EduFirst Project Final Conference 2026 | Barcelona, Spain (3/3)

0:01Bondia,

0:05good morning.

0:14Good morning. Please

0:18uh I kindly ask you to take your seats.

0:22Yeah. Now, good morning everyone.

0:24Welcome to all and all. This is the

0:27second at the first day project. I hope

0:32that well you can see that there are

0:34many people very young people that came

0:38today. If you don't mind we are going to

0:40start this day

0:43with some of the main items and topics

0:47that we dealt with yesterday.

0:50We'd like to call Alicia Eera, our

0:52manager. Through the work that Geraldine

0:56uh made yesterday, that role yesterday

1:00in these infographics, we're going to

1:02share with you yesterday's main points.

1:07Good morning everyone. We have loads of

1:10uh students from University of Peak.

1:13Welcome everyone. I hope that you will

1:15enjoy this morning session.

1:18Please can you share the screen? Here we

1:21have DIN which is our artist or visual

1:26narrator

1:28and yesterday she tried to capture

1:33for during five roundts and panels. I'm

1:36going to talk about the five tables uh

1:39round tables that we had yesterday.

1:40However, we'd like to share with you the

1:43main ideas

1:45that we

1:48talked about yesterday. Well, in a

1:50nutshell, we said that the two brain

1:55hemispheres

1:57are connected. Writing, drawing makes us

2:01to have a clear ideas also when you are

2:04studying and learning which is always

2:06something good. We started the day with

2:10a round panel and we counted with

2:12Natalie Burim and Alejandra Paneiagua.

2:17we share from a European standpoint what

2:21are the different

2:24uh

2:26situations of the cities Barcelona

2:29and Milano and also we talked about

2:37politics

2:39educational politics and when we talk

2:42about uh this kind of education politics

2:44we talk about also gender politics.

2:48In a nutshell, we are we want to give

2:51more women opportunities to have access

2:53to jobs. And in this sense, we are much

2:56closer to this equality when dealing

2:59with these kind of policies. And also,

3:01it has to do with this reduction of

3:04inequalities. As you can see, we can see

3:07different color uh

3:10characters and drawings. We talked about

3:12multiculturalism

3:14also which is a way to reduce

3:17inequalities.

3:19I don't know if you can zoom out a

3:22little bit. When we talk about care and

3:25early childhood, we must intervene since

3:29birth. Many people's are working also

3:33already during pregnancy because these

3:37inequalities appear very early. Thus

3:41policies need to be implemented since

3:45the beginning.

3:47Also when we talk about education 0 to 3

3:50years when we talk about this early

3:52child child childhood education it is

3:54important to put the accent on this

3:56vital moment because it's an stepping

4:00stone for the progress of children and

4:02also the impact on health and how

4:05professionals health professionals can

4:08work together with the education

4:10professionals and we need to put

4:12together everything from a

4:15multid-disiplinary standpoint point. So

4:17this is um conclusion a very short

4:21conclusion

4:22uh that offers some key ideas. Many

4:25other things happen during that panel.

4:28We want you to know what have been the

4:31main uh ideas that we share. After that

4:34we had another panel or round table. We

4:36invited three [music] people. Anes

4:38Kabutoo from Milano, Tanya as a

4:41representative from Finland, and Sarah

4:44Bela which is the councelor of the city

4:47council of Barcelona together with

4:49Natalie Guri. And we were able to think

4:53and to reflect upon how we build cities

4:57and how we must build uh these cities of

5:00the future from the present uh moments

5:03to have an holistic vision, a global

5:06vision as well.

5:08for cities. We also mention needs uh

5:13seeing the early stages of life how it

5:16is important to have spaces uh to

5:19coexist and to participate and to

5:21exchange. You know, our conser talk a

5:25lot about these family spaces that are

5:28spaces to

5:30create new relationships amongst the

5:33people and also how to take care of

5:36professionals that are on the front line

5:39of this uh process because the care

5:42professionals they need to be taken into

5:46account to avoid the burnout and to

5:48prevent it and also to make this work

5:51possible. We also talk a lot about

5:53diversity. We reflect upon the

5:56differences

5:58and also the different responses that we

6:01must give

6:03despite we came from three very

6:05different cities.

