Paper 3, panel 6.The paper analyses the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services, which are certainly one of the core policy areas of the SIP – Social Investment Package (COM 2013/83). Moreover, according to the... [ view full abstract ]
Paper 3, panel 6.
The paper analyses the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services, which are certainly one of the core policy areas of the SIP – Social Investment Package (COM 2013/83). Moreover, according to the Europe 2020 Strategy, ECEC services are an essential requirement to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
The paper presents the results of an eight-month research program undertaken under the INNOSI Project framework, pursuing three main objectives:
- Proving that ECEC services are beneficial to a wide array of actors: children, families and society at large;
- Collecting knowledge aimed at improve quality and effectiveness (equitable access) of ECEC system to reach a higher level of growth and to guarantee children’s academic results and employability in the future;
- Analysing, through a case study approach, the integrated ECEC services’ system in Emilia-Romagna Region as possible best-practice of Social Innovation with regard to the partnership between public, private for profit and nonprofit actors. Namely social economy initiatives pro-actively engaged with local actors, including children, their families and the communities in which they are living.
The main results can be summarised as follows:
- From the analysis of the data collected (through interviews with managers and local decision-makers) it emerged that no-one model fits all. Rather the key success factors for increasing the availability as well as the affordability of ECEC provision seems to reside in the flexible combination of different funding sources coming from the public sector – as well as from the private NFP sector and private enterprises – within a comprehensive framework of public policies that responsively addresses the needs identified within each community while striving for universalism. In this sense, the case studies analysed provide exemplary cases of how a diversified ECEC provision serving the diverse needs of children and families within local communities could be realised with a special focus on accessibility and economic sustainability.
- Beside addressing the issues of sustainability and accessibility, the case studies shed light on how the pedagogical quality of ECEC provision and its ongoing improvement could be nurtured through the co-creation and sharing of knowledge, expertise and experiences that is generated by innovative forms of public governance (local and regional networks, partnerships with parents, coalitions for policy advocacy, inter-agency collaboration).
2. Social innovation and social entrepreneurship
