Conclusions

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

ESF support to investing in children – Final Report

63

3Conclusions

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

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

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

operations and other inclusive services, including a wide range of social services,

deinstitutionalisation and support to vulnerable children. These operations 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 position in the labour market largely benefits children. Hence, there might

be underestimation and figures should be treated with caution.

3.1Summary of the mapping of operations

Based on the analysis of the actions planned in OPs, we found that 25 Member States

and 123 OPs overall foresaw potentially 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. However, looking at programme specific indicators, we found evidence of

relevant indicators across 19 Member States53and69 OPs for output, and 20 Member

States54and 83 OPsfor results. This suggests that the number of OPs and Member States

actually focusing on children might be smaller than those which list action in their 2014

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

implementation in order to 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 even

beyond what this study could identify based on current monitoring arrangements.

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

in the 2018 AIRs, the e-survey and the 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 Annual 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 children, representing around 10% of the total ESF allocation, although

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

results suggest that the highest relative allocations relevant to children are found under

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

70% of the total IP 10i allocation. Among Member States with more than one OP, some

display high relevant allocations which represent a high share of the total Member States

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