Child care in Dubrovnik

Hello Armand,

My name is Michelle Kojakovic, I am the President of an NGO here in Dubrovnik formed by a group of foreigners in 2009 to assist each other in living in Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik Foreign Circle has 50 members living full time or part time in Dubrovnik.
To answer some of your questions.
The government childcare is only available to children of citizens and although in most cases provides adequate care the places available are extremely limited and capacity in most has already been exceeded.
There are PRIVATE childcare centres and 2 in particular come to mind as they have English speaking staff and encourage English in the centres.PANDA and CALEMERO are 2 of the better Private childcare centres.Panda also provides English classes for school children at the centre.
The prices vary from 1000 Kuna per month for full daycare to 1500 Kuna by Croatian standards this is quite expensive when the average wage is around 3500 Kuna per month.
The centres are open from 7am - 5pm and of course the children are provided with snacks and a cooked lunch. Some children only attend in the mornings and others in the afternoons mainly due to the working hours here and also this is the cheapest and the easiest way to get your child into the system.
Childminding is usually a case of asking word of mouth to my knowledge there is no registered business which covers this as by tradition the family network usually covers this. As foreigners it really is difficult, I did eventually find a great nanny for my boys when I first arrived but I also had to go through a few pretty horrendous experiences before I found the right girl.

If you do have anyone moving to Dubrovnik with a young family my best advise is to allow yourself some time with the children even once you have found a minder to let them know how you would like them to react with the children.Please also be aware a huge problem here is that during the OFF season (winter) you will have no trouble finding workers BUT to keep them over the SEASON will be very difficult as they will usually have other jobs during the season which they will be unwilling to give up

Hope this helps,

Michelle