Esf and yei support to children

• Author: Giannetto, Andrea; Pagnini, Costanza
• Pages: 24-62

ESF support to investing in children – Final Report

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The issue is currently being negotiated between the European Parliament and the Council

of the EU.

2 ESF and YEI support to children

2.1 The logic of the ESF intervention in supporting children

Key findings

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. From a first reading of the ESF Investment Priorities and their

respective allocations, it would appear that the most relevant ones for investing in

children, directly or indirectly, are: IP 8iv, IP 9i, 9ii, 9iii, 9iv and 10i. In general, the

focus of this report has been on information which could be linked clearly, though at

times indirectly, to children. Figures should be treated with caution due to the

impossibility to reliably account for some of the indirect benefits on children and related

risks of underestimation.

The ESF is a key funding instrument for supporting quality employment and fairer job

opportunities for all EU citizens. Most importantly, ESF is a programme centred on people,

investing in Europe’s human capital – its workers, job seekers, and inactive individuals,

including young people and children. ESF also helps entities and organisations supporting

them. In parallel, and as a prerequisite for moving towards a smarter, sustainable and

inclusive growth, the ESF support has been increasingly focusing on promoting a more

inclusive society, tackling poverty and supporting the most disadvantaged groups,

including households and children at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

The drive towards human capital development and a more inclusive society are the key

drivers of ESF intervention logic for investing in children and helping break the cycle of

disadvantage. To have a better understanding of the overall objectives supporting ESF

investment in children we look at ESF Investment Priorities that are potentially supporting

them, directly or indirectly. These are:

Under Thematic objective 8:

 8iv, aimed at promoting equality between men and women in all areas, including

access to employment, career progression, reconciliation of work and private life

and the promotion of equal pay for equal work: operations under this investment

priority can support the development and provision of childcare services, together

with other child-related initiatives related to improving the situation of women on

the labour market;

Under Thematic objective 9

 9i, Active inclusion, including with a view to promoting equal opportunities and

active participation, an improving employability: operations under this investment

priority can target the most vulnerable children, including children with disabilities

ESF support to investing in children – Final Report

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or without parental care. In addition, such operations often target individuals and

parents at a certain distance from the labour market through active inclusion

measures. This might greatly (indirectly) benefit children by breaking the vicious

cycle of intergenerational child poverty;

 9iii Combating all forms of discrimination and promoting equal opportunities:

possibly also targeting children with disabilities, from marginalised communities or

children with a migrant background and unaccompanied minors;

 9iv Enhancing access to affordable, sustainable and high-quality services, including

healthcare and social services of general interest: possibly benefiting children and

particularly the most vulnerable ones, including children with disabilities or without

parental care, including unaccompanied minors;

 9ii Socio-economic integration of marginalised communities such as the Roma:

possibly targeting children from these communities;

Under Thematic objective 10

 10i Reducing and preventing early school-leaving and promoting equal access to

good quality early-childhood, primary and secondary education including formal,

non-formal and informal learning pathways for reintegrating into education and

training: these measures benefit children in all school grades and particularly at

risk of poverty and social exclusion, as most students at risk of early school-leaving

come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In addition to these, another important strand of investments might support operations

which target young people and children. These are notably the investments carried out

under the Investment Priority 8ii “Sustainable integration into the labour market of young

people, in particular those not in employment, education or training, including young

people at risk of social exclusion and young people from marginalised communities,

including through the implementati on of the Youth Guarantee”. Although youth

employment does not fall under the specific scope of this study, as it falls outside the

scope of the recommendation “Investing in children” and mainly focuses on young people

above 18 years old, some of such allocation has been used, as described further below, to

reduce early school leaving, both by preventing drop-outs as well as further education for

individuals aged 15-18 years old.

In order to glean a first approximate idea of the available resources for investments in

children it is worthwhile to look at the Investment Pri orities’ financial allocations. Among

the above mentioned priorities, the one that receives the highest share of ESF planned

allocations (potentially relevant to children) in most Member States is IP 10i; this is also

the one that funds operations that are almost entirely directly or indirectly targeting

children (see Table below). This is followed by allocations on IP 9iv (enhancing access to

affordable, sustainable and high-quality services, including healthcare and social services

of general interest), IP 9ii (socio-economic integration of marginalised communities such

as the Roma) and finally IP 9iii (combating all forms of discrimination and promoting equal

opportunities. However, the largest ESF allocation is linked to IP 9i (active inclusion), which

as already mentioned above could be indirectly targeting children, although it is difficult

to identify the indirect impact on children of ESF’s active inclusion measures targeting

households (as it is not always possible to know whether they are targeting households

with dependent children up to 18 years old).

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More generally, it should be considered that these figures are only meant to tentatively

appraise where investment could take place, and do not provide estimates of how much

ESF funding planned under aforementioned IPs will be targeted directly at children or

vulnerable children.

A more detailed analysis which estimates, with caveats, the amount of resources targeting

children is presented in section 2.2.5.

Table 1. Total allocation by Investment Priorities

IP

Total allocation (ESF +

national)

10i

11,271,593,709.58

10ii

6,007,508,459.06

10iii

11,838,383,489.00

10iv

10,125,719,033.72

11i

4,471,340,365.21

11ii

228,212,002.97

8i

16,887,043,633.34

8ii

18,583,578,740.57

8iii

3,667,544,628.46

8iv

2,196,008,253.44

8v

7,259,093,060.11

8vi

731,559,973.36

8vii

1,331,705,320.42

9i

22,043,760,192.65

9ii

1,867,672,437.59

9iii

545,296,265.08

9iv

4,828,877,813.33

9v

1,224,675,309.72

9vi

747,033,117.48

TA

5,210,603,442.00

Total

131,067,209,247.08

Source: SFC2014

Finally, it should be mentioned that although the exact share of investments benefiting

children cannot be assessed from the available administrative data,23 25.6% of the total

ESF allocation of EUR 86.4 billion was earmarked for social inclusion measures.

Based on the above priorities, it appears that different objectives can potentially be

addressed through ESF funding to support children, directly and indirectly. The main ones

are:

23 European Parliament, 2018. Fighting Child Poverty: the role of EU Funding