6:07The responses many times are very very

6:09similar and they have a lot to do with

6:11innovation and to get adapted to these

6:14realities

6:17and the amazing team coming from the big

6:20university of big like Mila Francesca

6:23and Gloria all together they shared uh

6:26an explanation of the book that they've

6:28been writing for 3 years these three

6:32cities together with the cooperation of

6:35Yuyad's team They work very hard and we

6:39invite you to read this book.

6:44Everything comes from this visit to the

6:47field and also these exchanges uh

6:49amongst these three cities. And the book

6:53talks about the three levels of

6:56intervention. How macro,

6:59miso and micro level sometimes they

7:03should be better coordinated than they

7:05are today.

7:07So from the institutional and

7:08administration standpoint and the

7:11practical standpoint they should be

7:12better coordinated and sometimes this

7:15correlation doesn't exist the way it

7:17should be.

7:19So as a cities each and everyone of the

7:23cities wrote two articles highlighting

7:26the value of everything that they

7:29considered vital or important. I'm not

7:32going to talk about these points right

7:34now but you can read the articles. We

7:36also talk about the evaluation

7:38indicators uh that helps us to assess

7:42how we are making this intervention

7:45possible. We offer some tips and

7:48recommendations and uh for those that we

7:51work in this

7:54uh well in this arena in this activity

7:57on a daily basis. What else in the

7:59afternoon?

8:01Well, we had two more uh roundts.

8:05The first table uh shared the vision of

8:08the three cities. It was probably a

8:10little bit more technical. This round

8:13table we talked about what we got from

8:16this exchange. You can see that every

8:19image has a lot of meaning, very deep

8:21meaning behind. You can see uh child

8:24that he is in the center. So stemming

8:27from the importance and putting at the

8:29center the children as the main pillar

8:32for policies. We talk a lot about the

8:34European warranty and also how to uh

8:38improve accessibility, equity and making

8:41education and services universal. We

8:44also talk about

8:46how how it was needed to go deeper and

8:52to make these children to stay in the

8:54territory to be aware about the

8:57diversity

8:59that we mentioned many times. Uh

9:01diversity that it's real and inside this

9:05uh interculturality which is something

9:07very important and positive. We should

9:09see it like a positive thing and like an

9:12opportunity.

9:13We must uh work together to go hand in

9:17hand and also to fight against

9:20loneliness. You can see that there is a

9:22kid completely isolated in these moments

9:25of care and education. Children should

9:28be uh feeling that they belong to a

9:31group and that are not isolated. We

9:33talked also about resources. It is great

9:36but we do need resources that will

9:38sustain and maintain all these policies

9:41and also we wonder

9:44in that session where are men where are

9:47men I don't know if there are men

9:50studying

9:52uh right now the university if you are

9:54men welcome you are needed right so we

9:57want you to get committed in this stage

9:59and in this sector and after that we had

10:02the fourth panel or fourth

10:05round table. We talk together with the

10:08commissioner of interculturality and bed

10:10par and also uh some managers of

10:15community action from the municipality

10:17of Barcelona. We talked about how we

10:20should see this interculturality

10:23from diversity and also as an

10:26opportunity.

10:28We should also offer new possibilities

10:32to create these uh bounds. It is

10:36important to have uh these kind of

10:39participation and communication

10:41processes. It is also very important to

10:44go together with people for these

10:47projects to be implemented. Right? You

10:49can see how they are working together

10:51and this is pushing him upwards. So

10:56sometimes we need help because sometimes

10:57the economic situation, the social

10:59background coming uh to this new country

11:02as a migrant sometimes makes things more

11:04difficult for you and also recognizing

11:08diversity, recognizing policies, public

11:12policies, recognizing that it is

11:15important to accompany all children. And

11:18finally we had uh a meeting with the

11:22three principles of nurseries Aurora

11:25Tunea

11:27and we talked about these practices uh

11:30it is important also to have a specific

11:33objectives

11:35very concrete ideas and they talked

11:37about how from nurseries beyond working

11:40together with the children they have a

11:43broader perspective they are always

11:45interconnected

11:47with the community and the

11:48neighborhoods. They are creating new

11:51processes and strategies for families

11:53living in the school environment and the

11:55surroundings. They had the opportunity

11:58to get connected amongst them. They had

12:01like coffees in the afternoons, right?

