COFACE_CZ15

Comments paper - COFACE
Early childcare services, Czech Republic 2015
1
Provision of quality early childcare services
(Czech Republic, 10-11 November 2015)
Areas for action to achieve high quality ECEC services1
Zoltán Vadkerti
Confederation of Family Organisations in the EU – COFACE
1. Introduction
COFACE advocates for accessible, affordable and quality childcare, and have
been actively contributing to the European level ECEC debate by organising
conferences, seminars, working group discussions and delivering policy positions2
on the subject. Through this Comments paper we aim at giving more concrete
examples as to how the quality of ECEC services can be improved through various
structural factors (group size, adult: child ratio, staff training and qualifications,
curriculum, conditions for staff, staff turnover) and process factors (child’s daily
experience)3
.
As many of the quality related positions and demands have been already
thoroughly articulated in COFACE’s 2014’s ECEC policy position, the Comments
paper will mainly refer to and introduce the latest trends and current situations of
ECEC policies in 4 European countries: Italy, Belgium, Germany and Finland4
.
Additionally, the document contains comments and recommendations, provides
feedback to the latest policy developments.
2. Current trends and recent developments relating to high quality
ECEC services in 4 EU Member States
2.1 Italy
In Italy two trends have been recently observed:
 The gap between supply and the demand continues to grow.
 At the same time, the diversity of services offered is improving. In particular,
private services are increasing due to the rule of the market; national incentives
and local government policies are also mushrooming aiming to limiting public
expenses.
These two trends are attached to the highly differentiated situation in Italy, with a
widening gap between the North, Central and South, and different combinations of
local formal and informal services.
1
Prepared for the Peer Review in Social Protection and Social Inclusion programme
coordinated by ÖSB Consulting, the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and Applica,
and funded by the European Commission.
© ÖSB Consulting, 2015
2
http://www.coface-eu.org/en/Policies/Education-ICT/Early-Childhood-Care-and-
Education/
3
Edward Melhuish, University of Oxford
4
Comments and feedback were provided by the following member organisations of
COFACE: Gezinsbond, Belgium (Astrid De Bruycker); AGF – Arbeitsgemeinschaft der
deutschen Familienorganisationen e.V., Germany (Ivonne Famula); A.Ge Associazione
Italiana Genitori, Italy (Sabina Greco); Väestöliitto, Finland (Anna Rotkirch)

2
According to the networking CRC Report, only 13.5 % of children have access to
childcare and kindergartens, with opportunities even smaller in the South and
Italian Islands. As a matter of fact, there is a serious disparity about the supply of
formal services in different Italian regions, with a very low percentage in the South
of Italy. Accordingly, formal childcare is more developed in Northern Italy including:
day nurseries, nursery schools, playgroups, preschools, kindergartens etc. On the
other hand in the South of Italy the informal childcare is more developed and often
provided by grandparents, friends or neighbours.
The third Italian national childhood plan was approved on the 21st
of January 2011,
and in these days the Italian Ministry of Education and parents associations have
been discussing its updating in order to compete the new school law “La Buona
Scuola”.
Herewith below some of the headline topics that Fo.N.A.G.S5
(Forum Italian Parents
Associations), the most influential and biggest organisation representing the
interests of parents, have put forward to the Ministry of Education on October 13,
2015:
 ECEC services play a very important role in influencing children’s development
and well-being: socio-emotional and physical opportunities are acquired (or fail)
in the early years of life and they prevent early school leaving in long-term.
 The cost of early childhood education and care services are still considered on
individual demand or supported by municipalities. Economic pressure and
taxation force a lot of local governments to entrust services to private ECEC
providers. In this way they ensure lower cost, but they don’t guarantee any
adequate minimum structural service. In fact there isn’t any control on quality of
formal and informal services offered.
 Concerning early childcare services supplied, we enter a critical context in the
South of Italy where there are few nurseries and these few ones are still on
demand: available for 1 out of 4 children in the North and Central Italy, and less
than 1 out of 10 children in the South Italy.
 Italy is distant from what the European Council set in its Barcelona objectives
about the provision of childcare in the EU Member States, according to which at
least 33 % of children under 3 years of age should have access to informal
childcare provision and all services have to be of “high” and “good” quality.
 Italy urgently needs an ECEC law that sets the essential levels of quantity and
quality of formal childcare, particularly in times of economic hardships, which still
affects both families’ resources and local governments that have to guarantee
educational quality services.
Inspiring example: The Tata-Card in the Aosta Valley Region6
. The Tata Card is a
childcare solution implemented to ease local access to childcare facilities which is
restricted in this region due to the geographical situation. The card is accessible to
all families and can also be provided by the regional authorities to families with low
income (grant covering from 30 % to 90 % of the service loaded on the card). The
card gives access to family-nannies facilities (so-called Tata) who are registered
after having followed a specific training. Each Tata takes care of maximum four
children enabling the provision of dedicated services (beyond traditional day-care
facilities) for instance teaching children about nature of the region and foreign
5
The Italian contributor of this report, A.Ge Italian Parents Association, is a member
organisation of Fo.N.A.G.S and acts as a coordinator between the government and civil
society platforms.
6
http://www.regione.vda.it/servsociali/prima_infanzia/servizi/tate_familiari/default_i.asp

