National Child Guarantee Coordinators met at Eurofound in Dublin today, the first in-person meeting to be held in a Member State. The event was hosted by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth of Ireland and included a contribution from Minister Roderic O’Gorman T.D. Together, National Child Guarantee Coordinators reviewed progress made in reducing child poverty and improving access to services across Europe, as well as sharing practical experiences of sectoral reform.

The work of National Child Guarantee Coordinators is an important aspect of the implementation of the Council Recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee, which seeks to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing effective access of children in need to a set of key services. These include free early childhood education and care, free education, free healthcare, healthy nutrition, and adequate housing.

Eurofound tracks progress made on the European Child Guarantee as part its work on EU convergence and improving living conditions and quality of life. Although progress has been made on child poverty in Europe over the past decade, in 2021 the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate for children in the EU was 24.4%, rising to around one-third of children in Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Spain, and to more than 40% of children in Romania. In Slovenia, Finland and Czechia, the percentage of children at risk of poverty or exclusion was about half the EU average.

Children living in a household with very low work intensity is another relevant indicator tracked by Eurofound in relation to the European Child Guarantee. A child is categorised as living in a household with low work intensity when the adults worked 20% or less of their total combined working time potential during the previous year. Overall, EU Member States converged on this indicator over the past decade. In 2021, 8.3% of children in the EU lived in households with very low work intensity. Ireland had the highest percentage (13.6%), whereas Slovenia, Poland, Romania and Estonia had less than 4% of children living in this situation. Both Croatia and Ireland made notable improvements in reducing the percentage of children living in a household with very low work intensity between 2015 and 2021.

Speaking following the opening of the event, Eurofound Deputy Director Maria Jepsen noted the importance of an in-person exchange between coordinators, ‘The European Child Guarantee is a central aspect of initiatives to guarantee effective and free access of children to services such as healthcare, early childhood care and education in Europe. This meeting is important to facilitate productive exchange between National Child Guarantee Coordinators, as well as to get expert input by the European Commission, Eurofound researchers, the OECD, policy makers, civil society leaders and practitioners involved in Ireland’s Early Learning and Care reforms.’

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Image: © Eurofound, 2023

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