Reducing Inequalities by Investing in Early Childhood Education and Care

To truly reduce inequalities, governments need a policy mix of universal and targeted approaches. Policies should reach everyone but focus more on the most disadvantaged. This strategy can adapt to different contexts, recognising that most OECD countries face tight public budget constraints:

• Make ECEC affordable, available and accessible for families facing participation barriers. This includes providing targeted financial support and improved infrastructure, particularly in areas with many vulnerable children and service shortages. Indirect barriers can be overcome by providing clear and accessible information, simplifying enrolment procedures, and promoting family and community involvement to strengthen trust in ECEC services.

• Develop curriculum frameworks that value diversity and build foundational skills. These curricula can address all aspects of child development while including skill-specific components within a play-based approach. They should be adaptable to all ECEC settings. In order to succeed, these frameworks require strong preparation and continuous development for all ECEC staff.

• Mix universal policies with personalised support for areas with many vulnerable children. These include improving staff-child ratios, targeted training and having specialised staff to better identify and support children’s needs. They can be scaled up according to the level of need. If ECEC is of high quality, intensive participation – such as starting from an earlier age or involving more hours – can be particularly beneficial for vulnerable children. Inclusion can also be supported by attracting a more diverse ECEC workforce.

• Develop more equitable and efficient funding mechanisms. A third of children aged 3 to 5, and half of children under 3, are enrolled in private institutions on average across OECD countries. To ensure public funding promotes quality and equitable access, even with private ECEC providers, policies should allocate funding conditionality to some criteria, monitor large for-profit players, and limit family costs. Funding allocation mechanisms should be used to steer recipients towards quality and equity.

ECEC policies are only one aspect to the social inequality puzzle. A cross-sectoral approach, including co-ordination with other social and health services for children and parents, smart funding and governance, is critical to mitigate social inequalities and ensure ECEC benefits last over time.

• Design flexible ECEC programmes to better support families and foster development. Child learning can be supported by offering longer operating hours, regular communication and opportunities for parents to connect with staff. Parents of low socio-economic status tend to spend less time on developmental activities with their children, which is a key driver of inequalities. This is due to limited resources and higher exposure to stress rather than different beliefs about child development.

• Improve co-ordination within different stages of ECEC and schools. Improved co-ordination would ensure that vulnerable children are exposed to more ambitious and less redundant curricular content. Co-ordination is also critical to support the continuity of pedagogical approaches and ensure they are adapted to a child’s age.

• Develop mechanisms to support co-ordinated services throughout childhood. This co-ordination should start with prenatal services and continue throughout early childhood and primary school. This would help sustain the benefits from one set of services to another.

• Consider the development of cross-sector national quality frameworks. All programme components need to be of high quality to support co-ordinated services while avoiding substitution effects. Integrated service hubs operating under a quality framework can promote awareness and the use of ECEC and other services.

• Combine investments for a more consistent policy approach. Total investment in education and families need to remain more stable throughout early childhood. At the moment, many countries see a sharp decline in spending between age 1, coinciding with the end of maternity leave entitlements, and the beginning of pre-primary education (usually around age 3). When possible, public funding for early years policies should be increased to develop a stronger workforce and support the implementation of policies that reduce inequalities.