EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 22.5.2018 SWD(2018) 173 final COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Accompanying the document Proposal for a COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION on High Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems {COM(2018) 271 final}



Contents 1. Introduction 2. State of play 2.1. Access and participation 2.2. Legal framework for providing early childhood education and care services 2.3. Quality in early childhood education and care 3. Benefits of early childhood education and care 3.1. Benefits for children 3.2. Social and labour market outcomes 3.3. Female labour market participation and gender equality 4. Social inclusion and early childhood education and care provision 4.1. Breaking the cycle of disadvantage, preventing early skills gap 4.2. Special education needs and disabilities 4.3. Migrants, minorities and refugees 5. The results of the ET2020 working group 5.1. The three principles in the Quality Framework 5.2. The importance of play

5.3. Ten statements to define quality 5.4. Impact of the 2014 Proposal for a Quality Framework 6. Results from the stakeholder consultation 7. Evidence supporting the five dimensions of the Quality Framework 7.1. Access 7.2. Workforce 7.3. Curriculum 7.4. Evaluation and Monitoring 7.5. Governance and Funding 8. Optional factors for complementing the Quality Framework 8.1. Introduction to the optional set of quality factors 8.2. The optional set of quality factors and guiding questions



1.Introduction Children have the right to affordable early childhood education and care of good quality. Learning and education start from birth and the first years of life are the most formative as they set the foundations for children’s lifelong development and patterns for their lives. High quality early childhood education and care is an essential foundation for all children’s successful lifelong learning, social integration, personal development and later employability. Research shows that high quality early childhood education and care benefits children's cognitive, language and social development. Ensuring access to affordable and good quality early childhood education and care systems across the EU is enshrined in the European Pillar of Social Rights and an essential element of securing smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Good quality and accessible early childhood education and care systems are equally important for empowering all individuals to have successful lives. They are important to remove obstacles to employment, especially for women and are especially beneficial in improving the labour market opportunities of single parents and women in low-income households. Investing in early childhood education is therefore one of those rare policies that is both socially fair – as it increases equality of opportunity and social mobility – and economically efficient, as it fosters skills and productivity. But all these benefits are conditional on the quality of the education provided. Consequently the availability of high quality, affordable early childhood education and care for young children is an important priority for Member States and for the European Union.

Starting from this understanding, the Proposal for a Council Recommendation on high quality early childhood education and care provides a framework to understand and promote quality in in these services. The aim is to inspire and support Member States wishing to extend their early childhood education and care services, improve the quality of their system and, in case it is decided so at the appropriate level, to set up their own quality frameworks. This Staff Working document assembles the relevant evidence to back up statements made in the proposal. It looks at the current situation in the European Union, at preparatory technical work carried out with Member States' experts in the context of the ET2020 cooperation, the input gathered from stakeholder consultations, and provides recent evidence on all 10 quality statements highlighted in the proposal.



2.State of play 2.1.Access and participation Increasing access and participation in early childhood education and care has received considerable policy attention during the last two decades. ·It is one of the European benchmarks agreed in the Education and Training 2020 Strategy. The benchmark calls for the participation of at least 95% of children between the age of four and compulsory school age by 2020. ·In 2002 the Barcelona European Council agreed that Member States should remove disincentives to female labour force participation, taking into account the demand for childcare facilities and in line with national patterns of provision, to provide childcare by 2010 to at least 90% of children between three years old and the mandatory school age and at least 33% of children under three years of age. The Barcelona targets are regularly monitored by the European Commission, including in the context of the European Semester and most recently in its report adopted in parallel to this Staff Working Document. Recent data show that the benchmark for early education and care participation by the age group above four years of age has been practically met, with the EU reaching 94.8% (see graph below). The data however also show that children from migration or minority background and with less educated, disadvantaged parents attend early childhood education and care services less frequently than native children or those with more highly educated parents. In addition, while the Barcelona objective for the participation of the 0-3 year olds has overall been reached, many countries are still far from reaching the objective. More details on the Barcelona targets and their implementation is published in the Commission's report on the development of childcare facilities for young children with a view to enhance female labour market participation, work-life balance of working parents and sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe adopted in parallel to this Staff Working Document . Source: European Commission (2017), Education and Training Monitor http://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/monitor2017_en.pdf ) Children in early childhood as % of corresponding age population Children between 4 years and the starting age of compulsory education as % of the corresponding age group 3 years 4 years 5 years Total Boys Girls EU 88,2 93,9 96,1 94,8 94,8 94,8 Belgium 97,8 98,1 98,0 98,0 97,9 98,1 Bulgaria 71,3 80,8 93,2 89,2 89,2 89,1 Czech Republic 77,3 85,3 90,7 88,0 88,2 87,8 Denmark 97,0 98,0 98,9 98,5 97,7 99,3 Germany 93,3 96,7 98,1 97,4 97,2 97,6 Estonia 86,9 90,6 92,1 91,6 91,5 91,7 Ireland 38,3 89,4 96,1 92,7 92,5 93,0 Greece 24,4 62,0 96,4 79,6 : : Spain 94,9 97,4 97,9 97,7 97,5 97,8 France 99,5 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 Croatia 55,7 59,6 80,9 73,8 74,8 72,7 Italy 92,1 95,8 96,7 96,2 97,0 95,4 Cyprus 64,1 84,7 94,6 89,6 89,5 89,7 Latvia 86,6 91,6 96,5 95,0 94,6 95,4 Lithuania 77,0 85,7 93,3 90,8 90,5 91,1 Luxembourg 65,8 94,8 98,6 96,6 96,9 96,4 Hungary 81,2 95,1 95,4 95,3 95,5 95,0 Malta 96,9 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 Netherlands 82,7 96,0 99,2 97,6 97,4 97,9 Austria 75,0 92,7 97,1 95,0 93,3 96,7 Poland 65,2 79,4 95,3 90,1 90,0 90,2 Portugal 78,7 90,3 96,9 93,6 94,2 92,9 Romania 77,8 86,3 88,8 87,6 87,6 87,5 Slovenia 82,8 89,3 91,8 90,5 90,8 90,3 Slovakia 60,3 75,6 81,2 78,4 78,4 78,5 Finland 68,4 74,5 88,2 83,6 83,6 83,6 Sweden 91,4 92,9 96,0 95,0 94,9 95,0 United Kingdom 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 Equitable access to early childhood education and care is an essential feature of good quality provision. Research shows that the beneficial effects of early childhood education and care attendance are stronger for children in poverty and from minority ethnic groups when there is a context of universal provision.

In OECD countries, expenditure on early childhood education accounts for an average of 0.8% of GDP, of which 0.6% is allocated to pre-primary education. Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2017 2.2.Legal framework for providing early childhood education and care services In the European Union, there are significant differences regarding the age from which children have a guarantee to a place in early childhood education and care, the hours of entitlement and whether or not parents are expected to co-finance. Legal entitlement to early childhood education and care refers to a statutory duty on early childhood education and care providers to secure publicly subsidised service provision for all children living in a catchment area whose parents, regardless of their employment, socio-economic or family status, require a place for their child. Public authorities commit themselves to guarantee a place in settings for all children even if attending early childhood education and care is not compulsory. Source: Eurydice (2017) Structural indicators When there is no provision of legal entitlement, data show that around half of national central-level steering documents do not address the allocation of places in early childhood education and care. This means that places are allocated on the basis of selection criteria defined either by local authorities or directly by heads of settings. In other countries, some central level criteria for the allocation of places are defined. However, this matter is usually addressed through recommendations rather than regulations, which means that local authorities or heads of settings have significant autonomy when taking decisions. In the education systems, where the allocation criteria are defined at central level, they usually make reference to parents’ employment status, family status or socio-economic status e.g.: ·With regard to employment status, most countries give priority to working parents, but some also refer to parents who are actively seeking employment or to parents who are in education or training. Priority is sometimes given to parents working in specific professions, including the armed services and government officers in internal affairs or border authorities; ·when taking family status into account, countries often give priority to orphans, children from single-parent families, large families as well as to siblings of children already in the setting. ·criteria might give priority to children with disabilities, special needs or health problems, or from certain ethnic groups ·specific categories of parents are also given preference in some countries, including war veterans or victims of conflicts political refugees, parents who are victims of domestic violence or teenage parents who need to work or continue their studies ·often heads of settings are required to take into account the order in which applications arrive (i.e. the priority should be given to earlier applications). Across Europe there are imbalances between the supply and demand of places in early childhood education and care. The 2014 report from Eurostat and Eurydice comments that in almost all countries, the demand for places is higher than supply, especially for younger children. In approximately half of the European education systems, the entire period of ISCED 0 is provided free of charge. Typically, in countries where early childhood education and care is provided free of charge, there is also a legal entitlement to a place, or a statutory duty on services providers to secure publicly subsidised early childhood education and care provision for all children living in a catchment area. Where there is no legal entitlement or attendance is not compulsory, there is often a shortage of free places.