3
languages basics. 134 families with children from 0 to 3 years old have benefited
from the system in 2012.
2.2 Belgium
Some key remarks concerning availability (capacity) and affordability of childcare in
Belgium:
 In order to assure equal access, prices of all childcare facilities (0-3) should be
set according to the families' income. In Flanders 70 % of childcare facilities
already have this system. This is far from enough, especially since the prices for
the lowest income families have been augmented recently.
 For 0-3 childcare services that receive subsidies to work with income-related
prices, a quota of 20 % ensures priority access to children from vulnerable
families (e.g. low income, single parent etc.). Gezinsbond (member organisation
of COFACE and contributor to this paper) applauds this measure, but fears that it
is not being adequately monitored and sanctioned upon. Childcare services with a
specific focus on vulnerable families (i.e. a quota of 30 % priority access) also
exists and will be further developed.
 For ECEC (3-6) a system of ‘maximum prices’ is in place, which should ensure
affordability for all. Unfortunately, there are cases when schools tend to get
around this principle by charging additional fees e.g. when children stay at school
during lunch break.
 Another specific measure that causes difficulties is the principle that childcare
needs to be 'booked' in advance. A limited number of absences is permitted (min.
18 days/year), but this includes sick leave and family holidays. If a child is
absent beyond 18 days, parents need to pay for the 'booked' day anyhow. This
measure disadvantages low-income families and parents working flexible hours
or unsteady jobs.
One good practice worth mentioning concerns stakeholder participation in the
policy-making process, more precisely participation of users/families.
Gezinsbond, as a family organisation, participates in the policy-making process on
both childcare and education. This happens in a structural way both at the local and
the regional level. Involving end-users (in the case of childcare and education:
families) early on in the policy making process enhances the quality of the service.
Inspiring example: Oudercrèches7
is a parents’ daycare centre run by working
fathers and mothers. In such a childcare facility, parents play an important role by
helping out with taking care of the children plus being part of the decision making
through a cooperative business model.
2.3 Germany
Currently around 2.6 million children under the age of six are looked after in
kindergartens and day-care facilities in Germany. More and more parents decide to
have their children cared for earlier and to a greater extent outside the family. The
majority of parents choose care provided by kindergartens. This development has
intensified, or the demand for such places has become apparent, since the legal
right for children from the first year onward to get a day care place was introduced
on 1 August 2013. Currently, about every third child under the age of three visits a
7
www.oudercreches.be