12:03So they talked about the parenting and

12:06they were working together with family

12:08members and parents. Kulomea Nursery

12:11talked about the project that they

12:13developed with the youngsters of the

12:15neighborhood for them to feel that they

12:17belong to the neighborhood and how they

12:19could be inside this nursery offering a

12:23much more value to the nursery and also

12:26to the environment and the neighborhood.

12:29Because many times when young people

12:31well they destroy or these uh public

12:35spaces they do it because they do not

12:37feel that they belong to this public

12:39space. And finally, Tiner Nursery talked

12:43about

12:45how they are creating better

12:47communities, better connections between

12:49networks and how this kind of strategy

12:53allowed them to share problems and also

12:57to face uh problems with much more

13:01innovative solutions. This was in a

13:03natural right [clears throat] what we

13:05did yesterday only 18 minutes and now we

13:08are going to

13:11uh start this uh morning round table and

13:14Delin also will can carry on with these

13:17amazing anthropographics thanks to

13:19Delins and you will have the possibility

13:22to see these drawings in our exhibition.

13:26Thank you.

13:30>> Great. Right now we are going to start

13:33and open with this first round table.

13:36Today is the table

13:38improving early for inclusion, equity,

13:42community participation and climate

13:44justice aiming at reflecting upon the

13:49Rasmus project. It's going to be

13:51moderated and introduced by Vera Bill

13:54teacher psycho

13:58G working at the University of P.

14:04[applause]

14:13>> Well, good morning.

14:17>> Hi. I hope that angels to come to the

14:20stage.

14:22Good morning everybody. What a pleasure

14:24and also I feel honored to introduce

14:29Angel Jay.

14:32Dr. Angel's

14:35Dr. Jay

14:38she is licensed in philosophy and

14:41education science in 196.

14:45She also has a PhD

14:49for teacher management.

14:51She's got a very long trajectory.

14:54She's a reference for early uh children

14:59education. She has a perspective and

15:02she's very aware about the reality

15:05complexities and also she's able to

15:08create knowledge because she's got a

15:11tight relationship with the research

15:13fields and the academia.

15:18When I started to look for everything

15:20that you did in your past, I had like

15:25four sheets and I'm not going to read

15:28them all. That's a very long curriculum.

15:31She's been a teacher in education

15:35uh childhood education, primary

15:37education. She's also

15:40involved in uh

15:45different studies coordination counselor

15:48for long life learning. So she's got a

15:52deal of a training for management and

15:55education as well. Also when we talk

15:57about her researches loads of articles

16:01published related with childhood

16:04education

16:05also play

16:07uh gender equality in children

16:11also

16:14it is important to mention everything

16:17because we don't have too many reference

16:19for childhood education in our country.

16:22I think that in our [clears throat]

16:24country we find that people walk a lot.

16:27I have we do have also people that walk

16:29very well and a lot but we don't have

16:31many reference people that are like um

16:35let's say

16:37reference to follow because in the end

16:40these kind of people with this uh huge

16:43amount of work are showing us the way

16:46forward.

16:48Also, she worked a lot on well-being in

16:51early childhood and this is probably the

16:53topic that we'll be dealing with today.

16:56Loads of publications. I'm not going to

16:57read all the articles and books that she

16:59wrote. But in a nutshell, we want to

17:02listen our dear friend Angels, the

17:05researcher. We want to see this research

17:08perspective because Angel is going to

17:10share the Tawi project. the Towi project

17:13that has a lot to do with uh well-being

17:17for early children uh for ch children

17:21that suffer a lot of complex situations.

