Highlights This article provides insights into the evolution and implications of the Norwegian policy response to the COVID-19 crisis. Three different agendas motivated the Norwegian policy response: limiting disease spread, mitigating economic effecs and engaging with the social consequences. The oil and gas industry and the Sovereign Wealth Fund insulate Norway from the full economic consequences of the pandemic and policy response. The social implications of the policy response and the pandemic, particularly on young people are a key consideration for the emergence from the crisis.

Open kindergartens are a low-threshold pedagogical service that preschool-aged children, accompanied by an adult caregiver, can attend without appointment or registration. The aims of this study were to examine users' experiences with the open kindergarten in Norway and to identify predictors for the overall satisfaction with the service. User satisfaction surveys were conducted over a 6-8-week period between 2015 and 2018 in open kindergartens in 11 municipalities in Norway. Every adult user who visited the open kindergarten during the survey period received a survey; 292 completed it (response rate 56%). The users were very satisfied with the open kindergarten and found it beneficial for themselves and the child. Multilevel analyses identified that four out of the eight scales, namely the physical environment, the evaluation of the staff and the benefits for the child and the caregivers, were significant predictors for the overall satisfaction of the users with the open kindergarten. The results suggest that the open kindergarten is an important arena that is highly valued by its users. The service complements the other existing communal health-care services for children and their families and fills a gap that no other service covers.

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Norwegian Open Kindergartens facilitate access to professional advice and peer support, supporting parents to take part in collective learnings processes, renegotiate their roles and build social networks. Drawing on a study of five Open Kindergartens located in three Norwegian municipalities, this book chapter discusses how these spaces create opportunities to develop parenting skills and negotiate what it means to be a parent. Open Kindergartens are drop-in meeting places where parents and children take part in everyday activities as part of a diverse group. Open Kindergartens provide a space to learn parenting by doing, in a safe and non-judgmental environment, facilitated and supported by a range of professionals. This approach supports integration in local communities and contrasts with many parenting programs that are professionally led and often highly normative.