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Eurochild wants to see an end to child poverty in Europe. We believe child poverty needs to be tackled with a rights-based approach. This approach recognises the child as an individual rights holder, whilst understanding his/her development is dependent on the family, school and community environments in which he/she is growing up.  We therefore advocate for systemic reforms which address structural inequalities and prioritise public investment in education, healthcare, housing, family support and childcare.

We believe poverty is best addressed in a child’s earliest years.  We therefore advocate for all families – in particular those facing disadvantage – to receive the necessary support before their children are of school-age. The EU Child Guarantee initiative can boost national efforts to fight against child poverty.  Eurochild is calling for earmarked funding to be made available through ESF+ and comprehensive policy guidance to be issued by the EU.  This guidance should emphasise the need to invest in high-quality universal services that reach all children, together with more targeted measures to ensure children and families in vulnerable situations are included.

Across Europe, hundreds of thousands of children are growing up in institutions – large residential settings characterized by depersonalization and routine.  Despite their intention to protect children or to provide the necessary medical care, evidence shows that institutions further damage children’s emotional, social, cognitive and physical development. Eurochild’s advocacy to end institutional care for children focuses first and foremost on efforts to strengthen families and tackle child poverty.

We believe that many children who are separated from their families for protection reasons or because of disability, could in fact have remained in their family, if their family had received the necessary support. We also believe that child protection systems should be reformed to favour the placement of children who cannot be cared for by their own family, into alternative family care, for example with foster or kinship care.

Most importantly we believe children are experts in their own lives and must be listened to in decisions affecting their lives. That’s why Eurochild encourages the development of peer support for children growing up in care, children’s advocates, and consultation of care-experienced young people and adults in policy reform. Eurochild’s current work is focused around:

• Ensuring better data collection and monitoring of the situation of children in alternative care (DataCare project, in partnership with UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office)
• Harnessing EU policy and funding to catalyse national reforms (in partnership with the Martin James Foundation)
• Improving services for children and young people ageing out of (as partners in the CarePath project, funded by the EU’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme)

There is a growing body of evidence pointing to the importance of the early years in brain development.  It shows how early childhood experiences impact neural connections and the brain architecture.  Safety, security and responsive care-giving provide positive feedback loops, enabling self-regulation and healthy brain development. In contrast trauma and stress can have harmful effects with lifelong consequences. The circumstances of some families can make it extremely difficult to provide a nurturing environment for their young children. Poverty, insecurity or unhealthy living environments can negatively impact parents’ capacity to respond to their infants’ physical and emotional needs.

Too often public services discriminate against, rather than support, struggling families. Children with disabilities, in particular, benefit from nurturing care in their early first and years. It can make a dramatic difference to their development and overall quality of life. Unfortunately parents do not always receive the support they need, when they need it.  In the worst cases, parents are encouraged to abandon their child, sometimes condemning them to a life in an institution.

Eurochild wants to ensure early childhood development gets the political visibility it deserves.  Together with the International Step by Step Association (a membership network focused on the holistic development of young children) we co-lead a Europe-wide campaign to leverage EU policy and funds and drive public investment in early childhood development. The European Public Health Alliance and Roma Education Fund are associate partners.