Early Childhood Education and Care Services in the European Union Countries. Proceedings of the ChildONEurope Seminar and integrated review

The issue of ECEC services is recently receiving greater attention in the EU framework. This subject has long been an important part of the EU's social and economic policy and gender equality policy. At the Barcelona Council of 2002, it was agreed to establish a common target to be reached by the EU States, which was specifically the coverage of 33% of places in ECEC services for children from birth to 3 years as well as 90% for 3 to 6-year-olds. Such a decision shows an important commitment that the EU States agreed to undertake, however, this quantitative goal was not accompanied by any qualitative specifications. Also for this reason the European Network of National Observatories on Childhood (ChildONEurope) decided to promote a discussion focusing on the provision of the ECEC services in the EU countries, in particular by organizing a Seminar on the subject and by requesting information on its partners' policies. The present publication is composed of two parts: the first is made up of the proceedings of the ChildONEurope Seminar on ECEC services held on 28th January 2010 at the Istituto degli Innocenti in Florence. The second is an integrated review of the most important findings emerging from some key reports by international organizations on ECEC services and was commissioned to the Istituto degli Innocenti – as body performing the functions of ChildONEurope Secretariat – by the Belgian Presidency of the EU (July – December 2010) that made the ECEC services one of its priorities. The ChildONEurope Seminar on early childhood education and care services and promotion of social inclusion aimed at providing a forum for knowledge exchange among the ChildONEurope partners and other key international governmental and non-governmental bodies involved in this field, in particular concerning a comparative analysis of the EU situation focusing both on qualitative and quantitative aspects. More specifically, the Seminar is aimed at promoting reflection on the impact that such services can have in nurturing social inclusion and fighting the risk of social exclusion of socially disadvantaged children as well as migrant children in a framework of universal access to services. The proceedings reproduced in this publication gather the speakers' interventions as well as the working groups' reports, focusing on children's identity and the quality of ECEC services, access to ECEC services, costs and fees for families with special attention to migrant and socially disadvantaged children and promotion of children's rights, development of services and prevention of social exclusion. The second part is made up of a review of the most important European reports on the subjects drafted by the international organizations. This review has the aim of facilitating the discussion on ECEC services policies during the meeting of the Intergovernmental Group L'Europe de l'Enfance, to be held in Antwerp on 8-10 September 2010 and the Meeting of Ministers responsible for childhood, to be held in Brussels on 15-16 November 2010. Fulfilling this objective, the second part of this publication was elaborated with the intention to provide policy- makers and governmental representatives with concise indications regarding, from a qualitative point of view, the main challenges that European governments face today when setting up effective ECEC services and integrated policies