17:24Do you want to sit or you want to stand

17:27up?

17:28Okay, let's sit.

17:47Can you hear me?

17:51>> I'm sad because I lost my voice. This is

17:53not my voice. So, I'm not a soprano

17:57today and will be like Britain or a bus.

18:00I don't know. I lost my voice. Anyway,

18:03first and foremost, so thank you very

18:06much for inviting me to share a project

18:09that well, it concluded in 2018.

18:13However, I think that this is a project

18:15that has been implemented at offered

18:17many great results. We feel very happy

18:20about the project in such a way sharing

18:22our experience, the experience that I

18:25had with early children for two, three

18:27years old children. I think that will be

18:29very interesting for all the

18:32professionals and the students that will

18:34be the professionals of the future.

18:37Everybody here you are aware about the

18:39importance of early uh ages and how this

18:44can have an impact on later development.

18:48Shaffer um shared the theory of

18:51resilience many years ago and this

18:54non-determinism. So children depending

18:56on the experience that they will have

18:58later on they could make things happen

19:02differently but the better the

19:03conditions of well-being the better will

19:06be in the future and the better will

19:09have an impact we as educators to

19:11improve well-being they will have a

19:13better adaptation they will have more

19:14interest in things they will they will

19:16be willing more to play and they will

19:19learn much more today many uh situations

19:22that children suffer are not optimal uh

19:26the report on poverty 26 developed by

19:29the European network against poverty and

19:32social exclusion. We can highlight that

19:34in Europe we have 3 million kids that

19:36suffer levels of high vulnerability and

19:39social exclusion. Today the roy tax

19:43which adds poverty [snorts] uh low uh

19:47job creation shows that the children

19:50poverty is around 34.6% 6% in Spain and

19:5424.2%

19:56at the European level. These are not

20:00very positive indicators. They were not

20:02in 2014 when we started to set the basis

20:06of this and the fundamentals of this

20:08study because this children poverty in

20:11Spain already reached 30.5% at the

20:13European level 27.4%.

20:17So we are worried. We want to help these

20:21vulnerable children. It was one of the

20:23main motivations for the project.

20:29So what is in the end this towi project

20:32toi is an acronym that comes from

20:35toddler's well-being. I don't speak

20:37English. Sorry for my mis

20:40mispronunciation but this means

20:41wellbeing of the toddlers. It has an

20:45universal approach two three years old

20:47and uh also the materials and the work

20:51they have a crystal clear target. We

20:54want equity to happen in early children

20:57stages and inclusion to happen before

21:00and it has to be a broad strategy.

21:03This research wanted to offer tools to

21:07promote change and to improve children

21:09well-being depending on the environment

21:11and the context for not probably not

21:14directly for each and every one of the

21:16children.

21:18Towi project belongs to a Raasmus plus

21:21program. It was designed and led by a

21:24Kingston University uh

21:28research team and also the Estabagner

21:30University Norway and Blacka Ramonu here

21:33in Barcelona in Spain. So the project

21:36was developed in uh 2015 2018. What are

21:39the main fundamentals that really

21:41sustain this project? All the materials

21:44developed through towi they come with a

21:47very holistic vision and all the

21:50materials were created and designed to

21:53share and to help sharing the meanings

21:56uh between the participants. The general

22:00justification concept was well-being.

22:02This was the main theme. We had the UNI7

22:06uh WH reports and different studies from

22:09different countries that offered us a

22:11general framework for participants and

22:13schools and universities as well. As

22:16we'll see later, there project has four

22:20main themes, research themes. All these

22:24four themes, three of them and the

22:27fourth of uh themes is well-being are

22:30indicators of words's well-being. So we

22:33do have a first block of research. What

22:36do we understand as well being there is

22:38a second block of research. What do we

22:42see um during lunch and what we can

22:46observe during play and also language

22:50and the additional languages for early

22:53children. This is a research in such a

22:55way that we need to talk about the

22:56methodology for participants. The

22:59methodology is inspired in what we uh

23:02said that's investigation action. You at

23:06the anopular service you know about it.

