Day-care centres, the main childcare solution

In 2009, the government introduced the CSA (Chèque Service Accueil/Childcare Service Voucher), which significantly improved the wider population’s access to day-care centres.

A growing success for ten years

Over the past ten years, children aged under four who are not yet of school age have increasingly attended educational childcare facilities. In 2015, 47.4% of children aged under 4 not yet attending school were cared for in such facilities, whether officially approved or otherwise. 35.2% were cared for by solely their parents, 11.9% were minded by a friend or family member, and 5.5% by a childminder.

A political move to help families

This development is connected with measures to improve childcare options, introduced by the government over the past ten years. During this time, the number of places available in educational childcare facilities increased significantly. Moreover, the creation of the childcare service voucher has significantly reduced childcare costs for parents, making such structures a much more attractive proposition for families.

In 2015, 35.2% of children under the age of four and not attending school were cared for solely by their parents during a typical week of the year. 47.4% regularly used a day care centre (registered or not); 11.9% were cared for by a member of the family or close friend (free of charge) and 5.5% had a nanny.

Over the past eleen years, the share of day care centres acting as main child care facilities for children under four who are not attending school has increased sharply. This development should be viewed in relation to the different measures for young children successively implemented in the Grand Duchy over the last decade. Since the early 2000s, the number of places in the childcare centres has significantly increased. In 2009, the creation of childcare service voucher system has significantly reduced the cost of young children childcare in the daycare centers, and its attractiveness has improved over the years for many families.