2.3.Quality in early childhood education and care In recent years, and in parallel to the efforts to increase access and participation, increasing attention has been given to the quality of early childhood education and care. Empirical evidence has shown that in order for children to benefit from early childhood education and care, the provision has to be of high quality. This is highlighted for example in the conclusions from the NESSE ‘Early Matters’ symposium which note that early childhood education and care services can enhance children’s subsequent school performance if they are of a high quality but may impair it if they are of a low quality. Low-quality early childhood education and care may be associated with having no effect or even with detrimental effects on children’s development and learning in the long term An EENEE report from 2017 notes four policy levers that policy-makers can pull: personnel, organisation, curriculum and funding. For early childhood education and care, the issues of access and quality are both crucial and highly complex. Currently there is often not only unequal access to early childhood education and care in general, but also even more unequal access to high quality services, which reinforces inequalities. This is the background against which in 2011 the EU Member States and the European Commission launched cooperation to address the two-fold challenge of strengthening access to childcare and education, and raising the quality of early childhood education and care provision. This included the establishment in 2012 of a Thematic Working Group as part of the Education and Training 2020 work programme. This group developed proposals for improving the quality of early childhood education and care which became a topic of growing interest. Their work led to the publication of a first proposal to establish a Quality Framework for early childhood education and care. This Quality Framework was based on five dimensions: access; workforce; curriculum; monitoring and evaluation; and governance and funding. It aimed to support policy makers and encourage all Member States to go further in their development of excellence in all settings for the benefit of individual children and society. Quality in early childhood education and care is a complex concept and measures to achieve, improve and further develop quality are inter-dependent and cannot be considered in isolation. Although there is no internationally agreed concept of quality in early childhood education and care services, measures have been identified which help to produce and assure high quality. These include measures which affect the structure of service provision, the quality of the processes used in settings and the outcomes from early childhood education and care provision. ·Structural quality looks at how the system is designed and organised – it often includes rules associated with the accreditation and approval of individual settings; requirements about the number of professionally trained staff; the design of the curriculum; regulations associated with the financing of early childhood education and care provision; the ratio of staff to children in any setting; arrangements to ensure all children are treated fairly and in accordance with their individual needs; and the physical requirements which need to be in place to meet the health and safety requirements of providing care and education for young children; ·Process quality looks at practice within a setting – it often includes the role of play within the curriculum; relationships between early childhood education and care providers and children’s families; relationships between staff and children, and among children; the extent to which care and education is provided in an integrated way; the involvement of parents in the work of the setting and the day-to-day pedagogic practice of staff within an early childhood education and care context; ·Outcome quality looks at the benefits for children, families, communities and society. Where these benefits relate to children’s outcomes they often include measures of children’s emotional, moral, mental and physical development; children’s social skills and preparation for further learning and adult life; children’s health and their school readiness. Early childhood development and early learning Development of competences is an incremental process, and building a strong foundation in the early years is a pre-condition for higher level skill acquisitions. While learning and physical well-being are connected at all ages, physical development in the first six years of life is critical for competences. "Just as a weak foundation compromises the quality and strength of a house, adverse experiences early in life can impair brain architecture, with negative effects lasting into adulthood". In order to be able to develop a strong brain architecture children need good nutrition, a stimulating environment, secure attachment and warm responsive relationships. Also as part of physical development gross and fine motor skills as well as visual motor and spatial skills are important prerequisites for skill acquisition and school readiness. Looking at learning processes the importance of early years is two-fold. Firstly, a range of pre-academic knowledge and skills - such as early numeracy, literacy and science – is necessary for children to develop and be successful in school. Secondly, and with equal importance, there is a range of social, emotional and cognitive skills that children need as enablers of lifelong learning, health and well-being. Different studies have demonstrated that early literacy and numeracy skills and basic knowledge about natural and social science have great influence on future competence development. Early verbal abilities of very young children also impact on their later numeracy skills and mathematical performance. Early literacy skills (children’s early oral and phonological awareness and processing skills as well as letter print knowledge) have been found to play a crucial role in reading development and also in mathematical achievement. At school entry there are large differences in the level of numeracy skills among children. These differences tend to increase during school years, suggesting that early numeracy practices before school entry are likely to improve children’s later mathematical attainment. Early cognitive and non-cognitive skills have also been identified as both having an impact on later competence as well as having a long reach into adulthood and influence health, employability, earnings and life-satisfaction. Most important early socio-emotional competences include self-awareness, self-regulation, emotional stability, pro-social behaviour and empathy. The importance of early self-regulatory skill has seen increased focus in the applied research given the implications of these skills for early school success. Furthermore education from the earliest stages has an essential role to play in learning to live together in heterogeneous societies. Before children can understand abstract social concepts (democracy, responsibility, rule of law, human rights), they need to experience real life personal situations in which these concepts come into play, and practice the requisite social skills. Therefore in order to develop civic competence early social leaning need to take place. Later in life these social skills also play crucial role in the development of entrepreneurial competence and intentions. Language is a fundamental aspect and plays a key role in early childhood development and early learning. Research-based evidence shows that participation in early childhood education and care is crucial to support children's language development and later readiness for schooling. There is a need to focus on strengthening the overall language competences (in both first language and other or foreign languages). Literacy engagement is one of the major variables predicting strong academic development of students; in this respect starting early has important implications for inclusion and exposure to literature is crucial to create an affective bond between children and books at an early stage. Parents' socio-economic and educational background is the strongest influencing factor for children's' competence development in the early years. The second most influential factor is the quality of any form of non-parental care children receive. In fact "going to a high quality early childhood education and care setting was especially important when starting school and remained so beyond the age of 16. It influences both attainment and progress in early school careers and set children on particularly beneficial learning trajectories". This is true for all children and especially if they came from more disadvantaged backgrounds. In short participation in early childhood education and care can compensate, to a degree, for inequalities in family background. It is necessary to support the development of different skill sets to enable children reach their full potential. The results of policies that simultaneously develop multiple skills are likely to be greater than policies concentrating on single skills only.

3.Benefits of early childhood education and care Benefits of participating in high quality early childhood education and care are wide ranging. This chapter set out to summarise the main benefits of participation in early childhood education and care. Two recent reports give full account of these positive impacts that include individual and public benefits. They conclude that high quality early childhood education and care can lay the foundations for later success in life in terms of education, well-being, employability, and social integration. This is even more valid for children from disadvantaged backgrounds . Research conclusions show that high quality early childhood education and care benefits children's cognitive, language and social development for both the age group of under three year olds and for those between four and the school entry age. 3.1.Benefits for children A wide range of background factors at child level (gender, low birth weights, genetics etc.), family level (parental qualifications, income, socio-economic situation etc.) and the home learning environment influences to a great extent the educational outcomes for children. At the same time children's experiences in their early years have a profound impact on their social-emotional and cognitive development in their childhood and throughout their life. Children develop not in isolation but through relationships within the family, neighbourhood, community, and society. The effect of attending a high quality early childhood education and care on a child’s literacy and numeracy skills at age 11 can equal or surpass that of other factors, including primary school quality and early developmental problems. In addition, they are long-lasting: a significant relation between earlier entry into education and mathematic results remains after ten years. UK Study on Educational outcomes for different age groups Findings in a UK study showed that children who attended pre-school, compared to those who did not, had better attainment in language, pre-reading and early number concepts after controlling for the influence of background characteristics. The graph below shows the advantage in terms of months of development of longer duration and higher quality on literacy at school entry. It shows that children who attended high quality pre-school for 2-3 years were nearly 8 months ahead in their literacy development compared to children who had not attended pre-school. The beneficial effects of pre-school remained relevant at age 11. However, these effects were largely carried by settings of medium or high quality As the graph below shows, the benefits of both medium and high quality pre-school persisted at age 11 for attainment in reading/English and maths. In addition, attending a more effective pre-school (one that promoted early number concepts) had particular benefits for later attainment in maths. The effect of attending high quality early childhood education and care on a child’s literacy and numeracy skills at age 11 can equal or surpass that of other factors, including primary school quality and early developmental problems. At age 14, students who attended a pre-school that was highly effective in promoting pre-reading skills had better outcomes for English. For maths, all pre-school effectiveness groups had better grade results than the no pre-school group. Attendance at a high medium effective pre-school predicted better outcomes in science compared to the no pre-school group. Higher pre-school quality also predicted better self-regulation, pro-social, hyperactivity and anti-social behaviour at age 1) as seen in the graph below.

