Private daycare centres
You can apply to a private daycare centre by contacting a private daycare centre of your choice directly.
The private daycare centre decides on the admission and determines the care fee. The service provider makes a written care agreement with the guardian. In the agreement, the guardian and the provider agree on matters such as the care fee, care hours, holiday periods, holiday period payments and the notice period for cancelling a place in early childhood education.
You can apply for private daycare allowance from Kela.
Private daycare centres
- Southern district
- Central district
- Western district
- Northern district
- South-Eastern district
- Eastern district, no 1 and 2
- North-Eastern district
See private daycare centres on the Service Map(Link leads to external service)
Private daycare centres provide early childhood education in many different languages, such as English, Spanish, French, Swedish, German, Russian and Estonian. Read more about the different options on the Early childhood education in different languages page.
The Education Division operates in cooperation with the private service providers of early childhood education and guides, advises and monitors the operations of private daycare centres.
Guidance and monitoring of private early childhood education
District Manager Riikka Reunanen, tel. 040 827 6926, riikka.reunanen@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) .
District Manager Jenni Tirronen is in charge of private Swedish-language early childhood education, tel. 050 362 4285, jenni.tirronen@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) .
Private family daycare
Private family daycare is a form of early childhood education that takes place in the family daycare provider’s own home. A family daycare provider can care for a maximum of four under school-aged children full-time, and one pre-primary education aged or school aged child part-time (25 hrs/week). Family daycare providers are independent professionals who make the admission decisions of children by themselves. The guardian and the family daycare provider always make a written care agreement. The private family daycare provider determines the care fee.
Further information about private family daycare providers
Service Organiser Auli Stenberg
Tel. 09 310 26396
auli.stenberg@hel.fi (Link opens default mail program)
P.O. Box 58300, 00099 City of Helsinki
Private daycare allowance and Helsinki supplement
If you choose private early childhood education, you can receive private daycare allowance for it from Kela, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland. The earliest the allowance can be paid is from the beginning of the month the child turns 9 months.
The private daycare allowance consists of the statutory childcare allowance, earnings-related care supplement and the Helsinki supplement.
Statutory parts of private daycare allowance and Helsinki supplement
| Private daycare allowance | Statutory care allowance | Helsinki supplement** |
Income-based care allowance* |
Helsinki supplement to the care allowance* | Benefits in total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Daycare centre care,
child under the age of 3 |
192.28 | 787,50 | 0–265.85 | 60.00 |
979,78-1305,63
|
|
Daycare centre care,
child over the age of 3 |
192.28 | 523,20 | 0–265.85 | 60.00 | 715,48-1041,33 |
|
Family daycare,
child under the age of 3 |
192.28 | 388,40 | 0–265.85 | 60.00 | 580,68-906,53 |
|
Family daycare,
child over the age of 3 |
192.28 | 226,50 | 0–265.85 | 60.00 | 418,78-744,63 |
|
Contractually employed care provider,
child under the age of 3 |
192.28 | 500.00 | 0–265.85 | 60.00 | 692.28–1,018.13 |
| Contractually employed care provider, child over the age of 3 | 192.28 | 160.00 | 0–265.85 | 60.00 | 352.28–678.13 |
| Early childhood education that supplements pre-primary education | 70.75 | 178,00 | 0–132.93 | 60.00 | 248,75-441,68 |
* The care supplement is determined according to the family's income. If the family is granted a care supplement, the family is paid an additional Helsinki supplement of EUR 60.
** The Helsinki supplement is paid for full-time early childhood education, i.e. when the time allocated for early childhood education is, pursuant to the care agreement, over 25 hours a week (does not apply to Early childhood education that supplements pre-primary education).
Separate compensations in addition to private care allowance to be paid on the basis of an application
| 5-year-old compensation | 160 |
| Sibling compensation | 150 |
| Pre-primary education compensation | 520 |
Applying for private daycare allowance and payment of benefits
No private daycare allowance will be paid if your child has a place in municipal early childhood education.
Kela pays the private daycare allowance directly to the private daycare centre, the private family daycare provider or the contractually employed care provider working in the family’s home.
If a family who lives in Helsinki has more than one child in private early childhood education, or in municipal and private early childhood education, the family may receive a sibling compensation for private early childhood education.
In most cases, the sibling compensation is paid for the eldest siblings in the family. If one of the eldest siblings is in municipal early childhood education, the sibling compensation is paid for the youngest sibling in private early childhood education.
The maximum amount of compensation per child is EUR 150 per month. If the deductible of a child’s fee is less than EUR 150, the amount of the compensation is the same as the deductible.
How to apply for sibling compensation and its payment
Applying for the sibling compensation of private early childhood education changed on 1 August 2025. As of 1 August 2025, the applicant for the sibling compensation is the parent or guardian of the children.
Link to the sibling compensation application form, PDF(Link leads to external service)
The parent or guardian must request the necessary application attachments from the private early childhood education service provider(s) and attach these to their compensation application. These attachments should be requested from the service providers the oldest siblings of the family are enrolled in. If one of the older siblings is in municipal early childhood education, the attachment should be requested from the provider of the youngest sibling's early childhood education services.