23:09This method is based in the observation

23:12and the assessment to invite

23:15professionals to explore their practices

23:17and also to improve uh strategies for

23:20them to have a better uh strategies. All

23:23the materials that we developed are

23:25based on reading, critical thinking,

23:27observation, reflection on the practice

23:29and also the uh development of skills

23:32and abilities inside the team not

23:35individually. All the materials I'm

23:37going to share with you offered to early

23:40children education professionals some uh

23:43articles and reading for professional

23:44development. This was the purpose of the

23:46project. What about the participants? As

23:49the participants of the projects, we had

23:51professionals from early children

23:53education from the UK, Norway, and

23:55Spain. We're talking about professionals

23:58that worked in

24:01centers,

24:02care centers for children. We included

24:05the three universities, UK, Norway, and

24:08Spain, and four associated centers. We

24:10had a very big diversity of centers,

24:13different sizes, different kind of

24:15centers, different schedule, different

24:17languages, different collaboration with

24:19families. They were very, very

24:20different. We had the private school

24:22with very

24:25small kids. They really wanted to learn

24:27English as a second language. They were

24:29obsessed with that. Also, we had the

24:32first early children care center. It was

24:34not a school, but it was a center that

24:36offer games, also strategies for care.

24:39They offer also health service, social

24:42support and we also had other uh

24:45traditional children's schools in Norway

24:47and Spain. As for the data analysis

24:51was possible because we took into

24:54account the the knowledge has to happen

24:56between people's interaction and also

24:59the plural experiences amongst

25:01professionals. We had group interviews

25:05for us to know how things were happening

25:08uh from a professional standpoint thanks

25:11to the material that we offered to them

25:13and how this material positively

25:16impacted on the improvement.

25:22In terms of the planning, the first year

25:25we began distributing the materials and

25:29the different tools

25:31among the associates. We organized a

25:34meeting that lasted for 5 days in the

25:37UK.

25:38The universities introduced the

25:41materials that they have designed and

25:44then we invited also the early childhood

25:47professionals to participate in roundts

25:51to validate those materials. There was a

25:54first stage in which when these

25:56professionals came back to their

25:58schools, they worked with those

26:00materials and they documented, they

26:03gathered data and they also explained

26:07the project to the families of their

26:09schools. They had to gather observations

26:12among other information. And then the

26:14second year we did we organized some

26:19exchange practices meetings. Those

26:22professionals traveled

26:24those from here, from Spain, from

26:26Barcelona, they went to Norway together

26:29with those from the UK and then after

26:32that we went to UK and then all of us,

26:35all of them they came to Barcelona.

26:38In that way, every center was the host

26:42of one of those meeting and they could

26:44share the proposals they had, how they

26:48could improve the materials and so on

26:50and so forth.

26:54The work manuals have the same

26:57structure. They have uh some objectives

27:00and a theoretical framework, some

27:02questions for reflection and some items

27:04for observation and assessment.

27:09I will now explain following this

27:11structure

27:13each of the blocks I mentioned before.

27:16As you can see, these are the four

27:18titles.

27:20And the four blocks that this towi

27:22project had, the first one has to do

27:26with toddler well-being. This was

27:29designed by the Kingston University

27:36and it was about well-being. This is

27:39like the umbrella or the general frame

27:40framework that includes everything.

27:44And yesterday this topic appeared as

27:46well. That's okay. It's a good

27:50topic.

27:53But being well, this well-being can mean

27:55different things for different people.

27:59It can mean just walking around the

28:01forest or maybe playing a game with

28:04children. So well-being,

28:08who defines this concept?

28:11What does it include?

28:14Therefore, in the manual,

28:17in the objectives of this blog, we

28:20wanted to familiarize professionals of

28:22this early childhood stage at all

28:25dimensions that well-being can have. And

28:27these are very there are there there are

28:30a lot of dimensions. Then we wanted to

28:32raise acknowledgement

28:36on the dimensions of these children

28:39well-being. Another objective was to

28:41provide professionals with tools to

28:45evaluate well-being so that they could

28:48improve also the quality of the service

28:50they offer.