At the end of secondary school (age 16) pre-school quality still predicted academic attainment with high quality being associated with better total final test scores and English and maths grades. Students who had attended high quality pre-schools were more likely to achieve excellent final test results. The OECD’s PISA survey suggests that 15-year-old students who attended early childhood education for less than one year are 3.1 times more likely than students who attended for one year or more to perform below the baseline level of proficiency in science (this decreases to 2.3 times after accounting for socio-economic status. A 2011 OECD report also found that literacy at age 15 was strongly associated with participation in early childhood education and care in countries where a large proportion of the population attends early childhood education and care, where it is for a longer duration, and where there were measures to maintain its quality. Also a summary of the existing research evidence from multiple countries confirms that good-quality early childhood education and care helps children’s successful completion of compulsory education. The early cognitive abilities, which include early literacy, language and numeracy, form the foundations for further development of relevant competences at school and help avoid early competence gaps that would require early remedial action during the compulsory schooling. Similarly, pro-social behaviour, self-regulation and favourable learning dispositions are a huge asset which young children might be able to take from the early childhood education and care institution to school and which form the basis for avoiding non-cognitive characteristics that are associated with underachievement and early school leaving. 3.2.Social and labour market outcomes Besides educational outcomes, potential labour market outcomes, for those who participated in early childhood education and care, have received much attention in research. There are numerous studies showing that those who participated in early childhood education and care have more favourable labour market outcomes than those who did not. Examples include labour market participation, earnings, productivity, employability and employment opportunities. Early childhood education and care can foster individual productivity, especially that of children in poverty or other adverse circumstances. Several studies for the US and EU have detected significant and lasting effects of participation in early childhood education and care on both educational attainment and wages. Dumas and Lefranc (2010), for example, start from a policy change in France in the 1960s, which increased participation in early childhood education and care from 35 to 90%. They show that an additional year of early childhood education and care attendance raises average earnings by 3% and lowered the dropout rate by 2%. In part, the above results can be explained through improved education: because individuals who attended early childhood education and care generally have higher educational attainment than those who did not, they also have better chances in the labour market. While the literature has clearly demonstrated a positive relationship between participation in early childhood education and care and labour market outcomes later in life, the quantification of these effects is not straightforward. With regard to the situation of parents, the lack of (full-time) formal care services for children can lead working parents, in particular women, to reduce their working hours or drop out of the labour market . The accessibility of these services in terms of physical distance and opening hours can present obstacles to female employment. Poor quality of services has a strong impact on female participation in the labour market as well. Almost one third of parents not using childcare services due to their low quality. Affordability can also be a major barrier to the use of these services; 53% of mothers who declare that they do not work or that they work part-time for reasons linked to formal childcare services consider the costs to be an obstacle. Improving the provision of affordable, accessible and quality (full-time) early childhood education and care can therefore also have a direct positive impact on parents’, and especially mothers’, participation in the labour market. Childcare services for young children are a way for parents to enter and/or remain in the labour market only if they are financially accessible. The economic benefits of early childhood education and care generally take the form of reduced spending or increased revenues in specific policy domains, such as social security or taxation. With regard to education, public expenditure on education is likely to decrease because fewer students repeat grades, are enrolled in special education, need additional lessons or training, or drop out of high school altogether. As for health, there are positive effects of early childhood education and care in relation to government spending and revenues because improved health and overall well-being are associated with reductions in expenditure on health-related programmes. Spending on early childhood education and care is generally lower than that on other education levels, despite the evidence on its importance for future learning and growth and the finding that returns on investment are higher than those for other education levels. The economic benefits from investing in early childhood education and care (compared to other stages of education) can be summarised in the following graph. Investments in early education have the highest rate of return 3.3.Female labour market participation and gender equality In 2016, the employment rate of women in the EU was 65.3% as compared to 76.9% for men (20-64 age group). At the current rate of change, female labour market participation will only reach 75%, the current employment rate of men, by the year 2038 . Gender gaps in the labour market are most acute for parents and people with other caring responsibilities. The gender employment gap has been shown to widen substantially after having children. Data suggest that the younger the child, the lower the probability of staying in or joining the labour market. On average in 2016, the employment rate of women with one child under 6 is 7.5 percentage points (pp) less than women without young children, and in several countries this difference is over 15 pp. Mothers tend to be less represented in the labour market than non-mothers across all educational levels and household types. The employment gap is particularly high for low-skilled women and single parents. As noted by the OECD, the availability of early childhood services plays a key role in the increased labour force participation rates among women. This in turn has public benefits in terms of higher contributions to society and to economic growth. But having a good access to such services is not sufficient. The number of early childhood education and care hours per week available to young children is paramount to increasing the full-time participation of mothers in the labour market. For that reason, many OECD countries have recently increased the number of free hours of early childhood education and care entitlements, or shifted from half-day to full-day kindergartens. However, here again, wide variations among countries still exist. Countries with both high levels of participation in early childhood education and care and greater intensity of participation (in hours per week), such as Nordic countries, are in general those in which most mothers work full-time. An Education indicators in Focus brief recently published by OECD highlights that the availability, intensity, reliability and affordability of early childhood education and care play an important role in engaging women full time in the labour market and points out to the persistence of wide variations across countries. In addition, it underlines that the barrier of costs prevents poor families and lone parents, mostly mothers, from accessing paid work. It concludes that provision and accessibility of free early childhood education and care services need to be increased, especially for children under the age of 3.

In many EU Member States there is lack of places especially for children under three. The high cost of the available private nurseries and kindergartens is a major obstacle for women. Furthermore close to one third of Europeans claim that they do not use early childhood education and care services due to their (perceived) low quality. Investing in high quality early childhood education and care services can be considered a major enabler for women with young children to participate in the labour market. The most recent information on women’s participation in the labour force in Member States is set out in the European Commission’s 2018 Barcelona Report. The OECD notes that the benefits of early childhood education and care services to better learning are now widely acknowledged, a widespread and accessible provision for these services also helps support gender equality in the workforce. In particular, the availability, intensity, reliability and affordability of early childhood education and care play an important role in engaging women full time in the labour market. While early childhood education and care has experienced a surge of policy attention over the last decades, wide variations still exist across countries and its costs remains a barrier to accessing paid work for poor families and lone parents, mostly mothers. By addressing women’s underrepresentation in the labour market, increasing the provision of early childhood education and care could have positive impacts on companies, the economy and society as a whole. Indeed, the current situation in terms of female employment strongly impedes companies’ turn-over as it exacerbates skills shortages and leads to costly staff turnover as women drop out of the labour market to take care of their children . Moreover, women’s underrepresentation in the labour market leads to their underrepresentation in decision-making positions. This in turn has costs for businesses, as it can lead to sub-optimal decision-making with negative economic consequences . Addressing the gender employment gap would also translate into decreased presser on public finances due to higher available labour supply, increased tax-revenue and increase social transfers in order to address women and child poverty. In 2013, the cost of gender inequality in the labour market amounted to an estimated €370 billion euros, equivalent to 2.8% of EU-GDP .



