Cantonal and municipal organisations

Since the end of the 19^th century, employment offices have assisted those seeking work and monitored the unemployed. In the course of the 20^th century, they evolved into significant actors in labour market policy. In the 1990s, they were converted into a network of regional job placement centres.

Since the Middle Ages, hospitals have been charitable welfare institutions for all those in need of care. In the 19^th and 20^th century, they developed into larger institutions which play an increasingly important role in the welfare state.

In contrast to social insurance, public social welfare was regulated by cantons and implemented largely by municipalities. Hence, there are differences in the organization and execution of social welfare.

Since the 16^th century, municipal and other authorities have looked after orphaned children. This developed into the modern Swiss guardianship system, whose form is anchored in the 2013 Child and Adult Protection Act.

A wide range of social homes and institutions emerged in Switzerland since the 19th century. They are dedicated to promoting the education, provision and discipline among certain groups of the population often affected by poverty. These care placements came with stigma and discrimination until into the 1980s but have since undergone fundamental reform.

Childcare in Switzerland is traditionally a private concern. In the 20^th century, society and policy were guided by the middle-class family model, with the husband sole breadwinner and the wife mother and housewife. The scope of extra-familial, mostly privately managed childcare facilities, is limited. It has only been since the 1970s that political pressure has increased to find solutions that work to make women’s careers and family life compatible.