Toolkit for inclusive early childhood education and care. Providing high quality education and care to all young children

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Toolkit for inclusive early childhood education and care. Providing high quality education and care to all young children

The Toolkit for inclusion in ECEC recalls political commitments made e.g. in the European Pillar of Social Rights, policy recommendations which have been adopted by EU Member States as well as research findings. They all converge towards the need and will to develop more inclusive ECEC systems and settings.

To ensure equity for all children in accessing and benefitting from ECEC, the toolkit includes a set of practical solutions and measures to inspire ECEC policy makers at the national, regional or local level, as well as ECEC practitioners. It includes examples of good practice in ECEC settings and identifies useful ideas and resources to inspire leaders and staff across Europe to progress towards practice that is more inclusive. The toolkit aims to inspire decision-makers to use the examples of good practice to create appropriate conditions that can benefit all children and families.

Khetaun (Together): With Key Steps to Inclusion of Romani Children into Quality Early Childhood Programs

Khetaun (Together): With Key Steps to Inclusion of Romani Children into Quality Early Childhood Programs was an international project financed by the European Commission implemented in 4 countries (Slovenia, Latvia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic). This publication Khetaun was published at the end of the project. Readers will receive a holistic insight in the project implementation including examples of good practice of performing activities for Romani children and their parents which contribute to successful enrolment of Romani children and their parents in ECEC programmes and didactic and other materials for Romani children, parents, ECEC practitioners and policy makers.

Developing Transitional Activities for Romani Children and Their Families for Smoothing the Transition between Home and Institutional Environment. Case Study – Slovenia

The START project explored ways to facilitate participation in ECEC of Romani children, especially by easing transitions between home and ECEC or school environments and by working with families. The case study is a source of inspiration as it details and evaluates a range of activities over a 2-year period.

Education and professional realization of the Roma community

Education and professional realization of the Roma community / Образование и реализация на ромската общност

The study was conducted in 140 settlements in Bulgaria. To overcome the lack of up-to-date information, TSA worked together with a sociological agency, Global Metrics, to conduct a nationally representative study on the Roma communities in Bulgaria. The purpose of the study is to determine the level of higher education among the Roma population by comparing it with the already conducted study from 2011.

Travelling Travellers. An overview of the living conditions of travelling Travellers and existing supporting initiatives

ENG: Travelling Travellers. An overview of the living conditions of travelling Travellers and existing supporting initiatives

NL: Rondtrekkende woonwagenbewoners. Een overzicht van de leefomstandigheden van rondtrekkende woonwagenbewoners en bestaande initiatieven ter ondersteuning

Travellers travel around for different reasons. While for some it is part of their specific way of life, in recent years an increasing number of Travellers in Flanders, Belgium have been forced to travel around due to a lack of encampment sites. This situation makes them vulnerable. Because this problem is relatively recent, however, the group of travelling Travellers has largely remained under the research radar until now. The aim of the present study, commissioned by the Flemish Agency for Home Affairs and conducted by the research institute HIVA, was therefore to gain more insight into the living and housing situation of travelling Travellers in Flanders, Belgium.

The research is focused on:

1) the living conditions and social participation of travelling Travellers,

2) the existing support, guidance and assistance for travelling Travellers.

Subsequently, policy recommendations based on the results of these two focus areas were made. Subject of the study were both Belgian and foreign travelling Travellers. Data was collected by various qualitative research methods, among which interviews with Travellers about their current and desired living situation and interviews with key figures such as practitioners and policy officers.

The resource is in Dutch language. 

Blighted Lives: Romani Children in State Care

This five-country wide round of research into the situation of Roma children in state care marks the latest in a decade-long series of interventions by the European Roma Rights Centre. The research covers four EU Member States: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia, as well as neighbouring Moldova. As was mentioned in the introduction, the plight of these most vulnerable children, and the issue of their fundamental rights and wellbeing, did not register as a priority when the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies was launched in 2011.

The publication of this research followed the launch of the European Commission’s EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation for 2020–2030. It also coincided with the finding by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) in November 2020, that holds the Czech Republic responsible for large-scale and discriminatory placement of children with disabilities and Romani children in early childhood care institutions.

Roma and Travellers in Six Countries

Roma and Travellers living in western EU countries are less often in the limelight than those living in central, eastern and southern EU countries. While they represent a smaller proportion of the population in the west, they also face problems with social exclusion, marginalisation and discrimination.

This report presents findings from the survey conducted by FRA in 2019 covering Roma and Travellers populations in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The survey included interviews with almost 4,700 Roma and Travellers, collecting information on more than 8,200 individuals living in their households. The findings present a bleak, but familiar, picture of discrimination and deprivation fuelled by anti-Gypsyism. Almost half of the Roma and Travellers surveyed felt discriminated against and experienced hate-motivated harassment, in the year before the survey.

The survey results presented here show the urgent need for the post-2020 Strategic EU Framework for Roma Equality, Inclusion and Participation to accelerate Roma inclusion efforts that can break the vicious cycle of social exclusion, discrimination and poverty that contributes to such disturbing results.