4.Social inclusion and early childhood education and care provision Early childhood education and care contributes to social inclusion and social cohesion in several ways. It brings together children and parents of different backgrounds in a familiar environment. It has been demonstrated that having young children is a matter that can connect people from diverse origins and socio-economic statuses . In a context of increased diversity, academics and policy-makers have pointed to the role of the educational system in general, and to early childhood education and care in particular, on supporting social inclusion and cohesion . High quality early childhood education and care services have to take account of questions of access, affordability and availability of the services. However ‘availability and affordability do not necessarily make provision accessible, as multiple obstacles may exclude children from poor and immigrant families, for example, language barriers, knowledge of bureaucratic procedures, waiting lists, or priorities set by management’. The work carried out to date in the context of EU cooperation on early childhood education and care has used the following definition of at-risk children: Children can be at risk of disadvantage because of their individual circumstances or because they, or their families belong to a group which is disadvantaged in society. These children may include those with disabilities, with mental health problems, in alternative care, at risk of neglect/abuse, undocumented child migrants/asylum seekers, those whose families live in poverty or are socially disadvantaged, those whose families have a migrant and/or second language background, those whose families have limited access to services, Roma and traveller children. 4.1.Breaking the cycle of disadvantage, preventing early skills gap In their 2014 review of the literature Vandenbroeck and Lazzari comment that all studies which focus on sub-samples of vulnerable children report that high quality early childhood education and care benefits especially children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds whose gains in cognitive and socio-emotional development are higher than for middle-class children. The research further suggest that a universal service providing good quality programmes for all, in which special attention is given to disadvantaged children, is be preferred over separate provision focussed exclusively on targeted populations. In addition, children from disadvantaged backgrounds gain most when early childhood education and care services are closely linked to employment, health and social policies that promote a more equal redistribution of resources across a population. The graph below highlights research from the UK on the links between children’s reading ability at age 7 (the end of Key Stage 1) and children’s ability to regulate themselves at the age of 11 (the end of Key Stage 2). This research shows how children’s abilities are affected by the quality of early childhood education and care and children’s abilities as well as the impact of social class. Sustainable benefits of participation of disadvantaged children in early childhood education and care Source: UK, Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education Project 1997-2004 Among children of comparable background, those who attended preschool in their current OECD host country score better in reading. A recent study confirmed that a longer time spent in preschool is associated with better German language skills for Turkish-origin children with low levels of German at home. However, immigrant students and students with less educated parents attend early childhood education and care less frequently than native students or those with higher educated parents: the attendance rate of 3-6 year-old immigrant children in early childhood education and care programmes was 7 p.p. lower than among their native-born peers in 2012.

The Inclusive Early Childhood Education Literature Review finds that promoting inclusive early childhood education and care programmes can enhance the development of children with disabilities and foster inclusive and non-discriminatory attitudes among children from the start. Early childhood education and care programmes which are ‘responsive to individual needs and respectful of diversity benefit all children and contribute to building the foundations of an inclusive society’. Research also suggests that the best performing education systems do not segregate young children according to ability but “embrace the diversity in students´ capacities, interests and social backgrounds with individualised approaches to learning”. 4.2.Special education needs and disabilities The UN Sustainable Development Goals cover all children including those with special needs and disabilities. The SDG include the statement that: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education (UN, 2015, Goal 4.2). The Inclusive Early Childhood Education Literature Review also comments on the critical need to support early childhood education and care for children with special needs. Early childhood services are particularly important, as they can contribute to children’s health and social and cognitive development. Early childhood education and care services make an important contribution for at-risk children and their families, as they allow for early screening and identification of special needs. The literature review also notes that according to OECD data only one quarter of children with special educational needs are included in mainstream early education settings. 4.3.Migrants, minorities and refugees Immigrant students and students with less educated parents attend early childhood education and care less frequently than native students or those with higher educated parents: the attendance rate of 3-6 year-old immigrant children in early childhood education and care programmes was 7 percentage points lower than among their native-born peers in 2012. A recent OECD study underlines that, on average across OECD countries with available data, immigrant students are 12 percentage points less likely than native students to have participated in pre-primary programmes (13 percentage points less likely across EU countries only). Attendance at pre-primary education can be a mediating factor between immigrant background and academic resilience. According to this report, the gap in participation in pre-primary education between native and immigrant students explains part of the gap in academic performance between the two groups. On average, the difference between native and immigrant students in the percentage of students who attained baseline academic proficiency decreases by one percentage point after accounting for participation in pre-primary education. The research from Vandenbroeck and Lazzari has also emphasised that immigrant families and families living in poverty often have smaller informal networks and less access to information about early childhood education and care and enrolment procedures. In addition, language and cultural barriers may prevent them from fulﬁlling the bureaucratic procedures necessary to enrol their children. A striking example in this regard are Roma communities, where lack of trust toward authorities and public services combined with discrimination and hostility encountered in educational environments tend to undermine children’s participation in early childhood education and care (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe 2010). The 2015 report from the Transatlantic Forum on Inclusive early years notes the extent to which societies in Europe have been changing from monocultural entities to multidiverse communities with many different languages, cultures and religions. The report also comments that early childhood education and care has yet to find ‘clear cut answers’ to this emerging complexity. Other work from the Transatlantic Forum has highlighted that there are differential rates of access to high quality non-maternal care and preschools among children from ethnic minority and low-income families have been well-documented in several European countries. In 2012 EU commissioned review of the literature on child poverty and disadvantage identifies there is a consensus across the literature that the main barriers to participation in early childhood education and care services are: §low socio-economic status including a low level of parental education, low family income or parental unemployment; §living in poor neighbourhoods/rural areas/marginalised settlements; §ethnic minority background, influenced by the length of time parents have been residing in the host country and their ability to master the host country language; §on the supply side, other factors hinder participation in early childhood education and care services, in particular: desirability by excluded groups, based on whether they understand these services and their evaluation of the usefulness of these services for their children.



5.The results of the ET2020 working group Between 2012 and 2014, a group of experts worked on ways of strengthening access to early childhood education and care and raising the quality of service provision. This ET 2020 Thematic Working Group comprised national experts from ministries in more than 20 countries as well as representatives from international and European Agencies (e.g. OECD and Eurydice). The group developed a proposal for a quality framework on early childhood education and care that was discussed and agreed in an international conference on early childhood education and care organised under the auspices of the Greek Presidency in 2014. The current proposal for a Council Recommendation is to a large extent based on this preparatory work.

