Response to interpellation 2023/24:334 on the municipalities' planning conditions regarding preschool places
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L emphasizes that the municipalities are responsible for preschool places and that long-term planning is required. L argues that municipalities can deny permits to independent preschools in substandard premises 1. L underlines the importance of dialogue with independent actors and that municipalities should use population forecasts to manage fluctuating numbers of children 2 3. S argues that municipalities find it difficult to influence independent operations and that closures create sudden shortages of places 4 5. S points out that municipalities can be hit by extra costs when independent preschools establish themselves in closed premises 5. S requests a definition of good premises and argues that marketization hinders the municipalities' long-term planning 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Zinaida Kajevic has asked me how I intend to act to improve the municipalities' planning conditions regarding preschool places. Zinaida Kajevic has also asked me how I intend to reduce the costs for the overcapacity that many municipalities must plan for.
It is the home municipality that is responsible for ensuring that preschool education takes place for all children in the municipality who are to be offered preschool. The home municipality can offer a place in one of its own preschools or equivalent education in an independent preschool. When guardians have submitted requests for a place in preschool, the municipality shall offer the child preschool within four months. There is thus some time for the municipalities to plan for preschool places.
Preschool and school are part of the public services that the municipality is responsible for. In order for the municipality to be able to fulfill the requirements of the Education Act and offer all children a place in preschool, long-term and careful planning with multi-year premises supply plans is required. These plans need to correspond to plans for housing construction and forecasts for the number of children in the municipality.
It is a complex task for the municipalities to plan the number of preschool places. Among other things, there are challenges with the supply of premises and uncertainty regarding assumptions about population forecasts. Statistics Sweden shall therefore, according to its instructions, make long-term forecasts within the area of population and education. Furthermore, the cost equalization model compensates for the increase or decrease of one- to five-year-olds in the municipality.
A parliamentary committee is currently tasked with reviewing the municipal economic equalization (dir. 2022:36). Among other things, the committee shall analyze to what extent the cost equalization for municipalities and regions captures differences in structural factors and, if necessary, propose changes to the system. How many children there are in the municipality is an example of a structural factor, and the committee's proposals can therefore affect the municipalities' planning conditions.
The foundation for children's future is laid in preschool. That is why it is important that the municipalities continue their work in offering all children a place in a preschool near home and that they are given the best possible conditions for this.
Zinaida Kajevic (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
It is a legal requirement that municipalities provide preschool places near the home for all children whose families have applied for a place. Since local planning involves many different assessments for a municipality, it is important that as many factors as possible are known as early as possible.
Of course, it is about the number of children that are believed to be in the municipality in the future. If the cohorts of children are judged to decrease, some worn-out premises with poorer acoustic environments can be decommissioned, but if the cohorts of children are judged to increase, more preschools must be built or other suitable premises must be arranged. Decommissioning old premises, renting new suitable preschool premises, and building new ones takes time.
The municipality also needs to assess how many places will actually be requested because preschool is not mandatory but voluntary. Therefore, not all parents will apply for a place. This also applies within independent operations, and the independent preschools constitute an unknown factor in the municipality's local planning. The municipality cannot deny independent preschools the right to start operations if they meet the basic requirements. The municipality also cannot force an independent preschool to continue its operations if it wishes to close, regardless of whether the municipality assesses that this preschool is needed in the geographical area.
Yesterday, an article was published in Sydsvenskan regarding the preschool situation in Limhamn, an area in Malmö. Several preschools have been built in and adjacent to the area, and a new preschool will open in the autumn. At the moment, however, there is some shortage of places. The municipality will offer places to the children who need it through a temporary placement. Later, entire departments will be moved to the new preschool. This temporary solution is, of course, taxing for the children.
One could suspect that the municipality has made a mistake in its planning. But what is not apparent in the article, and which has affected the municipality's planning conditions, is that four independent preschools ceased their operations last year. Within the span of four months, the municipality needed to find space for over 300 children. The overcapacity that the municipality had planned into the system disappeared, and with it, many preschool places for children who were on the waiting list.
And given that it is a legal requirement that municipalities shall ensure that space is available, they need to plan for some excess capacity to be able to meet sudden changes from independent actors. Can the Government provide information on how much excess capacity municipalities should plan for if independent operations shut down?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! These are incredibly tricky questions. I am well aware of this after my time as a school board member in Stockholm. We have had a situation where the number of children in very many municipalities, especially in the large urban municipalities, has increased sharply. What we see now is a decrease in the number of children.
What many local politicians see as difficult is often that there are such large shifts. One thinks that one is planning for an increase, and then suddenly the number of children decreases in a way that one could not foresee. Therefore, the population forecasts are very important.