28:52And finally, the last objective was to

28:55help these professionals to

28:57differentiate the different good

29:00practices for the well-being of the

29:04children. We incorporated

29:08all the definitions in the international

29:10context

29:13for the term of well-being and the

29:15objective was wasn't to copy what the

29:18people from Norway or UK said but rather

29:22we wanted to generate critical thinking

29:28and just as an example I will say some

29:31questions that we could hear in those

29:33teams. What does well-being mean to you?

29:36What does well-being mean to the

29:38children? Why is well-being so

29:40important?

29:42Are we talking about the well-being of

29:44the children only the well-being of the

29:46professionals? And what is the

29:47well-being of the families? There were

29:50many questions and to what extent this

29:53definition that appears in the manual

29:56and the definition that UNICEF says do

29:59you agree with that definition or how do

30:02you translate it in your daily practice

30:05and this way we could incorporate the

30:08different dimensions of the children

30:09well-being. I will now

30:13explain just the three ideas that we

30:14incorporated. The first has to do with

30:18family, relatives and the environment of

30:21children. If they have a home, if they

30:23don't, what kind of home they have? The

30:26second dimension is health.

30:28What access do they have to health

30:30services?

30:33And then the environment of the center.

30:37It's not the same whether whether the

30:40school is in an urban and great

30:42environment but some it's something

30:45different when this school is in the

30:48nature or in an industrial setting. And

30:52the fourth dimension has to do with

30:55development and language.

31:03And this means everything that has to do

31:05with social game.

31:10>> And here there are three different

31:12blocks. Lunch,

31:15voice,

31:18not my voice, my bad voice, but the

31:21voice of the children when they play and

31:23then language of the families and the

31:26children.

31:31I will explain briefly

31:34if you have questions you can just raise

31:36your hand. I don't know how much time I

31:37have but I will try to explain briefly

31:39each of the blogs. I have already

31:41explained the well-being and now we will

31:43speak about voice and expression of

31:46children. This was developed by the

31:48University of Norway

31:51and the theoretical framework they used

31:54included

31:57what means the voice of the children.

32:01We always say that

32:03the natural way that children have to

32:06express is game and probably you those

32:10of you who are studying now you know

32:13that by heart. Okay. game

32:18experimentation the same

32:21but we wanted people to reflect

32:25about what does playing mean

32:33therefore the objective was to

32:37raise knowledge on the way that children

32:40communicate

32:43to increase the capacity to observe and

32:46interpret and reflect through the

32:50different non-verbal expression ways of

32:53expression of children. And another

32:55objective was to develop sensitivity of

32:58the professionals

33:00to the complex interactions between

33:03children while they they play.

33:06In order to have a more a more

33:09respectful

33:11way to address game, we gave some

33:14reflection topics,

33:16reflection axis. The first one was how

33:19do we relate with children while they

33:22play

33:24and we suggested to debate on three

33:28different blocks. The first blocks block

33:30was adults we know more. This means that

33:34the adult

33:37does always what thinks to be the best

33:39for the children. But here we have this

33:42clear

33:46difference between the adult and the

33:48children. The adult is the one who

33:50decides. There was another block

33:54which was no

33:56children and the things they do are not

33:59rational. They don't have a purpose.

34:02They are just playing. They are just

34:06trying things

34:09and we as adults we need to respond and

34:12sometimes we need to to impose some

34:14limitations and we need to stop

34:16something because they don't know they

34:18don't really know and there was another

34:20reflection block which was no

34:24children are human being they have

34:26intentions desires and needs of their

34:29own. So you as an educator, as a

34:32teacher,

34:35to what extent do you hear them? Do you

34:38validate their expressions, even the

34:40non-verbal? To what extent do you

34:42respect their integrity? And do you look

34:46for agreements,

34:50taking the needs of the

34:53collective into account?

