Family Futures

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Putting children first

Children belong at the centre of the sustainable development agenda. They have the right to development and to a sustainable future world. Therefore

the current decision-making generation has the responsibility to invest in the well-being of children through appropriate family policies, education,

health and other essential services and to secure a socially, ecologically and economically sustainable future.

aimed at covering part of the expense involved in bringing

up children under the age of 17. There is some discussion

today as to whether richer families should be excluded from

the allowance. However, savings from such targeting would

be marginal, while the exclusion of the better-off population

from all social benefits would stamp these benefits as poor

relief and would reduce the willingness of the better-off to pay

taxes that are channelled to benefit only the poor.

Social policy must be designed in such a way that middle

and upper income earners ‘buy into’ it, and see that they and

their children are also beneficiaries from the common purse.

Finland’s core family policies are characterized by universal

instruments, like the universal child allowance, that reduce

inequalities and prevent poverty by providing universal, non-

stigmatizing social security to all.

Many developing countries are using conditional social

transfers for human development purposes. Likewise, Finland

can demonstrate from its historical experience that such

measures have worked to achieve sustainable human and

social development. Such general measures, combined with

additional support to the most vulnerable families, can break

the intergenerational cycle of poverty and exclusion.

Finland has one of the lowest child poverty rates in the

European Union (EU), while the female employment rate is

among the highest. According to EU statistics, 60.6 per cent

of mothers of children under six are in employment. The

respective figure for fathers is 91.2 per cent. This is largely

thanks to strong state support that emphasizes reconciling

paid employment with family life. Family-friendly policies

are also reflected in public spending. Public spending for

children in 2009 was 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product,

while the EU average is 2.3 per cent. Access to public day

care is guaranteed to all children under school age and a

generous system of family leave and home-care allowances is

designed to help parents cope with their child-raising duties

while securing their jobs.

The family model in all the Nordic countries is characterized

by both parents’ shared responsibility to provide for the family

and to participate in childcare. Fathers’ rights to paternity leave

began to be developed in the 1970s. At first fathers were given

the right to a short paternity leave and later to share part of the

parental leave. The logic behind paternity leave is to bolster the

father-child relationship and to ease the workload of the mother

who has just given birth. The sharable parental leave is more

explicitly connected to gender equality and shared care respon-

sibility. The most explicit gender equality measure introduced

within the leave reform is the father’s quota, which means that

part of the leave is reserved exclusively for the father and cannot

be used by the mother. It is worth mentioning that these arrange-

ments have been agreed on a tripartite basis, involving employers’

unions, employees’ unions and the state.

Today, maternity leave is approximately four months in

Finland, of which about one month can be used before birth.

Parental leave that can be divided between the mother and

the father as they wish is an additional approximate seven

months. Paternity leave is nine weeks, of which three weeks

can be taken simultaneously with the mother. Benefits during

maternity, paternity and parental leave are earnings-related,

being 70-90 per cent of previous annual earnings. Unemployed

parents receive a flat-rate minimum benefit.

All children under seven years of age have a right to munici-

pal day-care services. Municipalities have a legal responsibility

to make day care available to all children as required by

parents. Parents are also entitled to childcare leave with a flat

rate home-care allowance available after the end of parental

leave, if they decide not to use public day care. This enables

parents to look after a child under the age of three at home

without giving up their jobs.

The monthly fee per child depends on the family size

and income. There is also a choice of private alternatives

supported substantially through public finances. Pre-primary

school for six-year-old children is free of charge, which is in

line with Finnish education policy: all children have the right

to education and it is free of charge. It is important to note

that children with disabilities also have the same rights to day

care and early childhood education in an integrated setting.

From the children’s perspective, equal access to day care for

all children – regardless of parental income – can equalize

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