94th Working Group on the Quality of Childhood (QoC)

How governments spend money on children, and organise their portfolios of child policies, can have profound implications on poverty, inequality, development and well-being. Poorly designed policies and portfolios, and/or low public spending in children particularly in the early years, drive inequality and inequity in child development. For example, children from more advantaged backgrounds, who are less reliant on public investment, develop at much faster rates than those from poorer backgrounds, when public efforts are suboptimal. Through the accumulation of advantages, the same children will benefit more from public spending later on in life, as they will be more attached to public services like education. The purpose of this QoC is to discuss the how mainstream public policies in Europe can help all children develop to their unique and full potential, from day 1, and achieve their well-being. The aims of this meeting are twofold. First, to illustrate how European countries are investing in child policies – in terms of policy choices, expenditures levels and the timing of interventions– and assess what this might mean for the betterment of living conditions for young children and their families in these countries. And second, to review the evidence on what works for all children, their families, their education and their societies as a whole, and how the disconnect between ‘best evidence’ and ‘policy action’ has resulted in lost opportunities for children and families, and foregone social development. The meeting will result in policy recommendations, based on the analyses above, that call for an expedited and well-managed expansion of coherent and integrated child policy portfolios across the bloc as part of meeting the economic and social remit of the European agenda.