Alternatives to formal care for children of preschool age

The bachelor thesis "Alternatives to formal care for children of preschool age" deals with preschool childcare in the Czech Republic, with focus on its alternative forms. This issue needs to be discussed as the capacity of public nursery schools is insufficient, therefore the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has published Set of Pro-family Measures - Pro-family Package. In this package legalization of new forms of preschool childcare provided at private or non-profit basis is proposed. These alternatives, those that are currently regulated and public nursery schools and crèches as well are described and then the current situation of prepared changes in alternatives to formal care is introduced. These issues are also subject of qualitative research, which constitutes the following part of the text. In this practical part of the text expert interviews were held to explore experience and attitudes of preschool children's parents and carers from preschool facilities about these forms of preschool childcare. According to primary data the positives and negatives of different forms of preschool childcare are identified. The result is that for both parents and carers the child development is important, so they would prefer the increase of nursery school capacities rather than expansion of alternative..