4
day care facility. In the west of Germany care already begins after the first year for
every fourth child, in the east and in Berlin even for more than every second child8
.
Politics reacted to the growing demand and there are considerable efforts to expand
the number of children’s day care places. However, while the focus has been on the
quantitative expansion, the advancement of quality has been neglected by the
public debate as well as by politics. Despite the principle that every child has a right
to be supported in its development and to be trained to become an autonomous
and socially responsible person, good quality still counts as a rather subordinate
problem.
In Germany, the publication of the NUBBEK study 2012 has reinforced public
awareness towards the issue of quality and shown considerable need for action. The
pedagogic quality of childcare was evaluated as mediocre; the quality of every
tenth facility was even rated as completely inadequate. Still, in Germany there is
no systematic survey of the quality of education and care yet and neither a
uniform method of quality development and assurance.
Hereby, from the perspective of the family organisations joined under the umbrella
of AGF the following aspects of the quality of ECEC services have to be taken into
account: general access to childcare and its opening hours, qualification and
training of professionals, professional-child-ratio and maximum group size,
development of guidelines for pedagogic work, training and educational partnership
as well as long-time quality assurance.
Access and Opening Hours
In order to be able to profit from good quality care, children must have access to
childcare. Yet still 16 % of parents state in surveys that they did not get a place for
their child.9
Despite all efforts of expansion in many areas the supply of
kindergarten places lags behind the actual demand of families. This applies
especially to West Germany and to rural areas, however supply is often short in big
cities as well. Additionally, many facilities operate only on a part-time basis or they
have opening hours which are not compatible with full-time work.10
Also, for one
third of parents the utilisation of care outside the family fails due to costs that are
too high.11
Yet for most parents good public childcare is an essential precondition
for the reconciliation of family and work which they want – and also often decisive
for the realisation of their desire to have children.
Qualification of Professionals
Well-qualified, motivated and sensitive professionals form the basis of high quality
pedagogic work in kindergartens. At the moment qualification takes place as a
professional training in professional schools that takes two to four years or since a
few years also by doing a polytechnic university degree respectively. The Länder
8
Regional day care for children 2013, Federal Statistical Office and statistical offices of the
Länder
9
Cf. 14. Children- and Young-People-Report.
10
This is also an effect of very tightly calculated job keys. In order to reasonably meet
the temporal demands of the families the scarce personnel’s working hours would
have to be heavily stretched across the whole duration of the opening hours. That
would mean, however, to stretch the actually existing thin personnel cover for
activities with the children even further, which usually noticeably affects the quality
of care and relationships.
11

5
independently determine the concrete training programmes. The lack of a uniform
professional training for kindergarten professionals irritates in view of around
500,000 employees and the societal impact this professional field has. With growing
importance of education and training in early childhood, higher and higher
expectations are placed on the pedagogic professionals by the parents as well as by
the providers of funds. To be able to perceive every child in his or her particular
situation and development and to meet their needs poses a daily challenge to the
pedagogic professionals. Also the rising number of very young children under the
age of three and children with various competences and resources, for example in
the areas of multilingualism and inclusion, affect the task profile of the kindergarten
teachers. However, up to now the professional training has hardly taken into
account those greater challenges.
The responsibility for the training of professionals lies in the hands of the public
sector and the Länder. The degree of professionalisation of kindergarten personnel
is also a sign of how important politics actually think the education, care and
training of children is. Therefore, it is unacceptable to confront the threatening
shortage of professionals with insufficiently in-service trained assistant personnel.
Rather the profession has to become more attractive and offer chances of
advancement and reorientation.
Professional-Child-Ratio and Group Size
The number of (female and male) kindergarten teachers, who look after a group of
children, is a crucial quality feature, which also affects the wellbeing of the
children.12
However, the result of a current comparison of the German federal
states shows in parts considerable differences in regards to the used personnel
keys. In all age groups the number of children looked after per professional is
distinctly higher in the east of Germany than in the west. While, there, one
kindergarten teacher looks after about six children under the age of three, in the
west it is only around four children. Differences occur even more distinctly when it
comes to older children.13
Here, there are even up to thirteen children per
professional in East Germany, in the west of Germany only up to nine children.
Individual and intensive education, care and training can hardly take place under
such conditions.
In addition, the professionals are not in direct contact with the children during all
their working hours, instead they need time to prepare themselves for their care
time with the children, like for instance by doing preparation and follow-up work, by
studying expert literature, documenting observations, talking to parents and so on.
Downtime because of holidays, illness or undergoing training and further education
also has an influence on the actual presence of the pedagogic personnel. However,
usually the personnel key for the number of children looked after per professional is
calculated only based on contractual working hours and booking times, while the
figure for the professional-child-ratio relies on the number of professionals who are
actually available for the children, considering downtime and indirect pedagogic
work that has to be done.14
Nationwide uniform regulations of the professional-
child-ratio in kindergartens are necessary and require a fundamentally higher
number of professionals.
12
13
Federal Statistical Office (2014): The Personnel Key in Children’s Day Care Facilities.
14
On top of that modifications of the prescribed professional-child-ratio are necessary
depending on the children’s age and the varying prerequisites they bring with them.
Modifications of the extent of management exemption depending on the size of the facility
also have an influence on the professional-child-ratio.

