Francesca Bastagli, Fondazione Agnelli
Emmanuele Pavolini, Università degli Studi di Milano
Stefania Sabatinelli, Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani, Politecnico di Milano
The last decades have seen a growing consensus on the potential of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to support children’s outcomes, reduce inequalities, redistribute care responsibilities and promote women’s labour market participation. This is reflected in an increasing number of initiatives, at national and international level, in legislation and regulation, financing and implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Institutional arrangements and policies that determine ECEC service access (including priority criteria), service quality (such as staff conditions of employment, pedagogical practices, monitoring and evaluation), financing and governance of public-private partnerships, reflect the extent to which ECEC is acknowledged as a social right for children and their families. Equally important are the policy innovations implemented to cope with the new pressures and to harness the opportunities for ECEC arising from changing needs and circumstances associated with broader trends such as demographic and labour market change.
The session welcomes papers that, through national case studies as well as comparative analyses:
- review trends, describe relevant policy initiatives (implemented, planned, debated) to tackle challenges, and harness opportunities, for progress towards rights-based ECEC policies and systems, and
- critically discuss policy trade-offs and available evidence on ECEC effectiveness, equity and sustainability objectives, with particular, but not exclusive, focus on access and affordability, quality of provision, and ECEC staff working conditions.