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This study focuses on flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC), an institutional childcare service for Finnish families where both parents, or a single parent, work non-standard hours. Although many countries nowadays offer extended hours day care, only Finland has a publicly provided, law-based system guaranteeing ECEC during non-standard as well as standard hours. We explore, drawing on parental survey data, what kinds of families use such services and when. Furthermore, we utilise web-survey data obtained from early educators to find out what they report as the main challenges involved in implementing flexibly scheduled ECEC. The results showed that single-parent families and lower educated parents were over-represented among the families using flexibly scheduled ECEC. The unpredictability of working-life tends to spill over to ECEC. Due to varying parental work schedules, children have unique daily and weekly rhythms, which in turn impact on administration, pedagogical issues and meeting children's needs.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceived mental health benefits of organized sports participation in socially vulnerable children and the underlying mechanisms contributing to these benefits among boys participating in the sports-based Icehearts programme, as reported by the parents. Focus group interviews (n = 5) were conducted among parents (n = 28) of boys participating in the programme. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The mental health benefits of organized sports participation were related to increased self-esteem, self-confidence, emotional self-regulation, prosocial behaviour and courage as well as better mood. The perceived mechanisms contributing to these benefits were related to the following themes: skills through sports, the coach, social connectedness and the opportunity for recreational activities. Few challenges and potential pitfalls in implementing sports-based programmes targeted at socially vulnerable children were identified. The findings highlight the importance of role, skills and mindset of the coach leading the sport activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]