6
Guidelines for Pedagogic Work
The quality of childcare fundamentally depends on the daily arrangements of the
pedagogic processes. Nowadays even young children spend a few hours per day
over several years in a children’s day care facility. Kindergarten teachers have to
comply with this situation. The main focus hereby lies on the interaction between
carer and child but the cooperation with the parents, in the team, with the funding
organisations and other institutions, too, decide upon whether the development of
the children is supported at best possible.15
Studies like the NUBBEK have shown
that the education and advancement of children in daily life often lag behind their
possibilities.
These results are unsatisfactory in view of the educational mandate of children’s
day care facilities and the necessary adjustment of unfavourable starting conditions
of children. Every child must receive the best possible support and aid. This
requires a proper qualification of the professionals, an adequate professional-child-
ratio and a good cooperation with the parents. Education, care and aid in the
kindergarten do not serve the accumulation of usable knowledge but instead they
support a comprehensive personality development of every single child. It is a
matter of supporting the natural curiosity and joy for learning and of leaving
enough space for playing freely.
Training and Educational Partnerships
The quality of the relationships in the triangle of child, professional and parents is
an important factor to achieve success in the education, care and training work.
The professionals in the kindergarten and the parents should carry the
responsibility together for the training and education of the children even so in
different ways. The key issue of this training and educational partnership is the
wellbeing of the child taking into account its individual life situation.
The parents are the most important people children relate to. According to studies
the influence they have on their development is about two to four times as big as
the influence of a day care facility. Therefore, they carry the main responsibility for
the education and personality development of their children and they are the
experts when it comes to their children. However, a successful cooperation with the
parents can increase an understanding for the present situation of the child and
support its wellbeing in the kindergarten. The development of the children can
benefit from a good training partnership. But it must not be misunderstood as an
instrument to turn parents into fellow employees or as a guarantee to educational
success.16
Where different expectations, values and educational ideas clash, the
cooperation between parents and professionals is not always free of tension. Here it
is necessary in the interest of the child to find negotiation processes together.
Quality Assurance
Good quality childcare needs a continuous development. Facilities, funding
organisations and the public sector have to commit themselves to quality
development and assurance and continually work on childcare quality through
15
Cf. Tietze et al. (2012): NUBBEK, Nationale Untersuchung zur Bildung, Betreuung und
Erziehung in der frühen Kindheit, Berlin.
16
Further reading regarding often too high expectations of the training partnership, cf.
Bertelsmann-Stiftung, Das Ideal der Bildungs- und Erziehungspartnerschaft, 2015.

