Childcare accessibility for children under 5 years of age across the urban and rural areas. Lessons from Wałbrzych district

The question about the potential differences between the town/city and the countryside becomes important in relation to such a specific type of social services as childcare. These are the services whose accessibility can play the role of a factor in local development. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to illustrate the state of accessibility to childcare for children up to 5 years of age in a comparative approach covering urban and rural areas. To achieve this aim, a set of research methods and techniques is used (element of comparative analysis and , document analysiscontent analysis, statistical data analysis). The study on the accessibility of nurseries, children’s clubs and kindergartens covering the Wałbrzych district leads to the conclusion that the level of this accessibility, regardless of whether we are talking about the physical dimension (A1), qualitative dimension (A2), or economic dimension (A3), shows differentiation in the division into urban and rural communes. Due to the lack of detailed, specialist documents adopted at the strategic level, this statement refers to the operational level, which consists of the activities of entities providing care, i.e. nurseries, children’s clubs and kindergartens operating in eight communes in questions.