Introduction

• Author: Giannetto, Andrea; Pagnini, Costanza
• Pages: 14-15

ESF support to investing in children – Final Report

14

Introduction

Objective and scope of the report

The objective of this thematic report is to assess and provide an overview of the European

Social Fund (ESF) and Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) support to investing in children,

by firstly looking at how children have been targeted by the Operational Programmes (OPs)

and at the available data on fi nancial allocation, implementation and performance i n the

first four years of the 2014-2020 programming, and secondly by looking at both

implementation and performance data. Ultimately, this report aims to understand how the

ESF can support children’s well-being and what has worked best so far. This is considered

as particularly relevant al so with a view to th e action plans that Member States will have

to prepare outlining the support the ESF+ can provide to the upcoming Child Guarantee.

Throughout the report, children are defined as being up to 18 years of age. Although

potentially targeting young people o f 18 years of age or below, mea sures tackling youth

unemployment are not included in the overview. These measures generally cover a

broader age range (for example 16 to 29). Therefore, unless the under 18 range is

specified in the descriptions of measures, youth unemployment measures under IP 8ii

were not included in the analysis.

Methodological approach

The first step of the report was aimed at building the analytical framework for the

analysis. During this phase the rationale for ESF intervention in support to investing in

children was identified, along with the most relevant in vestment priorities; operations

funded by the ESF in support of children were also categorised into three main categories

that are then used throughout the study to discuss programming and implementation.

These are:

 (Inclusive) Education and training operations

 Work-life balance and childcare operations

 Other inclusive services for families and children.

The second step was aimed at providing an overview of ESF support to investing in children

across the EU28. It consisted of an ass essment of the ESF OPs and AIRs submitted in

2019 and a quantitative analysis of the indicators availa ble in SFC20141.

The third step consisted in a field analysis, based on an e-survey sent ou t to Ma naging

Authorities and a more in-depth analysis in three Member States, CZ, DE and IT. They

were selected based on their different combinations of socio-economic conditions in

relation to chi ld poverty, ECEC and early school l eaving, combined wi th estimates of the

levels of ESF allocations to children or childcare related operation s.

Key sources of information used for the analysis

Information sources used for the thematic note incl ude:

 ESF and YEI Operational Programmes (OPs)2

 Annual Implementation Reports (AIRs)

 Monitoring data (extracted from SFC2014)

1 The cut-off date of the data gathered is 6 September 2019.

2 Multi-fund programmes (e.g. ERDF and ESF) are also included although the focus lied on operations supported

by ESF and YEI resources.