34:56Thank you.

34:57They are telling me I need to drink some

34:59water. So please just a moment.

35:04Thank you.

35:07I was saying another reflection point

35:10was how do we relate with children? Then

35:12we also suggested to observe children

35:15while they were playing

35:18with the body as the axis. How do

35:21children move?

35:23Also the relationships between them

35:27between children. How do they negotiate?

35:31And the other was one one was the

35:33object. What object do they used to

35:35play?

35:40What do they use? And the third

35:43reflection block was the interaction

35:46between adults and children. How this

35:49adult uses the indirect and direct

35:53strategies. For example, indirect

35:55strategy strategies are I guarantee the

36:00game through the link.

36:06I try to promote exploration

36:11or how this adult is capable of

36:13designing a game space

36:17to

36:18invite them to play or how this adult

36:22integrate the game in the daily

36:24activities and other indirect strategies

36:28like just guiding the sight of the

36:31children,

36:33facilitating a more fluid participation

36:36or facilitating

36:38joint activities or promoting a game on

36:43purpose.

36:44Verbalizing some actions,

36:47regulating the behavior. And lastly, we

36:51suggested in this manual on voice and

36:54expressions of children, we suggested

36:56some tools to observe, document and

36:59analyze the routines, the communication,

37:03the negotiations and the friendships

37:05between children.

37:14There was another manual on language.

37:18This image was done by AI as well as the

37:22first two pictures. The rest of them

37:25they will come from the from the

37:26project. AI can be very useful for some

37:29things.

37:32So researchers from University

37:35were the ones in charge for this blog.

37:40And in the introduction

37:43there's a text from Palatosa.

37:47Some of you know them. And it says it's

37:51not to acquire just a few words, but

37:54rather some funological, grammatical,

37:57morphological, and syntactical

37:59structures that together with vocabulary

38:02allow communication.

38:04This is an answer that they give to the

38:07question, what do we understand by

38:09learning an additional language in the

38:14early childhood education?

38:17In these schools where there are many

38:19languages present and apart from that

38:22here you add another language. What

38:24happens with this

38:27in this part?

38:33We

38:35treated the different languages and we

38:38said that there was needed to have a

38:41facilitator element

38:44to put value to the role of the adult.

38:48Sometimes this additional language can

38:50be just the language that is spoken in

38:55the territory. The adult has to be the

38:57medi mediator as well and also the input

39:02that the ch child receives needs to be

39:05significant and constant regular. This

39:09is why it needs to be linked the use of

39:12an additional language needs to be

39:14linked to routines.

39:17Learning languages

39:19doesn't mean learning a vocabulary. It

39:22means learning a new culture, increasing

39:25the knowledge of the world. And this is

39:27why we had two major challenges and each

39:31school debated about these challenges.

39:33One of these realities was how do we

39:36welcome these linguistic identities at

39:40school. Linguistic identities

39:43need to be welcomed to respect their

39:46identities to promote the self-esteem to

39:50improve the knowledge environment and to

39:53create this inclusive environment. And

39:57the second challenge was to reflect

39:59about another reality. If there will be

40:03a new culture and a new language, how

40:06will we manage this situation?

40:11Children need to be exposed to a

40:14language which is not the language they

40:16hear on their environment. How can we do

40:19that

40:22without causing a chaos for the child or

40:25if we really need to do it? This was the

40:27debate and it was complicated as you can

40:29imagine. Some schools wanted to

40:32implement English with children who had

40:36two three years for example and this was

40:39a bit

40:41complicated

40:48this moved. I don't know why

40:54>> actually this is the manual that has to

40:57do with the lunch time.

41:02This blog B was developed by myself from

41:05the University of Rammonul

41:09and it's about the lunchtime. This

41:12lunchtime in England can be at 12.

41:17In Norway it's also at another time. And

41:19here we have other

41:22times as well. But it's actually the

41:24moment when children have lunch.

