Daycare for children under the age of 3 years must be provided within the framework of nursery care. All forms of formal care for children under the age of 3 years are considered nursery care.
Since 1 January 2017, daycare for children has been provided in two forms: centre-based provision (nurseries and mini-nurseries) and non-centre-based types of service provision (family nurseries and workplace nurseries). Nursery care is not compulsory and admission of a child depends on the available capacity of the nursery. You can ask for support of the Health-Visitor (Védőnő) of the Family Support and Child Welfare Services. ‘nursery’ refers to the traditional institution of a nursery, which provides daycare in accordance with the national core programme of nursery education and care.
In addition to basic care, nurseries can support families by providing special advisory services, temporary childcare, a residential service and other childcare services.
Mini-nurseries
Providing professional nursery care and education in smaller groups than in nurseries, and under simpler rules governing personnel, materials and operation. Local governments can now establish this type of institution if there is a need to care for a maximum of seven young children
Workplace nursery: daycare service maintained by an employer primarily for the children of persons engaged in occupational activities for the employer.
Documents to register
The following documents (of the child) are necessary to register with a local nursery: birth certificate, health insurance card, address card, vaccination book
Admission requirements vary from municipality to municipality. They usually require that parents are local residents, that they are employed, or full-time students, or official caregivers. If employed, parents need to provide proof of employment. Some areas also require a recommendation from the health visitor. Some districts only accept applications once a year, while others accept applications all year around.
