Monitoring the provision of Early Childhood and Care (ECEC) services for Ukrainian refugee children and their families in Europe
Client: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) | Sectors: Social Policy, Regions and CitiesIn May 2022, UNICEF commissioned Ecorys to carry out a Situation analysis of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services[1] in support of Ukrainian refugees across European Union (EU) member states and Moldova.
Over three cycles, the research aims to provide insights to the emerging country level response to the crisis, and to inform the work of UNICEF and partners in the EU and in Ukraine’s neighboring countries. It also aims to support EU Member States and Moldova to learn from policies and practices to inform their ongoing actions regarding ECEC provision for Ukrainian refugee children aged 0-6 years, and their families at national and sub-national levels.
The study is being carried out in close cooperation with the European Commission (DG EAC) and members of the EU Working Group on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) [2], who have provided invaluable support with refining the Analytical Framework and framing the key issues for the research.
Methodology
The study methodology includes:
The work is being carried out by a joint team from Ecorys UK and Ecorys Poland, supported by in-house and associate researchers with language and country expertise covering all EU member states plus Moldova.
Emerging findings
The research elaborates the steps undertaken by EU Member States and Moldova, to mobilise and respond to secure access to high quality ECEC services for Ukrainian refugee children and their families. Overall:
An impressive range of ECEC programmes, frameworks and tools has been developed across Europe, with strong cross-sectoral collaboration. The situation has presented opportunities by:
The research provides insights to factors that have enabled the ECEC response. It shows that:
Despite best efforts, however, the scale of the ongoing challenge is clear:
A central message is that long-term preparedness must be the end goal. Recognising and value the cultural and linguistic diversity of refugee children and their families and the skills and expertise they contribute is essential to prevent stigmatization and to look beyond the emergency context.
Priorities for action at cycle 1 stage
At a national level:
At a regional, European level:
Outputs
The reports from each cycle of research will be published on this web page. The first cycle report and summary are now available below, with the second cycle outputs due in March 2023.
Watch this space for further project developments and findings.
Cycle 1 reports
[1] Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) refers to “any regulated arrangement that provides education and care for children from birth to compulsory primary school age, which may vary across the EU”. Source: https://education.ec.europa.eu/education-levels/early-childhood-education-and-care/early-childhood-education-and-care-initiatives
[2] The EU Working group on ECEC is organised by the European Commission to support EU Member States in improving the quality of their ECEC systems. It includes governmental representatives from 35 countries, as well as European and international agencies and NGOs.