5.1.The three principles in the Quality Framework The Quality Framework is based on three key principles which are regarded as fundamental to the development and maintenance of high quality early childhood education and care: ·Early childhood education and care services need to be child-centred, acknowledge children’s views and actively involve children in everyday decisions in the setting Each child is unique and a competent and active learner whose potential needs to be encouraged and supported. Each child is a curious, capable and intelligent individual. The child is a 'co-creator of knowledge' who needs and wants interaction with other children and adults . Early childhood education and care services need to be child-centred, acknowledge children’s views and actively involve children in everyday decisions in the setting. Services should offer a nurturing and caring environment and provide a social, cultural and physical space with a range of possibilities for children to develop their present and future potential. Early childhood education and care is designed to offer a holistic approach based on the fundamental assumption that education and care are inseparable. A central aspect of many monitoring and evaluation systems is the need to collect information from the perspective of the child. These models emphasise the well-being and involvement of children in the quality assurance process i.e. how children feel and how involved they are in the early childhood education and care activities. A range of approaches can be used including semi-structured interviews which record the children’s perspectives on quality. This can include their views on the early childhood education and care environment; the professionals; the children’s relationships with their peers; and the rules which are applied in the setting. Children are given the status of independent participants and their views are taken seriously when the quality of provision is assessed. Thus, a recent study examines the challenges and opportunities linked to involving young children's perspectives as part of quality monitoring in a decentralized context imposing a legal requirement in this respect on municipalities and settings. The focus was on pedagogical work with children's perspectives, to examine how a broader understanding of the concept (covering not only children's opinions but also their daily experiences at the setting) could contribute to improve quality. Within the framework of a project drawing on the Mosaic approach, children were invited to express themselves (through various methods) and were involved in various ways (whatever their age, maturity or language skills). In this particular instance, context sensitivity has emerged as an important aspect to succeed in taking account of children's views; but it has been shown that the systematic inclusion of children's perspectives offers great potential for increasing professional learning outcomes for staff and for inspiring crucial quality improvement in settings (and even potential for increased parental involvement in some cases). ·parents’ participation as partners of early childhood education and care services is essential The family is usually the first and most important place for children to grow and develop, and parents (or primary caregivers) are responsible for each child’s well-being, health and development. Families are characterised by great social, socio-economic, cultural and religious diversity – and this diversity should be respected as a fundamental element of European societies . Within a context that is set by the national, regional or local regulations, the family should be fully involved in all aspects of education and care for their child. To make this involvement a reality, early childhood education and care services should be designed in partnership with families and be based on trust and mutual respect. These partnerships can support families by developing services that respond to the needs of parents and allow for a balance between time for family and work. Early childhood education and care services can complement the family and offer support as well as additional opportunities to parents and children. ·a shared understanding of high quality services is needed High quality early childhood education and care services are crucial in promoting children’s development and learning and, in the long term, enhancing their educational chances . The Quality Framework shares the underlying assumptions of quality set out by the European Commission’s Network on Childcare. In 1996 this Network produced 40 targets to be achieved by all Member States over a 10 year period. The Network also emphasised that quality is a relative concept based on values and beliefs, and defining quality should be a dynamic, continuous and democratic process. A balance needs to be found between defining certain common objectives, applying them to all services, and supporting diversity between individual services . 5.2.The importance of play The Quality Framework is also based on a shared view of how should children learn and grow up in society. This acknowledges that children are willing, adventurous and active learners, who benefit from a combination of learning, care and play. Children are active participants in their own learning and central to the education and care process. Children are not solely recipients of education; they have an active role in framing their own learning. Children have different emotional, physical, social and cognitive needs and these should be recognised in the design and implementation of early childhood education and care provision. Children’s education and care as well as their cognitive, social, emotional, physical and language development are important. A well-balanced combination of education and care can promote children’s well-being, positive self-image, physical development and their social and cognitive development. Also the significance of learning through play is understood and supported. Throughout the Quality Framework there is an underlying assumption that early childhood education and care programmes (sometimes based on a curriculum or set of educational guidelines) are delivered through play which is seen as spontaneous and unstructured. It is a child-led and child-initiated activity. It offers children opportunities to explore and reflect on their interests and issues that are relevant to and meaningful in their lives. The role of staff is to encourage children’s play through creating the right environment and using a pedagogic approach to learning. This emphasis on play can be seen in the early childhood education and care curriculum (or set of guidelines) when children are encouraged to learn through play . Play sustains children’s interests; encourages them to make decisions, solve problems and develop independence. Children learn to exercise choice and take increasing responsibility for their own learning. This enables them to feel successful, develop their confidence, and make age-appropriate contributions to the decisions and activities of the early childhood education and care setting . Most importantly, when children’s learning initiatives are accompanied by adults who are able to design opportunities for progression, play becomes a powerful tool for promoting the general foundations of formalised learning. Research shows that play supports the development of meta-cognitive abilities that are associated with long-term gains from early childhood education and care (such as verbal abilities and logical reasoning); and mature symbolic play has the potential to affect specific literacy and numeracy skills . This is also confirmed by the findings of international literature reviews highlighting how children’s developmental potential is optimised in contexts where learning is nurtured through a reciprocal and well-balanced interaction between children-initiated activities and adult-led educational initiatives . Children’s self-confidence improves and their feelings of belonging grow when their contributions are valued and their views have an impact on the everyday life of the setting. Each early childhood education and care curriculum (or set of education guidelines) should therefore acknowledge the importance of, and provide opportunities for children to make sense of and assign meaning to the surrounding world. For this reason children’s play should be at the centre of any education and care programme aimed at enhancing children’s learning . Young children’s learning processes are highly dependent on their social environment, the presence of stable and trusting interaction with other children and adults, as well as free and unconditional space and time for play and free expression . Play in an educational and caring context is a part of children’s life where they are able to make autonomous choices. 5.3.Ten statements to define quality

The proposed recommendation invites Member States to improve access to high quality early childhood education and care systems in line with the statements set out in the 'Quality framework for early childhood education and care' presented in the Annex to the Recommendation. This annex is largely based on the quality framework developed by experts in 2014. The following presents the content the Quality Framework’s ten statements. These statements underline that high quality early childhood education and care is based on high expectations which require: Access to early childhood education and care 1.provision that is available and affordable to all families and their children. The potential benefits of high quality universal provision are particularly significant for children from disadvantaged and/or marginalised groups. Early childhood education and care provision should be made available from birth to the age at which children start compulsory primary school. To respond to parental circumstances and encourage all families to use early childhood education and care, services provision needs to offer flexibility in relation to opening hours and the content of the programme. 2.provision that encourages participation, strengthens social inclusion and embraces diversity. Successful inclusion in early childhood education and care is based on: a collaborative approach to promoting the benefits of early childhood education and care which involves local organisations and community groups; approaches which respect and value the beliefs, needs and culture of parents; an assurance that all children and families are welcome in the setting/centre; a pro-active approach to encouraging all parents to use early childhood education and care services a recognition that staff should be trained to help parents and families to value these services and to assure them that their beliefs and cultures will be respected - this training can be supported by parenting programmes which promote early childhood education and care; by close cooperation between the staff in early childhood education and care centres, health and social services, local authorities and the school sector. The early childhood education and care workforce 3.well-qualified staff whose initial and continuing training enables them to fulfil their professional role Recognising the early childhood education and care workforce as professionals is key. Professional development has a huge impact on the quality of staff pedagogy and children’s outcomes. Developing common education and training programmes for all staff working in an early childhood education and care context (e.g. preschool teachers, assistants, educators, family day carers etc.) helps to create a shared agenda and understanding of quality. 4.supportive working conditions including professional leadership which creates opportunities for observation, reflection, planning, teamwork and cooperation with parents. Good working conditions benefit staff and contribute to their retention. Policy measures affect the structural quality of early childhood education and care provision including locally-determined arrangements on the size of a group; children to adult ratios; working hours, and wage levels which can help to make employment in an early childhood education and care context an attractive option. Good working conditions can also reduce the constant and detrimental staff turnover in the sector. Curriculum 5.a curriculum based on pedagogic goals, values and approaches which enable children to reach their full potential in a holistic way. Children’s education and care as well as their cognitive, social, emotional, physical and language development are important. The curriculum should set common goals, values and approaches which reflect society’s expectation about the role and responsibilities of settings in encouraging children’s development towards their full potential. All children are active and capable learners whose diverse competences are supported by the curriculum. At the same time the implementation of the curriculum needs to be planned within an open framework which acknowledges and addresses the diverse interests and needs of children in a holistic manner. A well-balanced combination of education and care can promote children’s well-being, positive self-image, physical development and their social and cognitive development. Children’s experiences and their active participation are valued, and the significance of learning through play is understood and supported. 6.a curriculum which requires staff to collaborate with children, colleagues and parents and to reflect on their own practice. A curriculum is an important instrument to stimulate the creation of a shared understanding and trust between children; and between children, parents and early childhood education and care staff in order to encourage development and learning. At a system or national level a curriculum can guide the work of all early childhood education and care settings and contexts – and at a local or setting level, it can describe to day-to day activities of the centre. An essential factor in developing a collaborative approach to the curriculum is the ability of individual staff to analyse their own practice, identify what has been effective and, in partnership with their colleagues, develop new approaches based on evidence. The quality is enhanced when staff discuss the implementation of the curriculum within the context of their centre/setting and take account of the needs of the children, their parents and the team. The curriculum can enhance this approach by promoting children’s learning through experimentation and innovation; and encouraging cooperation with parents on how early childhood education and care provision contributes to supporting children’s development and learning.

