Private commodity or public good?

In this section you will find information and data about child care in the countries that rely heavily on a for-profit sector. As well as being predominantly English-speaking, these countries can all can be described as “liberal democracies”. Consistent with this approach to social welfare, all primarily employ a market approach to developing and financing child care programs.

There are differences, however, in the nature of the profiled countries’ for-profit sectors. While publicly-traded (on a stock exchange) and globalized child care corporations by and large dominate child care provision in the US, the UK and Australia — “Big Box” child care — Canada’s relatively small for-profit child care sector (and to some extent New Zealand’s) have mostly consisted of small owner-operators with limited corporate presence.

Each country case study contains relevant research and policy analysis, media clippings, government and NGO policy documents and positions as well as links to related websites.

For more details specific to Canada, see the Canada section of Canadian profiles.

• United Kingdom
• Australia
• United States
• New Zealand
• Other countries