Conclusions

• Author: Giannetto, Andrea; Pagnini, Costanza
• Pages: 63-68

ESF support to investing in children – Final Report

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3 Conclusions

Throughout the report, we have seen that different types of operations can support

investments in children under the ESF/YEI. The se actions can be divided into three broad

categories: (inclusive) educati on and training operations, work-life balance and childcare

operations and other inclusive services, i ncluding a wide range of social services,

deinstitutionalisation and support to vulnerable children. These operati ons were

programmed and implemented in the vast majority of Member States and have led to

significant output and results being achieved. In general, the focus of this report has been

on information which could be linked clearly, though at times indirectly, to children. It

should however be acknowledged that, e.g., support to parents into employment and to

improve their posi tion in the labour market largely benefits children. Hence, there might

be underestimation and figures should be treated with caution.

3.1 Summary of the mapping of operations

Based on the analysis of the actions p lanned in OPs, we found that 25 Member State s

and 123 OPs overall foresaw pot entially relevant actions52 for support to

children, which represents 66% of the total number of OPs across the EU. This means

that more than half of ESF OPs might include operations concerned with investing

in children. Howev er, looking at programme specific indicators, w e found evidence of

relevant indicators across 19 Member Stat es53 and 69 OPs for output, and 20 Member

States54 and 83 OPs for results. This suggests that the number of OPs and Member States

actually focusing on children might be smal ler than those which list action in t heir 2014

programming documents – which are, by their nature, more broad scope than then actual

implementation in order t o ensure sufficient flexibility. In any event, about half of the

Operational Programmes and most Member States cater for support to children. In

addition, general measures aimed at young participants across the board might involve

participants below 18 years old, further increasing the relevance of ESF/YEI support ev en

beyond what this study could identify based on current monitoring arrang ements.

Turning attention to the implementati on of those operations (based on information found

in the 2018 AIRs, the e-survey and th e progress of output and result indicators), we

found evidence of implemented operations that are relevant to investing in

children across a number of Member States and OPs comparable to the

programming figures, with progress registered in the majority of relevant indicators and

additional inputs from the e-survey even beyond those. Furthermore, the majority of

respondents to the e-survey, suggest that Annu al Implementation Reports tend to

underestimate the extent of support provided to children.

Our estimates display around EUR 18 billion of total relevant allocation for

investing in ch ildren, representin g around 10% of the total ESF allocati on, although

such figure should be treated with extreme caution as it is subject to strong bi as. The

results suggest that the hig hest relative allocations relevant to chi ldren are found under

IP 10i, 9iv, 9ii and 8iv. The relevant estimated allocation under IP 10i represents around

70% of th e total IP 10i allocation. Among Member States with more than one OP, s ome

display high relevant allocations which rep resent a high share of the total Member Stat es

52 Based on a word searches using terms such as “children”, “childcare”, “school”, “early school leaving”, “ESL”

53 BG, CY, CZ, DE, EE, ES, GR, HR, HU, IT, LT, LV, MT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, UK, which become 21 with survey

data in 74 OPs.

54 AT, BG, CY, CZ, DE, EE, ES, GR, HR, HU, IT, LT, LV, MT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, UK