726 nursery school places will be created in the upcoming years based on the Government’s tender for the establishment of family nurseries, out of 465 million forints (EUR 1.45 million) in funding.

At a press conference in Érd at the family nursery of the Otthon Melege (Warmth of the Home) Family Nursery Network, the Ministry of Human Capacities’ State Secretary for Family and Youth Affairs Katalin Novák said that thanks to the current level of state funding via tenders, the ratio of family nurseries compared to the total number of family nursery places will be increasing by almost 11 percent.

She added that next year’s budget has earmarked 52 billion forints (EUR 162 million) for the care of children under the age of three, which represents an almost fivefold increase compared to the 11 billion forints (EUR 34 million) available in 2010.

In addition, the Government is almost doubling the financing for family nurseries next year to enable the care of children to cost less for parents too, the State Secretary added.

Ms. Novák also spoke about the fact that the Government would like the number of private participants to increase significantly within the field of nursery school care, and for as many family and workplace daycare centres to be established in addition to the institutions maintained by the state or local governments.

Ildikó Kovácsné Bárány, the Ministry’s Ministerial Commissioner for the coordination of nursery school affairs, spoke about the fact that out of a total of some 50 thousand nursery school places, over 6400 are in family nursery schools. 104 applications were submitted for the family nursery school tender, 103 of which were registered. 100 applications proved to be valid following formal adjudication, of which 67 will be receiving funding, and a total of 110 new family nurseries will be established, she explained.

The Ministerial Commissioner told reporters that in the interests of assuring that family nursery schools remain in operation in the long term, and to realise a reduction in price to assist families, the level of state funding will be increased. In addition, operators who also provide care for children with special needs, disadvantaged children or children with multiple disadvantages will also be eligible to receive further resources in addition to the normative funding.

(MTI / kormany.hu)