7
internal and external evaluations. However, up to now there is neither a
uniform definition for good quality in education and care nor a binding
quality control or regular, systematic quality surveys in children’s day care
facilities. However, it is the obligation of the municipalities and the Länder to
regularly record the quality of provided care and to act accordingly. As this hardly
happens up to now shows how much the importance of education, care and training
in early childhood for the future life course of children as well as for the future of
society is still underestimated. There already are good examples for possible quality
assurance. In the course of the National Quality Initiative of the BMFSFJ in 1999 for
instance a National Catalogue of Criteria for best practice was developed and
methods for a systematic quality development in children’s day care facilities were
tested and already often used. In so far concrete methods and experiential
knowledge are available.17
Inspiring example: The coordination Centre for men in ECEC18
. The coordination
centre works together with policy makers and key players in the field of early
childhood education and care to significantly increase the number of male educators
working in ECEC facilities. It has been working closely with different partners since
early 2010, with the support of their educators, ECEC provider programme
directors, administrators, policy makers, academics and parents. The findings of its
qualitative and quantitative surveys on “Male Educators in Kitas” provide ample
evidence of this support. The Coordination Centre is affiliated with the Catholic
University of Applied Social Sciences Berlin (KHSB) and is funded by the Federal
Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ). The
activities of the centre focus on public relations work, information provision, advice,
networking and support for those working in the field of ECEC.
2.4 ECEC in Finland and the Nordic countries19
Finland has, together with the other Nordic countries, promoted early childhood
education and care since the 1970s as a crucial part of general welfare state
policies. The aim of these policies were to strengthen gender equality, reduce social
inequalities of families with small children, promote the participation of mothers in
the labour market, and, especially more recently, encourage the participation of
fathers in child care and domestic work. This has succeeded in the sense that the
Nordic European countries are global leaders in measures of child wellbeing and
gender equality. Also, fertility levels have remained relatively high in a European
context, and childbearing is quite evenly distributed across social classes, so that
also women with higher education typically have 2-3 children if they become
mothers.
Finland is soon to adopt a new legislation on ECEC. There is a demand for
such a law, which encompasses both day care and other forms of ECEC services.
The governance of day care was transferred from the Ministry of Social Affairs and
Health to the Ministry of Education and Culture. This reflects a new ideological
emphasis, since child care is now regarded as part of children's early education and
17
In 1999 the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs has started the “National Quality Initiative
in the System of Children’s Day Care Facilities”. In addition ten Länder as well as
municipal and independent sponsors participated. The aim was to develop instruments to
determine the quality in children’s day care facilities. In the course of the quality initiative
instruments and methods of internal and external evaluation were also tested.
18
http://www.koordination-maennerinkitas.de/
19
Sources: Campbell, Frances, et al. (2014) Early childhood investments substantially boost
adult health. Science 343.6178 (2014): 1478-1485. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, et al. (2013)
Investing in our future: The evidence base on preschool education. Vol. 9. Society for
Research in Child Development and Foundation for Child Development.

8
as children's right. The new law will not entail big structural changes in ECEC
provision.
In terms ECEC legislation the current Finnish government has recently made two
changes:
 Limit the subjective right to day care: the change in subjective day care means
that parents who are unemployed or are on care leave with another child cannot
have a child in municipal full-time day care. Such parents retain the right to part-
time day care. Väestöliitto, COFACE’s only Finnish member organisation, is
against this limitation, fearing it will increase bureaucracy and stigmatise certain
families. Väestöliitto does support more dialogue between parents and child care
providers regarding the times children spend in day care. Such a dialogue should,
however, be based on trust and respect for the varying needs of families and
different children.
 It has been decided to raise the group size of 3-6 year old children in day care:
the number of children per ECEC provider in day care has been raised from 7 to
8. This means that maximum group sizes can increase from 21 children to 24
children. Additionally, part-time children may participate in groups. Väestöliitto
and other major family organisations in Finland, as well as day care
professionals, condemn these cuts. Economic savings should not be from ECEC,
which has long-term effects on children’s social and cognitive behaviour and
development.
Some of the key policy recommendations expressed:
 The education of ECEC care providers is essential.
 In Finland, day care personnel has tertiary level education and other staff have at
least 2-3 years of education in the field.
 Individual early education plans can be made together with the child’s parents
and day care providers, allowing for continuous tracking of the child’s needs and
developmental goals.
 Possible policy integration between year groups 0-3 and 3-6 need to take into
account that these age groups are at very different cognitive and social
development phases and have very different needs for peer interaction, different
sensibilities to day care group sizes.
 Policies could foster interaction between NGO services, parental support and
ECEC professionals. This can be done by e.g. developing digital tools for
support, advice and interaction. Väestöliitto has developed a highly successful
internet page, perheaikaa.fi (www.familytime.fi), offering expert videos and
texts, monitored peer chat, online courses, and other individual and group
support to parents with children of different ages.
3. Issues for discussion
 The interaction of parental leave policies and the demand for childcare 0-
3 years. To what extent is the demand for childcare determined by
existing parental leave policies? How does this vary for full-time and
part-time employment? Where parental leave policies allow very
extensive leave from work, to what extent does this reduce the
likelihood of meeting targets for increases in parental employment?

