Free daycares: How does the Creche Feliz program work?

How does the Creche Feliz program work to access free daycares?

The Portuguese government's measure on free daycares has been in effect since September 2022, but now in 2024 it also includes public units managed by municipalities, Higher Education institutions, and entities like Santa Casa da Misericórdia.

The program in question is the Happy Daycare and, with the recently expanded capacity, more children can now benefit from this social support.

The goal of this program is to ensure free access to daycare centers through a partnership between public and private networks. The ultimate aim is free and universal access for children aged 0 to 3 by 2024, to integrate around 100,000 children.

Who does the Creche Feliz program apply to?

According to Social Security, the Happy Crèche program applies to children born before September 1, 2021, covered by the 1st and 2nd income brackets of family support, in social and solidarity network crèches.

In addition, it also applies to all children born from September 1, 2021 who attend social responses such as Daycares, Family Daycares, within the solidarity network, and nannies from the Social Security as well as daycares from the for-profit network and public network that are part of the adhering daycare fund.

What does the Creche Feliz program include?

Families enrolled in the Creche Feliz program will be entitled to full Social Security co-payment for the following expenses: 

• Activities and services usually provided by daycares (nutrition, educational activities, recreational and motor skills, among others);
• Nutrition, including special diets with a doctor's prescription;  
• Registration, renewal process, and insurance;
• Extension of hours and weekly extension.

Note that expenses related to extra-curricular activities, optional in nature, that institutions may want to develop where the children are enrolled are not included; as well as the acquisition of diapers, uniforms and school uniforms; transportation services and other optional nature expenses.  

Are there priorities in accessing program vacancies?  

According to the information provided by Social Security, the social and economic evaluation of the family is taken into account. But there are the following prioritization criteria:

• Children who attended daycare the previous year;  
• Children with disability/incapacity;  
• Children born to mothers and fathers who are minor students, or beneficiaries of personal assistance under the Support for Independent Living program, or recognized as main informal caregivers, or children in foster care or in a shelter.  
• Children with siblings, who are proven to belong to the same household, attending a service provided by the same entity;  
• Children who are beneficiaries of the social provision "Guarantee for Childhood" and/or receive family allowance for children and youth (1st and 2nd tiers), whose guardians reside, demonstrably, in the influence area of the social response;  
• Children beneficiaries of the social benefit Guarantee for Childhood and/or with family allowance for children and young people (1st and 2nd scales), whose guardians develop their professional activity, provenly, in the area of influence of the social response;  
• Children in single-parent households or large families, whose legal guardians reside, provenly, in the area of influence of the social response;  
• Children whose legal guardians reside, provenly, in the area of influence of the social response;  
• Children in single-parent households or large families whose parents work professionally in the social support area may benefit from this service;  
• Children whose legal guardians work in the professional field within the scope of the social response.

How to check for availability and request support?  

In order to check the available offer in the network of free nurseries and request the support of gratuity, you can download the Creche Feliz application that is available on the IOS and Android operating systems.

In the app, you can search and find information about daycares with available free spots in your area of residence or workplace.

You can also access information about daycares, such as contacts and location, to facilitate search. 

If there are no available spots in the desired nurseries, you can fill out a interest signaling form, also available in the application.

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