early childhood services Archives

Diveristy+ Charter: First steps towards diversity positive services

With the aim to support ECEC settings, leaders and professionals to identify and overcome these challenges, the Diversity+ project has launched the Diversity+ Charter: a set of minimum requirements that ECEC services and institutions have to meet to accommodate different types of diversity and be classified as inclusive and diversity positive (Diversity+).

Following the Council Recommendations on High Quality ECEC, the Diversity+ Charter is organised around five key areas: Access, Workforce, Curriculum, Monitoring and Evaluation and Governance for diversity inclusion. Each area contains a set of indicators defining what should be in place for Diversity+ ECEC.

The Charter invites ECEC managers and professionals to engage in a continuous discussion and critical reflection on their existing policies with the aim to ensure that all children, their families, and ECEC staff feel welcomed, valued and respected.

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“A fair start for every child in Europe” Campaign – Case study Bulgaria – Breaking Down Barriers to Quality ECEC for Roma Children in Sofia

The Equal Opportunities Initiative Association (EOIA) has been working with Roma communities in Sofia since 2008, helping to increase enrolment rates of young Roma children in pre-school. Today they collaborate closely with local authorities and national government, ensuring that Roma parents are consulted on issues of access and quality of early childhood services.

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The role and place of ECEC in integrated working, benefitting vulnerable groups such as Roma

The NESET report examines the added value provided by, and the prerequisites for, integrated working – as well as the crucial role, played by early childhood education and care (ECEC) services – in order to better serve all children and families, but especially the most vulnerable.

Extra attention is devoted to Roma children and their families as one of the most vulnerable groups in Europe, often trapped in a vicious circle of poverty, exclusion, and discrimination.

The report is written for policy makers and professionals working in the field of early childhood education and care. It is guided by the following questions:

What services or functions should be involved in integrated working, paying specific attention to the role that ECEC can play?
What inspiring examples of integrated working already exist in Europe?
What is the added value of integrated working (for children and families, for professionals, for policy makers) in general, and specifically for Roma?
What are the prerequisites for integrated working in general, and specifically for integrated working aimed at addressing the needs of Roma?

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Early Years Outreach Practice

Supporting early years practitioners working with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families with transferable ideas for other outreach early years workers.

This document is aimed at anyone working outreach with children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Its purpose is to share and reflect the work, knowledge and ideas of practitioners nationally. It draws on the experiences and understanding of practitioners currently working in rural and urban locations, within Traveller Education Support Service (TESS) teams and in Sure Start Children Centres in the UK. The information and ideas contained in this document may be transferable to practice with other families currently excluded from early years services.

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A revolutionary approach to closing the education gap – Fiecare Copil in Gradinita

The Fiecare Copil în Grădiniță (FCG) program was launched in 2010. The development of FCG has been largely funded by the Romanian corporate sector, by an American non-profit organization (Alex Fund). The Romanian state budget funded the food coupon component of the program. The FCG program targets the very poorest children – those living in overcrowded, inadequate housing in isolated areas without normal access to potable water, heating or health care. The purpose of the program is to incentivize poor parents to send their 3-5-year-old children to preschool and kindergarten. Only if their child attends preschool every day the parents receive €11 in food coupons at the end of the month (about half of the monthly child allowance). FCG program had a great impact on families and children and it has been cited as a model by both The Economist and the World Bank and it has also been endorsed by the Romanian Ministries of Education and Labor.