9
It is important to pin down that there are huge gaps between the Member States of
the EU in terms of ECEC, and these are related to historical, cultural and economic
factors. As general remarks COFACE would like to emphasize that:
 Paid parental leave has been shown to contribute to both higher female
participation rates in the labour market and higher fertility (Ruhm 1998).
 Evidence suggests that take-up rates for fathers are higher where leave is based
on individual entitlements for each parent, paid at a high replacement rate and
able to be used flexibly; for example, on a part-time basis in combination with
part-time employment (Families Commission 2007).
 Consideration of the use-it-or-loose-it quota (Norway, daddy leave, 3 months)
has been lately getting more and more attention and this has to be considered as
a possible policy tool in relation to employment activation measures.
 Parents' work and parenting decisions are clearly not based solely on the
availability of paid parental leave. Structural factors such as employer flexibility
(building on the right to request approach), affordable childcare, annual leave
and tax policy all have an impact on the choices that parents make.
Belgium
In Belgium it is difficult to find direct figures on the interaction of parental leave
policies and the demand for childcare, but we underline the importance of
acknowledging the right to affordable, accessible quality childcare at a
reasonable distance for every family that needs it. This has been enclosed in the
Flemish decree on childcare as a policy target for 2020.
Feedback from parents suggests that it is difficult to find childcare by the time
maternity leave ends (15 weeks of which 1 week needs to be taken before the
birth). Therefore, many parents prolong the maternity leave by means of parental
leave (which is less well paid and thus not equally accessible for all).
Finland
Demand for day care is related to availability of parental and care leaves. In
Finland, where care leaves extend until the child is 3, fewer children aged 2-3 years
are enrolled in day care than in the other Nordic countries. Most of the parents on
care leave with a 2-3 year old child are women, raising the concern that care leaves
weaken women’s labour force attachment. However, part-time work is much more
common in the other Nordic countries than in Finland.
Maternal employment is overall high in Finland. Thus any change in ECEC
provisions, e.g. care leaves, would have marginal effects on overall employment
rates. Targets in increasing employment are bigger among childless adults and
among people close to retirement age than among parents with young children.
In sum, there are currently two different pathways regarding day care and parental
employment in the Nordic countries:
 Children are at home until 1-1,5 years, then majority of children enrol in
municipal child care, with many mothers working half-time (e.g. Sweden).
 Children are at home until 1-1,5 years, then around half of the children stay at
home with their parents until 3 years, the other half of children enrol in municipal
day care , with most parents working full time (e.g. Finland).
Both pathways may have beneficial and detrimental effects on maternal
employment over the life course.

