This Peer Review, held in Prague, discussed Czech family policy at a time of change, and more specifically the future shape of the country’s early childhood education and care. Drawing on the experience of peer countries, international experts, the European Commission as well as local and European stakeholder organisations, it identified a number of practical lessons both for the Czech Republic and for the EU as a whole.

© Goran Bogicevic / Shutterstock.com

Host country: Czech Republic

Date: 10-11 November 2015

Peer countries: Croatia - Finland - Ireland - Latvia - Romania - Slovakia

Stakeholders: Eurochild - COFACE

Access to childcare in the Czech Republic is among the lowest in Europe and labour market inactivity among Czech women due to family responsibilities is much higher than the EU average. Recently steps have been taken to address these issues – in particular the newly adopted Government Strategy for Equality of Women and Men (2014-20) and the establishment of a Ministerial Expert Commission to prepare a long-term strategy for a new family policy.

A number of learning points emerged from this Peer Review:

• Good-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) are part of the infrastructure for a successful society. So is good parenting.
• Adequate public investment in ECEC can help to avoid a trade-off between quality and quantity. It can also cut other costs to government later on.
• Disadvantaged children benefit greatly from high-quality ECEC.
• Greater integration between education and care in early childhood can yield benefits.
• Supply-led ECEC provision tends to be more expensive than demand-led, but it also tends to deliver more uniform quality.
• Greater parental leave sharing between partners should be encouraged.
• Family matters, gender equality and the employment of women are interconnected policy areas.

The lessons learned are strongly in line with the Quality framework for ECEC, proposed by the European Commission, with provisions on access, professionally trained staff, child-staff ratios, curriculum, monitoring and inspection.

Peer Review Manager

Ulrike Hiebl (ÖSB Consulting GmbH)