This year's edition of the Toddler+ programme is unique. These are actions on a huge scale. The same for the whole country. The amount of almost PLN 5.5 billion has been allocated to the programme. We set the goal that every municipality would have a nursery and this is slowly becoming a reality. This year's call for proposals will enable the creation of around 90 thousand care places. However, this is not the end, the call for proposals will continue, as there are still municipalities that have not managed to submit their applications on time,

says the Minister of Family and Social Policy, Marlena Maląg.

White spots will disappear

Owing to the new edition of the Toddler+ programme, the number of “white spots” will decrease from 1105 to 664. In 441 local governments, a crèche or a children's club subsidised by the programme will be the first institution of this type in the municipality.

To date, 52 per cent of local governments had nurseries in their area, this year's call for proposals will increase that number to 73 per cent. Thanks to the activities of the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, 230 thousand childcare places for toddlers currently operate in Poland, while in 2015 there were only 84 thousand.

Programme funding

The budget of the new edition of the Toddler+ programme amounts to PLN 5.5 billion. It has never been so extensive before. The Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, Grzegorz Puda spoke about the details of the funding.

We have launched Europe's largest programme for the development of care for the youngest children, Toddler+, funded mainly by the European Social Fund Plus. For this purpose, we have allocated ESF+ funds of more than PLN 3.7 billion and PLN 1.7 billion within the framework of the National Recovery Programme (KPO), which is approximately 88 per cent of the funds of the Toddler+ Programme. This money is not spent, but invested, since the investment in family is the best direction, said the Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, Grzegorz Puda.

Principles of allocation of the funds

Funds for the creation of new crèche care places were divided according to an algorithm. In accordance with it, municipalities will be given a specific pool of funding to use for the creation and operation of care places, according to its needs based on statistics and the rules of the European programmes. Municipalities have been given the opportunity to demonstrate the real local demand for childcare services for children under three. On the funding application, entities could indicate any number of care places to be created.

Co-financing for maintaining nursery places

New to the Toddler+ programme is a subsidy for each newly created childcare place for children up to three years old. This is the amount of up to PLN 837 per month for three years.

Such a high funding for new nursery care places is a revolutionary change. In addition, municipalities will have up to three years to fully implement the investment undertaken. These two solutions represent a huge opportunity for municipalities that so far have not had the opportunity to implement the investment within a year and then maintain it, indicated Deputy Minister Barbara Socha, Government Plenipotentiary for Demographic Policy.