The Social Costs and Benefits of the Childcare Guarantee Fund

The Childcare Guarantee Fund (Waarborgfonds Kinderopvang) has provided advice and assistance to the child care sector since 1998 with government facilitation. It is an independent organization that works as it sees fit; it is not an autonomous administrative body but it does coordinate its work with the authorities, banks and the child care sector. First, it provides support by providing financial guarantees to businesses and their banks; secondly, since 2000 it has helped to professionalize the running of the child care sector in the areas of entrepreneurship, investment and accommodation.

The Fund needs to have a clear understanding of its social costs and benefits. There are two questions here: whether, on balance, the existence of the Fund contributes to economic welfare in the broad sense; and whether things could be improved and if so, how? A social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) was carried out to answer these questions.