The municipalities have both a responsibility and an obligation to grant permits to independent preschools. It is not Skolinspektionen, as it is in the area of schools. This naturally gives municipalities greater opportunities to plan the preschool in comparison with school activities, where they are more dependent on Skolinspektionens decisions. But it requires a great deal of dialogue with the independent preschools.
Now the legislation has been tightened regarding the granting of permits for independent preschools. I assume that all municipalities now ensure that the independent preschools they have meet the requirements in the operations, but also that the municipalities ensure they have a good dialogue with the independent preschools regarding their plans for expansion but naturally also regarding their plans for reductions. I believe that right now it is very much about reductions of the operations.
I have full respect for the fact that municipalities find this difficult sometimes, precisely because the population forecasts are not always reliable.
Zinaida Kajevic (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer. It is quite right that communication is important for all actors, but there is not so much latitude for the municipalities to actually influence the independent operations to the extent that the Minister tries to give the impression of in his answer. One cannot prevent an independent operation from establishing itself if it meets the requirements, and one also cannot prevent it from winding down its operations if it suddenly feels that it needs to do so.
Last week I visited the preschool Myran in Botkyrka. It is an exciting municipal preschool that will move to new premises during the spring. I was told that the new premises have more open spaces and greater possibility for group division. One will simply be able to offer better learning environments for the children.
A concern that was nevertheless raised in my conversation with the operations manager, and which I recognize from my own home municipality, is that premises that the municipality phases out as preschool premises are sometimes restarted as independent preschools. This means that premises that the municipality does not judge to be fully adequate learning environments, which do not offer a good environment for children or a good working environment for staff, still cannot be denied as an establishment site for an independent preschool.
When this happens, several things occur simultaneously. The municipality then suddenly finds itself with an overcapacity within that local area. This also means that the municipality has costs for empty places in the new preschool as well as the cost for a new friskola.
Is it then the Government's intention that the municipality should remain in some worn-out preschool premises in order to avoid risking incurring extra costs?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! If a municipality judges that a premises is so poor that activities for children should not be conducted in it, it is of course a reason not to grant permission for a private preschool to conduct activities in that specific premises.
The municipality naturally has a great responsibility to ensure that preschools are operated in such a way that it is good for the children. I myself, as a former school board member in Stockholm, have been involved in withdrawing large numbers of permits, in full agreement within the education committee. Sometimes it has been activities that have been lousy, but it has also happened because the premises have been completely substandard for the activity. It is therefore entirely possible for the municipality, if it judges that the premises are really not good for children, to also not allow an independent preschool to exist in those premises.
But it is clear that there will be costs for the municipalities when these shifts occur very quickly. Currently, an investigation is looking into the municipal equalization system where, among other things, the number of children is included as a factor.
Zinaida Kajevic (S)
Madam Speaker! It is probably easy to say no when the premises are abysmal. It is when the premises are mediocre that it is much more difficult to justify it.
I look forward to the Minister perhaps defining what good premises should be so that we know it in the future. Right now, it is not particularly regulated so that we really know. There are other rules, and there are ideas about what are suitable learning environments, but it is not fully defined.
Preschool should offer all children a good start in life, and it is the first step within our education system and the first step for a lifelong learning. I am glad to hear that the Minister is aware of this issue, which she mentioned in her previous speech, and I understand that it is following her involvement as a school board member and within the independent school sector.
I still want to point out that the marketization of preschool does not only affect the quality of the education and the care that the children receive, but it also affects how the municipalities can take their responsibility in the short and long term for the local supply. For the municipality to truly be able to take this responsibility for the years that the children are within the operation, the municipalities must be able to take a better holistic view. It is long-term planning and many investments, and today, the municipalities are not given the opportunity to take the responsibility they should if they are to be able to follow the legal requirement.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! As I have said before, I have full understanding that this is problematic for the municipalities. It should be said that it is also problematic for some independent preschools, especially for those that are very small and are therefore very fragile. This is something that the School Inspectorate has also seen; now that the number of children is decreasing in very many municipalities, there are also many independent preschools that risk not making it.
Furthermore, the legislation has also been tightened so that one must also look at the preschool's possibilities to continue operating. It is naturally important that the municipality has a grip not only on its municipal preschools but also on those for which it grants permits – or does not grant permits – and for which it is also responsible for supervision, so that one does not have preschools operated in, for example, substandard premises or that have other types of major problems. In that case, the municipality must act against those preschools, and I am completely convinced that the municipalities also do.
It is also important that the municipalities have a good dialogue with the independent preschools so that they find out when major changes occur and can convey information to the independent preschools about, for example, population forecasts, so that preschools are not started in an area where there is already a surplus, for example.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.