Crèches

What is a crèche?

Crèches are facilities where children can receive childcare on a full-time or part-time basis from the age of 4 months until they start kindergarten at age 4.5 years.

Groups of children
According to recommendations by the Association of Crèches, groups should comprise 8-10 children. The preferred model is mixed-age groups in which there are 2-3 infants looked after per group.

Staff
The training to become a nursery teacher is vocational. A group of children is generally looked after by a trained nursery teacher, as well as a "trainee" and a person on a practical placement at a ratio of 1 member of staff to 5 children.

Attendance
In order to ensure a certain consistency in the groups of children, most childcare centres require a minimum attendance of 2-4 half-days.

Parental involvement
For teaching or financial reasons, some crèches require parental involvement in certain tasks.

Parental contributions
Zurich City Council provides funding assistance for many of the places in crèches.
The parents pay a means-tested contribution towards these places.
This calculation basis also applies in childcare centres which are subsidised by the university and by the ETH Zurich.

Costs
Generally speaking, the full cost of a childcare place in Greater Zurich is likely to be about CHF 100 a day.

License
All crèches must be licensed in accordance with cantonal conditions and are subject to a supervisory body, which in the case of the city of Zurich is the Social Welfare Department.

 

Further links

• Zurich City Council's Parental Contribution Policy (PDF)
• Full list of crèches in the city of Zurich
• Cantonal license for crèches (PDF)