Children's access to essential services

AuthorApplica, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission), Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
Pages9-13
Report on the online consultation
9
this. They also consider that the EU should do more in this regard, this view being
particularly strong in countries where the level of child deprivation i s high.
3 Children’s access to essential services
In thi s section of the qu estionnaire, responden ts were asked to identi fy the three most
important barriers to accessing essential services (healthcare, education, early childh ood
education and care (ECEC) and d ecent housing ) for three groups of vulnerable children
(those living in a precarious family situation, children of migrants and refugees and children
with disabilities
6).
Children’s access to four essential services summarising the replies
For each of the three groups of vulnerable people, respondents were asked to select from a list the
three most important barriers in accessing each of four essential services, without ranking them. In
practice, not all respondents selected three barriers. In Tables 2, 3 and 4, the figures denote the
number of respondents who selected the barrier concerned as a percentage of the total number of
respondents replying to the question.
3.1 Children living in precarious family situations
In the case of healthcare for children living in a precarious situation, the th ree most
frequently indicated as barriers to access are l ack of awareness or insufficient information
(55% of all respondents who indicated at least one barrier), non-availability of services in
the area (49%) and problems of affordability (48%) (Table 2). These three barriers were
cited by significantly more respondents than the others. The next most frequently cited,
that services a re not adapted to children’s needs, attracted less than a third of replies
(32%), though 41% of respondents from countries with a relatively low rate of child
deprivation pointed to this as a major barrier.
Table 2. Main barriers that need to be overcome by kind of service: Children in a
precarious family situation (%)
Health
Education
ECEC
Housing
Non-availability of services in the area
49.2
26.4
58.3
50.0
Discrimination
19.3
44.2
24.4
29.0
Not eligible for support
20.5
19.2
24.7
32.6
Lack of awareness/insufficient information
54.9
46.4
48.7
25.0
Problems of physical access
22.0
21.5
21.0
21.4
Problems of cultural access
20.5
44.2
26.6
12.3
Problems of affordability
47.7
35.8
51.7
77.5
Services not adapted to children’s needs
32.2
39.2
29.9
23.9
Other barriers
6.1
7.5
7.0
4.7
Don’t know
6.4
6.4
5.2
5.1
Number
264
265
271
276
Note: The number of cases indicates the total number of respondents who identified at least one barrier for
each service.
The figures in bold indicate the three barriers identified as most important.
Source: Online consultation on a European Child Guarantee for vulnerable children
As regards access to education, the main barrier indicated is again lack of awareness or
insufficient information (47%), t hough this is followed by probl ems of cultural access and
discrimination (both 44%). However, responses from countries where child depri vation is
high or very high were somewhat different. In those with high deprivation, the main
barriers identified along, wi th lack of awareness, were the non-adaptation of services t o
children’s needs (52%) and problems of affordability (50%). In the two countries with the
6 Children living in institutions, the fourth group of vulnerable children under scrutiny in this Feasibility Study for
a Child Guarantee, were not included in this question because they are in a very different situation from the other
three groups as far as access to these rights is concerned.

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