Monitoring and evaluation 7.monitoring and evaluating produces information at the relevant local, regional and/or national level to support continuing improvements in the quality of policy and practice. Systematic monitoring allows for the generation of appropriate information and feedback at the relevant local, regional or national level. This information should support open exchange, coherent planning, review, evaluation and the development of early childhood education and care in the pursuit of high quality at all levels in the system. Monitoring and evaluation is more effective when the information collected at a provider level is aligned with the information collected at a municipal, regional and system level. 8.monitoring and evaluation which is in the best interest of the child Monitoring and evaluation processes are conducted to support children, families and communities. All stakeholders, including early childhood education and care staff, should be engaged and empowered during the implementation of any monitoring and evaluation process. While monitoring can focus on the quality of structures, processes or outcomes, the focus on the interest of the child and staff engagement strengthens the need to look at the quality of the processes used in settings. Achieving these statements is easier if the following governance arrangements are in place: 9.Stakeholders in the early childhood education and care system have a clear and shared understanding of their role and responsibilities, and know that they are expected to collaborate with partner organisations. Given the cross-sectoral nature of early childhood education and care provision government, stakeholders and social partners need to work together to secure the success of services. Legislation, regulation and guidance can be used to create clear expectations about the importance of collaborative working which supports high quality outcomes for children, families and local communities. 10.Legislation, regulation and/or funding supports progress towards a universal legal entitlement to publicly subsidised or funded early childhood education and care, and progress is regularly reported to all stakeholders. Structural or legislative arrangements support access to early childhood education and care by giving families the right to access affordable service provision. Approaches which support progress towards the universal availability of early childhood education and care recognise that providing additional funds to support access for disadvantaged groups can be an effective strategy for increasing access especially for children from migrant, disadvantaged or low-income families. Monitoring the uptake of early childhood education and care ensures that funding is used effectively. In order to make progress towards universal entitlement to provision measures to emphasise the attractiveness and value of these services need to be in place. 5.4.Impact of the 2014 Proposal for a Quality Framework In 2017 the Network of Experts on Social Aspects of Education and Training (NESET II) published a report on the state of national early childhood education and care quality frameworks (or equivalent strategic policy documents) governing quality in Member States. The report shows that the following policy measures, for example, have been used in recent years to improve quality: ·inclusiveness of services and pedagogical approaches (with specific reference to the criteria of availability, affordability, usefulness, comprehensibility and desirability); ·improvement of pedagogical practices in a way that is respectful of children’s holistic development and learning strategies, while simultaneously being responsive to the diversity of children’s needs and potentialities (with specific reference to pedagogical guidelines, curricula); ·professionalisation of the early-years’ workforce (with specific reference to professional preparation, continuing professional development and ongoing support, and working conditions); ·processes and tools for monitoring and evaluating curriculum implementation, and for sustaining ongoing improvements within a participatory perspective; ·governance and funding strategies/schemes that allow for better coordination of initiatives across different ministries and departments (especially in split systems), that better align with local authorities, that increase cross-sectoral cooperation, and that raise stakeholders’ involvement.

In addition to the different initiatives, the report also shows how the Quality Framework was shared in many countries by local stakeholders engaged in policy advocacy, research and training initiatives. In these countries, the Framework contributed to policy consultation processes that sustained existing reform pathways. The report concludes that the Quality Framework has played an important role in several Member States in triggering reforms or sustaining existing reforms, by guiding both policy consultation and advocacy processes. Nevertheless, in most cases the reforms in Member States were not based on, or implemented with, comprehensive national or regional early childhood education and care quality frameworks. Available evidence points to a broad array of initiatives and measures that have been put in place (or are currently under development). These have been part of a more or less formalised strategy to improve the accessibility and quality of early childhood education and care provision, but often have not been covering all the five dimensions of quality. This experience shows that the 2014 technical work provides a very good basis, but would benefit from being scaled up through a political initiative.



6.Results from the stakeholder consultation Following the work of the Thematic Working Group, the Commission organised the Great Start in Life conference which brought together experts in early childhood education and care and primary education in December 2016 to discuss challenges and further implementation. The Commission also organised meetings with a small group of early childhood education and care academic and policy experts from Member States and international organisations. Their discussions led to the development of a draft set of options to assess the state of play in relation to the quality statements and offer options to develop quality . The list is an ‘toolbox’ from which users are invited to focus, in accordance with their legislation and practice, on those indicators or quality factors they consider most relevant to their particular systems and context. It can be used at national, regional or local level and is intended to encourage self-assessment and reflection on the quality in early childhood education and care provision and to offer support in assessing the performance of their early childhood education and care systems (for more information see chapter 8). The need to improve the provision of early childhood education and care was also highlighted in the stakeholder consultations on the Work-Life Balance initiative. In the public consultation held in preparation of the initiative, organisations responded that the highest priority in order to improve work-life balance and female labour market participation is the availability of childcare . In their dedicated two-stage consultation, social partners also insisted on the importance of early childhood education and care. In their respective responses BusinessEurope stated that “childcare facilities are actually an essential precondition to progress on work-life balance” and ETUC underlined that “family-related leave and flexible working arrangements should be combined with the availability, affordability, accessibility and quality of early childhood education” . On 31 January 2018, DG Education and Culture organised a consultation meeting for early childhood education and care stakeholders. The one-day meeting was attended by 50 participants and provided an opportunity to discuss the quality framework, the draft quality factors, and first ideas for a Commission proposal for a Council Recommendation on high quality early childhood education and care systems. Participants represented a wide range of civil society organisations as well as representatives from Member States. They were covering organisations working in the field of education and lifelong learning; child protection and child rights, parent and family associations, social inequalities networks, special educational and disabilities agencies and teacher unions. The discussion focused on whether: ·the Commission’s analysis of the current situation in early childhood education and care was correct; ·the Commission services' first ideas were appropriate and likely to be effective in supporting reflection on the quality of early childhood education and care systems. Overall, the stakeholders welcomed the work which had led to the production of the Quality Framework and many stakeholders agreed with the intention to further develop the work through a proposed Council Recommendation. It was though remarked that the Quality Framework sets out a minimum standard and that Member States could be encouraged and supported to go further in developing high quality. Stakeholders asked for clear links to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the European Semester process. The list of indicators or quality factors in relation to the proposed Recommendation was presented to participants, highlighting that the purpose was to support system-level reflection and policy development and that the proposed list was not intended to facilitate international comparisons. On this basis, there was consensus amongst stakeholders that such quality factors appeared to be useful as one way for those with responsibility for the early childhood education and care system(s) to evaluate the quality of provision. There were a number of detailed comments and recommendation such as ·strengthen the voice and perspective of the child; ·be explicit about those groups which are included in a general term ‘disadvantaged’. This could include children with disabilities, children with a migrant or ethnic background, children from economically vulnerable families etc.; ·make an explicit reference to inclusivity e.g. a clearer way of measuring the provision for children with special educational needs; ·highlight the value of learning through play; ·highlight the importance of parents; ·highlight the benefits of early childhood education and care – these are not only to be seen in relation to preparedness for compulsory schooling and lifelong learning;

·clarify that the list of quality factors refers to accredited provision. On the main dimensions of the quality framework, stakeholders made the following comments: Access Throughout the discussion in the stakeholder meeting there was a strong desire to ensure that any recommendation would made explicit references to priority groups e.g. those with linguistic diversity; children from migrant or asylum backgrounds; children with special needs; children living in rural areas or more deprived city neighbourhoods etc. Access is also enhanced when there is a strong role for parents, and parents are empowered to work with early childhood education and care and other staff. To support improvements in access stakeholders highlighted the importance of organising services around the needs of each child. Integrating services (particularly those concerned with health and social services) can support the different needs of children. There was agreement that the focus should be on all children. There was a strong view that it was important to be specific about which individual groups of children were covered by references to ‘disadvantaged groups’. The stakeholders’ experiences highlighted the need for specific groups of children (or families) to be named or referenced in order to ensure they are not forgotten. Some stakeholders raised the importance of the urban/rural divide on the availability and quality of early childhood education and care – this is a particular issue in some Central European Member States. There are infrastructure issues in rural areas which lead to significant barriers to early childhood education and care access and the recruitment and training of staff. These differences can also be seen in different parts of some cities; In addition, there is a need for childcare provision which supports a diverse range of provision and be flexible enough to reflect the real lives of the families who rely on these facilities locally and address their needs (including emergency childcare, drop-in, part-time babysitting services, out-of-hours childcare, employer supported childcare etc.) Workforce The stakeholders highlighted the importance of qualifications as a key determinant of quality and the group welcomed the strong emphasis on the workforce, their qualifications and professional development. There was one request to including a reference to these level of these qualifications e.g. EQF Level 6. In addition the value of including early childhood education and care assistants in the draft proposal was emphasised. A number of issues were raised in relation to the workforce. These included comments on: ·the value of facilitating ongoing professional development which includes time for reflection, speaking to parents and access to research; ·the prevalence of high staff turnover rates and a tendency (in some systems) to rely on staff with relatively low qualifications; ·the low status of early childhood education and care compared to other roles with children and young people; ·the differences in pay between staff working in the early childhood education and care and the primary school sector. Curriculum There was discussion on whether to use the term ‘curriculum’ to describe the education and care provision in early childhood education and care. For some ‘curriculum’ was felt to suggest something which lacked flexibility, playfulness and overemphasised education rather than care. For other stakeholders a ‘curriculum’ could be flexible and had the advantage of being a well-known and widely used term. There was a request to ensure that any Recommendation should acknowledge the connections and the balance between education and care. For a few stakeholders it was also important to include connections to other services and sectors which are potentially involved in a child’s life e.g. health care, social work etc. Stakeholders raised the question of school readiness and the extent to which early childhood education and care should focus on preparing children for the next stage of their education. There was agreement that early childhood education and care needs to prepare children for school but it is equally important for early childhood education and care to be strengthened in its own right, focus on the needs of children, and include age-specific objectives and goals. Various stakeholders commented that the Quality Framework should have a greater emphasis on play based learning as this is how young children develop best.