10
 Evidence indicates that the quality of childcare has an impact upon child
development. In the years 0-3, the most likely impact of poor quality
childcare is upon children’s language development. As language
development is a foundation for later educational and social
development, then there are likely to be longer-term consequences for
these aspects of development. Such impacts may well affect longer-term
goals such as early school-leaving and access to higher education (e.g.,
Guerin, 2014). How can policies foster good quality childcare?
Belgium
In Belgium, all 0-3 childcare facilities (private or public) have to meet the same
quality standards to gain a license. Although this has proven to be an important
step towards higher quality childcare, we perceive a recent trend of deregulation
threatening this progress.
A measuring instrument for quality of childcare services is currently being
developed with the participation of stakeholders (incl. organisations representing
families, people living in poverty, ethnic minorities…). The existing (but only recent)
pedagogical framework for childcare will serve as a reference.
Childcare facilities are financed according to the actual number of children present
in the facility. Result of which is that the adult-child ratio rises as does the size of
groups. This has a negative impact on overall quality.
A good practice in terms of improving quality is providing the time for child care
workers to have moments without children present so they can reflect on
their work amongst each other. Unfortunately, as facilities are financed according to
the number of children present (cf. supra), it is becoming more difficult for
childcare services to provide such time.
The quality of childcare services can be equally improved with providing free
external pedagogical guidance for smaller childcare facilities (1 or 2 childcare
workers).
Finland
Evidence indicates that the quality of childcare has a life-long impact upon child
development. High quality early childhood programmes have been shown to reduce
crime, raise earnings, promote education and boost health as the children enrol
grow up (Campbell et al. 2014). On the other hand, few children younger than 2
years “need” day care services: a balanced home environment is enough
stimulation.
High quality is defined by the competence and ability of staff to engage in
supportive and stimulating interaction. Large group sizes also risk to raise the
stress levels of especially 0-3 year old children, which may shape their
temperament and stress responses even as adults. (Brookes-Gunn et al. 2013.)
 Specifically, the evidence indicates that policy related to childcare
regulation, quality monitoring/inspection, adult-child ratios, staff
training and continuing professional development can improve the
quality of childcare. How can policies in this area be improved?

11
View ECEC as an important investment, and thus improve public finances to 0-3
childhood care and education places, which should lead to the improvement of
accessibility and capacity, as well as lower the costs for parents.
Coverage and standards: improve the standing, recognition and qualifications of
childcare professionals including skills and qualifications, career progression,
recruitment and retention, and workforce planning – to ensure that all those
working in early years settings have the right skills and experience to deliver high-
quality early learning and childcare across Europe.
Improve inclusiveness of early childhood education and care for children with
special needs, through physical adaptation, additional staff resource, specialised
training for staff.
Guarantee a healthy balance of childcare availability and access in urban and rural
(remote) areas to ensure that all parents have access to childcare within a
reasonable distance from their work or their home.
Establish national and European quality standards for childcare facilities based on
existing international guidance that respect the needs and interests of children and
families, in partnership with local family organisations, parents associations, and
organisations representing the interest of children.
 How can the provision and quality of childcare in both formal and
informal settings be improved, and can the system be structured to
better integrate use of informal and formal care?
 Establish national and EU quality standards for childcare facilities, for instance,
focusing on the improvement of recognition and qualifications.
 Change in governance? Recognise ECEC as integral part of the education
curriculum (question for dicussion?): latest developments in Finalnd where ECEC
policies have been shifted from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health to the
Ministry of Education and Culture.
 In Italy, economic pressure force local governments to „outsource” ECEC services
to private services without any control on quality – the importance of family
organisations, parents associations are increasing – provide support and
guidance, rules, standards on physical facility, qualifications etc.
 Policies could foster interaction between NGO services, parental support and
ECEC professionals. This can be done by e.g. developing DIGITAL TOOLS for
support, advice and interaction Väestöliitto (www.perheaikaa.fi). Website offers
videos, monitored peer chats, online courses etc. to parents.
 To what extent should policy for ECEC 0-3 years be integrated with policy
for ECEC 3-6 years, to enable consistent practices across the whole age
range?
In Belgium, in a survey of 112 parents with children in pre-school education (2,5
to 6 years) conducted by Gezinsbond (2011), parents indicate several concerns. In
short, parents would prefer the pre-school education to be a little more like
childcare and a little less like primary school. In their answers they include
recommendations to: smaller groups (some groups in pre-school go up to 40 or 50
children!), presence of child care workers, possibility of midday naps, playground

12
and refectory separate from older children, better communication between parents
and school.
Before and after-school childcare (3-6 year and older) remains a problem in
Flanders and Brussels. Gezinsbond believes that this kind of childcare deserves as
much attention as the pre-school childcare (0-3 year) since it equally affects work-
life reconciliation. Unfortunately, policies tend to focus on deregulating at a local
level instead of implementing minimal standards for quality and affordability.

COFACE_CZ15

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