Introduction

The care crisis arises from the contradictions between the capitalist society's dependence on social reproduction (caring) and mechanisms in capitalist organisations that undermine the very reproduction on which they depend (Fraser, 2016). Work organisations can in their quest for profit, legitimacy or efficiency, be organised in ways that hamper the combination of childcare and paid work for parents, or self-care for employees. This happens despite the fact that organisations themselves rely on well-functioning labour power premised by social reproduction. Acker (2006) describes the one-sided organisational focus on supporting and enhancing production as a corporate non-responsibility towards caring. The high degree of early childhood education and care (ECEC) coverage and public financing of Nordic ECEC services (Karila, 2012) implies that early childhood centres, organisations, play a vital role in social reproduction. Currently, 91.3 per cent of all Norwegian children aged 1– 5 attend early childhood centres (ECCs) (Statistics Norway, 2020a). This chapter explores traces of the care crisis in Norwegian ECCs, approaching them as work organisations set to produce high-quality care by raising staff competence in cost-efficient ways.

Publicly financed full-time ECEC lies at the heart of the care crisis not only because it transfers care work from parents to organisations, and thereby allows parents the combination of paid work and care. ECCs shall produce high-quality care and education that is regarded as the foundation for citizens’ future labour market participation and national economic growth (Segerholm, 2012). This quality turn is also evident in Norwegian ECEC policy (Ljunggren and Lauritzen, 2018). Lacking competence as a source for low quality is highlighted by OECD reports on the Norwegian ECEC sector (Engel et al, 2015) and is further repeated in the current national strategy for competence raising and recruitment (Ministry of Education and Research, 2017b). This strategy strongly supports a model for raising competence within the ECCs that includes staff in common reflections, co-creation and collaboration with external knowledge suppliers. Subsequently, leaders and staff shall use their work time on guidance and to co-construct learning.

The quality of Norwegian ECCs remains in question, and others have pointed at a lack of organisational capacity as a source of low ECEC quality (Ljunggren et al, 2017).