The research programme Finnish Local Government 2004 was a joint programme launched by the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, universities and research centres. It was funded by Finnish municipalities and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. The project engaged in a systematic and comparable analysis of the development of the municipal sector in 1995-2004. The 47 municipalities participating in the programme were representative of the Finnish local government sector.
The study programme comprised of 14 research modules. For most modules, data were collected through mail surveys. The data may be used for cross-sectional or time series analysis.
The survey focused on the scope, service provision, administration and development of child day care services in Finnish municipalities. The respondents were municipal officials responsible for child day care services. Similar surveys were carried out in 1997, 1999 and 2003, from the viewpoints of municipal service directors, day nursery managers and child-minding coordinators.
First, the respondents were asked how many children there were in municipal day care centres, whether there were queues for places in those centres, and how the children were divided in terms of age and the type of day care (e.g. full day care, sessional day care). Views on the role of the private sector in child day care services were also probed. The number of employees in municipal day nurseries and their tasks were queried, as well as the capacity and utilisation rate of municipal day care places. There were also questions pertaining to service provision, competitive tendering, and satisfaction with services.
Further questions covered management and decision-making on child day care in the municipality. The respondents were also asked which body decided on matters such as using outsourced services. The impact of different bodies on day care services was assessed. Finally, the development of municipal day care since 1999 and development policies for the future were surveyed.
Background variables included the respondent's gender, year of birth, mother tongue, job title, work experience, level of education, and the location of the job.
Two-stage stratified sampling in selecting project municipalities.
The project municipalities were selected separately from those with less than 10,000 inhabitants (28 municipalities) and from those with more than 10,000 inhabitants (19 municipalities). The selection aimed to be representative within both groups in relation to all municipalities with the same population size. Large municipalities were over-represented because 70% of the Finnish population lives in large municipalities. Representativeness criteria included regional location, age and education of the population, industry structure, municipal economy parameters, political situation and variables related to municipal policy. The selected municipalities form a small scale model of all Finnish municipalities. The Åland Islands municipalities were excluded because of special features resulting from Åland's autonomy.
The questionnaire was sent to the municipal officials responsible for child day care services in the selected municipalities (N=47). After two reminder letters, 40 municipalities responded.