The parent or guardian must submit the completed application form and attachments to the City of Helsinki Register Office. They can be submitted to the Register Office electronically, by post or in person at the customer service point. Please see the more detailed instructions for submitting the application and its attachments: How to submit documents to the Register Office.
The compensation application and its attachments must be received by the Register Office no later than on 31 December 2025. However, if one of the children in the family starts early childhood education after 1 December, the compensation application can be submitted to the Register Office within three (3) months of the child starting early childhood education.
It is the responsibility of the parent or guardian to ensure that the deadline above is met, regardless of whether the application is submitted to the Register Office electronically, by post or in person.
The sibling compensation is paid monthly to the service provider of private early childhood education. The service provider will reduce the deductible of the client fee of the child receiving the compensation by the same amount that the city pays as compensation.
For further information and the application forms, please contact Special Planner Johanna Auer, johanna.auer@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) , tel. 09 310 56404.
Complaining about private early childhood education
- Prepare your complaint using the form Complaint about the operations of early education, PDF. You can also make an complaint as a free-form letter.
- You should describe in as much detail as possible what you are dissatisfied with. There is no time limit for making an complaint, but you should do it as soon as possible in order to facilitate the handling of matters.
- You should primarily submit the complaint to the person in charge of the daycare centre in question, i.e. the manager of the private daycare centre or unit.
- In general, complaints are processed within one month, except during holiday periods, in which case the response time may be longer. If investigating the matter requires a longer period of time, you will be informed of the estimated processing time.
The response to the complaint will explain how the matter has been investigated, specifying the reasons and detailing any further measures taken on the basis of the complaint. The response to the complaint cannot be appealed.
Information for service providers
The City of Helsinki controls and monitors private early childhood education and instructs service providers on establishing a unit for private early childhood education.
The Regional State Administrative Agency issues a licence to a provider of private daycare centre facilities. If you are planning to set up a private daycare centre, you must apply for a licence from the Regional State Administrative Agency and can only start operating once you have obtained a licence. Learn more about applying for a licence on the The Regional State Administrative Agency's website.(Link leads to external service) Municipalities and Regional State Administrative Agencies provide advice and guidance to private providers as early as the planning stage of early childhood education services. It is a good idea to contact the City of Helsinki when you start planning a private daycare centre.
Finnish-language private early childhood education: Service Manager Katja Almusa, katja.almusa@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) , tel. 09 310 41138.
Swedish-language private early childhood education: Jenni Tirronen, Regional Manager for Early Childhood Education, jenni.tirronen@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) , tel. 09 310 73014.
If you are planning to work as a private family daycare provider, you should contact the City of Helsinki in good time. Before you start operating, you must also submit a written notification to the City of Helsinki and wait until it has been officially accepted. For more information and a notification form, please contact Auli Stenberg, Service Manager, auli.stenberg@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) , tel. 09 310 26396.
A private service provider must draft a self-monitoring plan in order to ensure the appropriateness of the early childhood education operations. The self-monitoring plan is the primary monitoring method for the quality and content of the services. Valvira National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health provides more detailed provisions for the content, drafting and monitoring of the self-monitoring plan.
General advice and instruction related to business operations is provided by Business Helsinki(Link leads to external service)
Since August 2018, municipal early childhood education services have provided free early childhood education for 5-year-old children for four hours a day and 20 hours a week. The Education Committee has also decided to pay private early childhood education providers compensation for 5-year-old children.
In the case of 5-year old-children, the sum payable to a private service provider enables a reduced care fee and continued childcare in private daycare, and it is also possible to continue in pre-primary education the following year.
Amount of compensation and applying for compensation
The compensation is €160 per month and it is paid for the active period of pre-primary education. The private service provider must fill out the compensation application form (excel file in Finnish) for the payment of the compensation.The first compensation application must be submitted with an attachment for the compensation application (PDF in Finnish), including signatures from the child’s guardians and the service provider.
Agreement
In the application for compensation, the private service provider undertakes to allocate the compensation for reducing the early childhood education fee of 5-year-old children.
Payment of the compensation
The compensation application must be sent on the 20th day of the current month at the earliest, and the compensation will be paid by the 15th day of the following month. Therefore, the first applications must be submitted on 20 August at the earliest.
The applications must be sent to the following address
Education Division
Early Childhood and Pre-primary Education
Private early childhood education guidance and monitoring Director
P.O. Box 58300, 00099 City of Helsinki
- Starting operations for a private early childhood education unit: Service Organiser Katja Almusa, katja.almusa@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) , tel. +358 (0)9 310 41138.
- Becoming a private family daycare provider: Service Organiser Auli Stenberg, auli.stenberg@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) , tel. +358 (0)9 310 26396.
- Private Swedish-language early childhood education and opening a unit: District Manager for early childhood education Jenni Tirronen, jenni.tirronen@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) , tel. +358 (0)9 310 73014.
Information about support for private care is available on the Kela website: For private daycare providers (page in Finnish, opens in a new tab)(Link leads to external service) and Kela's forms, opens in a new tab(Link leads to external service) .