The early childhood education and care is guided by the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care and the National core curriculum for ECEC (2022), which is a national norm. The ECEC providers shall prepare the local curricula for ECEC based on the National core curriculum for early childhood education and care. ECEC providers are mostly municipal providers (84 %).

As an expert agency for early childhood education and care (ECEC), the Finnish National Agency for Education draws up and decides on the National core curriculum for early childhood education and care, based on which the local curricula for ECEC are drawn up. In ECEC centres and family day care, an individual early childhood education and care plan is created for every child.