasks for co-operation. A common administration is particularly important in the solving of certain specific problems; the most essential thing here seems to be to let the pre-school merge, in its organization, with the various complementary services provided to support the family. During a long period of construction, particular weight will have to be given to priority on social grounds in the allocation of pre-school places. Case-finding activities by the authority responsible play a major role in this context. In many cases, such activities must be seen as an effort on behalf of the entire family, not simply for the child. Here, too, organizational integration is necessary with social policy. The local committee and central inspecting authority responsible for activities will cover all pre-school facilities. The idea is rejected of having, say, day nurseries and family day nurseries run by the Social Services Committee, and other pre-school activities by the Education Committee. For the purposes of collaboration between the pre-school and school, it is proposed that joint bodies be set up by all local authorities to develop a practical system of coordination. The Commission on Child Centres notes that consultation on pre-school matters is particularly important for the following local bodies: the Social Services Committee, Education Committee, Recreation Committee, Building Committee. Arts Committee, the child health organization, parents, staff organizations and unions, the local police force, and youth organizations. An interplay between the pre-school and lower level of the basic comprehensive will be important in the future; the child must experience a continuity between the pre-school and schooling proper. A certain interplay already takes place in various parts of the country, but a more intensive dialogue between the pre-school and the lower level is necessary on various planes. Centrally, co-operation and consultation should take place in accordance with the model outlined by the Commission in its report. Research and experimental activities must be broadened and deepened. Regionally, the dialogue should relate primarily to in-service training and information, with joint study-days for pre-school and school staff on the subject of interplay between the pre-school and lower level. Locally, consultative groups should be formed in all districts, e.g. in accordance with the models proposed by the Commission. It is important to lay the grounds for a deeper psychological/pedagogical/methodological interplay. Conclusions This, then, is the situation of the Swedish pre-school as we enter 1973. We note an increased rate of expansion, stimulated primarily by the increase in state grants as from 1972. We suffer from an increasing shortage of staff, which may prove a serious obstacle to the expansion of pre-school facilities during the Seventies. We have a steadily increasing number of women who have taken or wish to take gainful employment, and who require a full-day pre-school for their children. A vigorous debate is taking place on the husband's right to share the responsibility for housework, and for the children's care and upbringing, to develop his curative and emotional potential, and to enjoy close contact with his children. At the beginning of 1973, the Prime Minister called together a delegation on equality, with representatives for the employers' and employees' organizations, the political parties, and voluntary associations, with a view to promoting women's opportunities on the labour market, and in Sweden's political and social life, thus offering also men the option of playing a greater part in the life of the child, and the home. Since the beginning of 1972, the proposals of the Commission on Child Centres have been the subject of experimental activities, initiated by the Commission and administrated by the National Board of Health and Welfare, at the request of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. The first report on these activities, presented in December 1972, notes a succession of positive facts on the internal work of the pre-school, case-finding efforts, co-operation with parents and in-service staff training. Experimental child centres modelled on the Commission's proposals have been run in four municipalities namely Halmstad, Stockholm, Gävle-Sandviken and Skellefteå. Further areas will be taking part during 1973. In ten municipalities, intensive experimental activities with pre-schools have taken place with immigrant children, and a number of authorities in sparsely populated areas are running experiments under the auspices of the Board of Health and Welfare. Interesting experiments that confirm the reed for case-finding activities are taking place in Skellefteå, and — in the Greater Stockholm area in the municipality of Haninge, where the pre-school, child care centre and Social Services Committee co-operate. In December 1972, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs received comments from the bodies circulated on the proposals of the Commission on Child Centres. Development in the Swedish pre-school sector in the next few years will depend on the political decisions made during 1973 on the basis of a Government bill. A further factor, of course, is the economic climate that is expected to prevail during the Seventies. One can note, however, in the general discussion a very positive attitude to the pre-school, and an awareness of its importance for the child, the family, and the community at large. It remains, finally, for the Commission on Child Centres to present proposals on free-time centres and leisure activities for children of school age. In September 1972, the Commission received further directives from the Minister for Family Affairs, requesting it to analyse the consequences of the pre-school's pedagogic programme in respect of basic staff training. By the terms of these directives, the training of pre-school staff should be incorporated in a system of recurrent courses, in which studies and work are alternated, and each step provides a basis for the next in the »educational ladder». As regards the content of staff training, the bases are sibling groups for the children, co-operation with parents, and team-work by the staff. From the Commission's previous directives, it remains to present proposals on inservice staff training under the aegis of the local authorities. The Commission therefore expects to continue its work throughout 1973, and if possible present its proposals in 1974. We thus, in Sweden, have as it were numerous pieces of a jig-saw puzzle on the child, the family and the community, which we have to put together in an overall picture of our children's living environment. Hopefully, this total picture will clarify during the Seventies. Social Rights in Sweden In the same series: New Lives for Old Occupational Health in Sweden Services for the Handicapped in Sweden Social Policy and How It Works These booklets can be ordered from the Swedish Institute, Hamngatan 27, P.O. Box 7072, S-103 82 Stockholm, Sweden, or from Swedish diplomatic missions. Published by the Swedish Institute The Swedish Institute, founded in 1945, is a government foundation whose task it is to promote cultural exchange with other countries. Its information services cover all Swedish subject matter areas of general interest. ISBN 91-520-0036-2 |