Evaluation and Monitoring The stakeholders noted the importance of ensuring there are systems in place to monitor the outputs of the quality assurance process – this helps to judge the success of particular quality assurance methods. However, there was a range of opinions on the relative importance of focusing on outputs or outcomes; and some stakeholders wanted a greater focus on the quality assurance of the input to early childhood education and care. Despite different priorities, there was agreement on the need for independent and long term evaluations of the quality assurance processes; Governance and Funding The stakeholders underlined the importance of investing in the sector, particularly as there has been a period of low investment following the 2008 financial crisis. They pointed out to the need to reconcile the tension between the affordability of high quality early childhood education and care provision and the rights of all children.



7.Evidence supporting the five dimensions of the Quality Framework 7.1.Access Generalised and equitable access to early childhood education and care is an essential feature of good quality provision which contributes to reducing the attainment gap. Research shows that the beneficial effects of early childhood education and care attendance are stronger for children in poverty and from minority ethnic groups when there is a context of universal provision. Despite the consensus among researchers and policy makers at an international level it is well documented that children from minority ethnic groups and low‐income families are less likely to be enrolled in early childhood education and care. It is important for access to take account of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union to ensure all children are able to use early childhood education and care services. Eurydice has reported that that most Member States have committed themselves to providing a place for all children either by establishing a legal entitlement to early childhood education and care or by making attendance compulsory for at least the pre-primary year. Eurofound identified that the main obstacles which hinder attendance are cost (59% of respondents) and availability of provision (58% of respondents), followed by organisational arrangements such as access, distance and the opening hours of facilities (41% of respondents). These obstacles have been confirmed in research in Member States e.g. ·the cost of provision is a barrier in most countries and is specifically salient to those countries in which early childhood education and care provision is largely marketised, such as Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands. It is to be noted the cost is more significant in low-income households. In France, for example, 64% of households in the top income quintile use childcare services compared with 15% of households in the bottom quintile. The situation is similar in other countries where the childcare participation rate is significant, such as Belgium, Finland and Ireland, but also in countries where the childcare rate is lower. Conversely, in Denmark the childcare rate is very high among households in the bottom quintile; ·the availability of early childhood education and care provision which tends to be unequally distributed in urban and rural areas, in affluent and poor neighbourhoods, and across regions. This situation seems to be particularly exacerbated for 0-3 provision in the context of split systems; ·the inflexibility of early childhood education and care facilities in relation to opening hours and bureaucratic enrolment procedures (e.g. waiting lists, monolingual information leaflets and forms to be filled out etc.) which are a major deterrent to participation especially for minority ethnic families or marginalised groups; ·the presence of rationing criteria that, in situations where there is a lack of provision, might give priority to children whose parents are in employment or to those who subscribe early to waiting lists. The research also highlights that – along with structural conditions – less visible barriers might act as a deterrent to participation, especially for children and families with a disadvantaged background. These barriers are: ·the unintended benefits generated by social distribution mechanisms within family policies (this includes the criteria for distributing public subsidies to early childhood education and care providers, for establishing income-related enrolment fees and tax-deductions) that – especially in liberal and residual welfare states favour the more advantaged families at the expense of low-income families; ·the lack of trust in professional education and care that is generated when early childhood education and care provision does not match families’ goals and values in relation, for example, to cultural childrearing practices and bilingual development. Research from Member States (as set out above) emphasises the need to address the barriers that prevent families and children from participating in early childhood education and care. These barriers include structural conditions (availability, affordability and delivery of provision) and socio-cultural aspects that are directly linked to the pedagogical approaches and educational practices in the services. The recent increase in refugees and asylum seekers across Europe has led many countries to struggle to address their basic reception needs and provide effective integration services. Young children comprise a substantial share of these arrivals, and many have experienced significant trauma and stress that pose serious risks to their cognitive, psychosocial, and physical development. Early childhood education and care can provide an important means by which receiving countries can mitigate many of the risks these young children face, thereby boosting their education and career trajectories and supporting longer-term integration success. In addition, the promotion of EU fundamental values such as gender equality is crucial to ensure solid and sustainable integration in Europe. Since parents engage with these services on behalf of their children, such programmes provide an important opportunity to reach out to and promote the successful integration of refugee parents and families more generally. 7.2.Workforce

Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies agree that staff qualifications matter and that higher teacher qualifications are related to improvements in supporting children’s development, including those related to supervision and the scheduling of activities, organization and arrangement of the room, providing varied social experiences for children, and creating a warm and friendly environment for interactions. Higher levels of preparation correlate positively with better childcare quality as well as with better developmental outcomes for children. The 2006 Starting Strong report from the OECD also concludes that: ‘Research from many countries supports the view that quality in the early-childhood field requires adequate training and fair working conditions. Research shows the link between strong training and support of staff and the quality of services. In particular, staff who have more formal education and more specialised early-childhood training provide more stimulating, warm and supportive interactions with children’ (OECD, 2006, p. 158). There is broad consensus in literature around the required level of qualification for the core professional. ‘Teachers with at least a bachelor’s degree in early childhood or child development, or both, provided more appropriate care giving, were more sensitive and were less detached than teachers with vocational training or less’. In academic literature, the correlations between staff qualifications and children’s developmental outcomes – mostly cognitive – have also been measured. There is a consensus in these studies that the level of qualification positively correlates with the outcomes in children: better ‘pre-academic skills’, including language development. Despite the consensus on the importance of initial training, there is little research on the content and format of this initial training. Interesting studies in this domain have been carried out within several Italian Universities in the context of the introduction of a 4-year compulsory degree for the primary and pre-primary teaching. These highlight the central role played by specific activities – such as practicum and workshops – for the development of the competences of future teachers and educators. The strength of the workshops, in particular, has been identified as bridging theory (university lectures) and practice (practicum experience in nursery schools) by promoting an alternative approach to the construction of knowledge through the active involvement of students in project work activities. More recent work by the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) has suggested that it is the quality of the training programme (rather than the qualification) which may be a more critical factor in a teacher’s ability to influence children’s development and learning in a positive way. The relationship between quality and staff qualification depends on the interaction of multiple factors, such as: ·the content of training programmes (curriculum design); ·the delivery of training programmes (the strategies that are used to combine theory and practice); ·the contextual conditions provided by the settings where training interventions take place (e.g. availability of non-contact time, team work, or supervision). Fundamental aspects of effective initial training are: investing in reflective competences, co-reflecting on practice in-group, with the support of pedagogical guidance, balancing theory and practice and appropriate planning of content. Staff qualifications and training can only deliver positive effects if the content was well adjusted and when working conditions (e.g. adult: child ratio and group size) allow professionals to make use of their competences. Recent work by NESET has highlighted the professionalisation of staff as one of the key issues requiring further work in early childhood education and care. It calls for strong support of practitioners/teachers and emphasises the need to enhance their training by ensuring that both initial education and continuous professional development are well established and combine subject matter, socio-pedagogy and practice. Investing in reflexivity is recognised as a fundamental part of this approach, especially when it means co-reflecting on practice in-group, with the support of pedagogical guidance. Co-reflection is also seen as a way to empower educational staff in dealing with the growing diversity of children and families and in highlighting the importance of taking into account diverse backgrounds and experiences when it comes to recruiting educational staff, since the different backgrounds among the staff would support negotiation. Eurofound has analysed the relationships between training, working conditions, interactions between staff and children, and outcomes for children. Their conclusions shed some light on the impact that adequate working conditions and training opportunities (including continuous professional development interventions lasting over a year, integrated into practice, such as pedagogical guidance and coaching in reflection groups), have on the quality of service and on the interactions between staff and children. This is all the more important as the experiences, training and qualification of staff working in early childhood education and care services are very diverse across Member States. It has been widely demonstrated in international research that staff working conditions and professional development are essential components of quality and that such quality components are linked to children’s cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. Recent research conducted within the OECD quality project stresses that there is strong evidence to suggest that better educated staff are more likely to provide high quality pedagogy and stimulating learning environments, which in turn, foster children’s development leading to better learning outcomes . The professional competence of staff proved to be one of the most salient indicators of quality especially in ensuring higher process quality. In this sense, effective educators nurture children’s development by creating rich and stimulating early learning environments, by intentionally sustaining shared thinking and logical reasoning in social interactions, by valuing children’s initiatives for extending their learning opportunities. In turn, significant positive relationships between early childhood education and care quality and children’s educational achievement have been found in international research findings . Research also shows that the ongoing professionalisation of staff is a key element in guaranteeing children‘s positive outcomes although it seems clear that it is not staff professional development per se that has an impact, but rather that the effects depend on the content and delivery mode of the training . Research shows that professionalisation initiatives that actively involve practitioners in designing the content of the training – by addressing issues that arise out of their everyday practices – and activities that support them throughout the process of reflecting and collectively re-devising practices might be the most successful. Evidence has shown that long-term CPD interventions integrated into practice, such as pedagogical guidance and coaching in reflection groups, proved to be effective not only in countries with a well-established system of early childhood education and care provision and a high level of qualification requirements for the practitioners, but also in countries with poorly subsidised early childhood education and care systems and low qualification requirements. CPD initiatives based on the active engagement of practitioners and on peer exchanges within a shared scientific framework, proved to be the most effective. Moreover, access to training and professional development is often limited for staff working with the youngest children. Those working with children in the 0 – 3 age group, and those working as care-givers or teacher-assistants, typically receive less training than core early childhood educators. In this respect, investing in the professionalization of childcare assistants is a key element for quality improvement in early childhood education and care. Assistants remain largely invisible workers in research, even though they sometimes form a high share of the workforce in childcare. With little or no initial qualifications, assistants should be offered real opportunities to qualify and develop professionally, including job mobility opportunities, and be given more (paid non-contact) time for reflecting together on pedagogical practice as a team as well as for continuous in-service training.Otherwise, the risk is a division between care (considered as a set of merely technical tasks) and education (restricted to cognitive development). Such an approach would fail to recognize both the educational value of caring and the caring role of education and reinforce the hierarchical division between education and care. Other research evidence points out that quality requires not only a competent practitioner but also a competent system that sustains and contributes to the ongoing professionalisation of staff in relation to changing societal needs. Along this line, it has been demonstrated that short term in-service training courses, which are often based on acquiring specific knowledge or techniques, have a very limited impact on the improvement of pedagogical practice. Similarly, international research on the impact of staff working conditions shows a clear link between the staff to child ratio, group size, wages and early childhood education and care quality. These, have a positive impact on children’s outcomes. At the same time, research findings stress the complex interplay between working conditions and this makes it difficult to disentangle the effects of each particular characteristic. As reported in comparative studies and reviews, no-single component of structural quality associated with working conditions has – on its own – a significant impact on quality. It is the combination of several components – related to staff working conditions – that produces quality. And a different balance is needed in different countries. It is therefore argued that, in planning for quality improvements, many structural characteristics need to be considered simultaneously, with an understanding of how each structural characteristic has an impact on quality within each national system. Building on this body of research and in consultation with national stakeholder representatives, the International Labour Organisation has released policy guidelines on the ‘Promotion of decent working conditions for early childhood education personnel’ (2014). This recognises the crucial role of the early childhood workforce in achieving high quality early childhood education and care provision for all; and underlines that a greater focus should be placed on improving the professional development, status and working conditions of personnel. As emphasised in the research overview carried out by Bennett and Moss (2011) within the Working for Inclusion project, the workforce is central to early childhood education and care provision as it accounts for the greater part of the total cost of early childhood services and is the major factor in determining children’s experiences and their outcomes. For these reasons how staff are recruited, trained and treated is critical for the quality of early childhood services and for the inclusion of all children. 7.3.Curriculum

There is a consensus among researchers and policy makers that the development of early childhood education and care curricula can be regarded as a powerful tool to improve the pedagogical quality of services attended by young children from birth to compulsory school age. In fact the presence of an explicit curriculum which provides clear purposes, goals and approaches for the education and care of young children within a coherent framework can significantly support the role of practitioners in creating effective learning environments that successfully nurture children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development, therefore maximising their gains from early childhood education and care attendance. Across Europe there are many similarities in relation to the design and implementation of each early childhood education and care curriculum, although the cultural values and wider understanding of childhood differ in each country state, region and programme. Despite a large consensus on the broad developmental domains that are addressed in early childhood education and care – which cover emotional, personal and social development, language and communication, knowledge and understanding of the surrounding world, creative expression and physical development and movement – significant differences exists on the space that is given to academic learning. In some countries literacy and numeracy take a dominant position and, despite the broadening of the scope of the curriculum, children’s early learning experiences tend be predominantly focused toward preparation for compulsory schooling (school readiness). By contrast, curricula in other countries tend to be reluctant to introduce formalised learning experiences in the early years. A broader holistic approach promoting children’s cognitive and non-cognitive development – through experiential learning, play and social interactions – is understood as more appropriate for fulfilling children’s learning potential. In this context research evidence shows that putting academic learning at the forefront does not pay-off. In fact, according to the findings of the EPPI study in relation to effective pedagogy, sustained shared thinking between the child and a responsive adult is an essential prerequisite for children’s learning. Within this study effective pedagogical practices are acknowledged as those that encompass: a mutual involvement on the part of the child and the adult; a joint process of constructing knowledge, meaning and understanding; and learning instruction and support, which is understood as demonstrating, explaining, and asking questions, particularly open-ended questions which further stimulate the child´s thinking and learning. This implies that the instructive elements of early childhood education and care practices can only be effective if they support the active process of co-construction, but not if they are acted out as practices of knowledge transmission. Findings from research conclude that early childhood education and care curricula can be powerful instruments to make the system more effective in its overall mission but, at the same time, ‘it can also engender processes that move away from this main goal because they go against the principles of good practice’. Therefore, in order to be effective, the elaboration of early childhood education and care curricula should not solely rely on knowledge about children’s development but take account of shared notions of good practice that are shaped in the context of local pedagogies of childhood. By drawing on the findings from research, it is possible to identify a convergence toward certain features of curricula that are commonly regarded as good practice across different contexts. Such features include: ·a curriculum based on a statement of principles and values that recognise the rights of the child as a competent human being (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989) and respect for parents as the first educators of the child; ·a curriculum with a broad pedagogical framework that sets out the principles for sustaining children’s development through educational and care practices that are responsive to children’s interests, needs and potentialities. Such a framework might provide pedagogues and educators with general guidance on how children’s learning processes could be supported - e.g. through adult interaction and involvement; group management; enriched learning environments; theme or project methodology – in order to achieve curricular goals; ·a curriculum which states explicit goals that address the holistic development of children across broad developmental domains - emotional, personal and social development, language and communication, knowledge and understanding of the surrounding world, creative expression and physical development and movement – and strives for an appropriate balance between learning and well-being. Given the high inter-personal and intra-personal variations within which children’s development occurs in early childhood, the formulation of broad learning goals would seem more appropriate than the age-specific sequential learning standards; ·a curriculum with a strong focus on communication, interaction and dialogue as key factors that sustain children’s learning and well-being through meaning-making and belonging; ·a curriculum that encourages staff to work collegially and to continually assess their practice in order to improve. It is widely acknowledged in research that practitioners develop a better understanding of how children learn and develop by being reflective; and that just having knowledge of child development does not suffice for shaping effective practices. Therefore regular reflection on practice through observation and the documentation of children’s learning experiences allows staff to face new challenges by being responsive to the needs and potentialities of all children. Practitioners‘ collegial work can set the basis for constantly co-constructing, de-constructing and re-constructing educational practices through dialogue with children and by involving parents as equal partners in pedagogic decision-making; ·a curriculum that includes cooperation with parents and promotes agreed democratic values within a framework of socio-cultural diversity. 7.4.Evaluation and Monitoring Monitoring and evaluation processes are important components of enhancing quality in early childhood education and care systems – by pointing to the strengths and weaknesses of service provision they can act as catalysts for change to support stakeholders and policy makers in undertaking initiatives that respond to the needs of children, parents and local communities. There is a consensus among researchers and policy-makers that by linking systematically data collection, research and ongoing assessment these processes can be powerful tools for driving conti