The European Union approved the new Barcelona targets for early childhood education and care. The Gezinsbond, a COFACE member organisation, agrees with the focus now also being on accessibility and quality of care. To achieve the goals, however, there is still much to be done and the Gezinsbond will continue to monitor the process closely.
A year has passed since the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, which has affected and displaced millions of children. Despite the international community’s repeated calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the plight of children and young people caught in this atrocious war remains with little end in sight.
Save the date! This is a internal space for COFACE members to take stock of key developments in the field of financial inclusion at EU level, including the transposition of the Consumer Credit Directive, the work of the European Central Bank on the Digital Euro, and personal insolvency.
The online exchange for COFACE and COFACE Disability members will especially focus on child-staff ratio in ECEC as a primary driver for child well-being and family engagement.
Unaf and APF France handicap published the results of a survey on carers in relation to inclusive housing which formulate recommendations for stakeholders in the field and public authorities.
The president of COFACE member organisation, UNAF (the Union of Family Associations) Ascensión Iglesias Redondo, has recognised this Tuesday that the draft Family Law approved this by the Council of Ministers is "a great step forward" for "the protection and recognition of the rights of families in their diversity", but at the same time has called for "more ambitious" measures.
In Czech Republic the number of requests for help providing school lunches for children from low-income families has increased dramatically. The W4W: Lunches for Children project, FEAD programme, and municipalities have all contributed to providing lunches to around 30,000 children, however the number of applications is expected to further increase to 20,000 in 2022.
As well as collecting data on families via different expert meetings (see the different meeting reports available on the website), COFACE actively builds bridges with research institutions through formal partnerships under Horizon Europe, and by advising different European research projects on work-life balance, the impact of digital transformations on children, early childhood education and care, long-term care and more. COFACE also supports academic institutions to build new research projects on social rights.
The Programmatic Updates on Phase III of the Preparatory Action to the Child Guarantee provide a snapshot and progress from March 2021 to November 2022 of the ongoing work in each of the 7 pilot countries, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Spain to test the European Child Guarantee.