41:31We suggested the teams to reflect on

41:34routines

41:37>> broadly daily routines with children

41:40aged two to three

41:43because everything that happens in a

41:46school every day is part of their

41:48educational trajectory. We know that and

41:52we know the importance of routines.

41:55So lunchtime, hygiene,

42:00the welcome, everything has a strong

42:02potential for learning.

42:06And we made them reflect on these

42:08moments.

42:11We also wanted them to be

42:15to know that these moments are full of

42:18culture.

42:20In every country, we understand these

42:23moments differently.

42:37We invited each school to reflect on the

42:41socioultural

42:42value of these moments

42:45and we wanted them to see that these

42:46routine moments are key to learn how to

42:49live with each other.

42:55I always like to do things easy and

42:59there are just two abilities that we

43:03need to work in schools which is

43:05critical thinking and living with other

43:09people

43:10and in when children are two to three

43:13years old when can I work these

43:16abilities

43:18all day.

43:23Then the lunch time

43:27are also educational spaces as I said.

43:32I would like to share with you a

43:34reflection

43:36which is that social locks

43:39made us notice how these routine moments

43:41change.

43:44We unimplemented

43:47routines. Most of the children they

43:50don't have lunch at home anymore. They

43:52eat at schools.

43:55There was a change in

43:58times and timetables. Not everyone eats

44:02the same way

44:05in the families within families. Some

44:08people eat at the table. Some people eat

44:10in the kitchen. And there are different

44:12traditions associated with these lunch

44:14times as well. What happens when these

44:17children stop eating with families and

44:19they eat in in the schools? What

44:23happens? So it's very important

44:26who what adult is with them during this

44:29lunch time.

44:34We performed an important analysis

44:40how these children are distributed. What

44:42spaces do they have to communicate

44:44between them? What adults are present?

44:48How do they promote empathy? There was

44:52another block which analyzed

44:55the possibilities of participation

44:57during lunchtime.

44:59Can they

45:02move around and just take some food? Can

45:05they decide the amount of food they want

45:07to eat?

45:09How do we respect their autonomy

45:13in that sense? Can they cut and eat the

45:17food themselves? Children aged two to

45:20three. And there was another block which

45:22was space and materials.

45:25How can we facilitate

45:28having a place that suggests well-being?

45:36It needs to be a place where they feel

45:37calm.

45:40In this manual, there was an observation

45:43guideline that helped this analyze.

45:48>> When we organized the training and we

45:50explained how these places organ work

45:55here in Norway, they were so surprised

45:59because they have one educator for every

46:01four children and children don't didn't

46:04do anything.

46:07educators did everything for them and

46:09educators say said we feel very stressed

46:12because we have four children for each

46:15of us and I was thinking oh my god

46:17because when they saw the autonomy the

46:19level of autonomy here they rethought

46:23many many things in England as well

46:27families wanted to overprotect their

46:30children and

46:33they weren't autonomous

46:41I will just move on

46:46from the analysis. I will just read the

46:49title. I have already explained some

46:51materials and the importance

46:55and what we analyzed was the impact it

46:58had and we

47:01saw

47:03that professionals valued very well the

47:06quality the cohesion of the materials.

47:13They loved how the role of the adult was

47:16worked, how theory and practice was

47:19connected.

47:23Even some schools said no, we saw

47:26different disadvantages that children

47:29can have.

47:31Maybe it's not about poverty, but they

47:34are not attended either.

47:37They also liked the pedagogy

47:41focused on the child.

47:44They also liked the possibility that

47:47this material offered to share and to

47:50establish a culture, a common knowledge,

47:55the practice implementation as well

47:58because they could restructure and do it

48:02in an organized way

48:06with time

48:09with no rush. They could implement

48:11collective strategies. They involved

48:14families

48:16and they also said that the project

48:18helped

48:20with their professional development.

48:22These international visits were very

48:25empowering for them because they had to

48:30be responsible for what they did

48:35and the impact this had improved the

48:38whole center.

48:41Having said that,

48:43lastly, what it's interesting about this

48:45project is that it has been sustainable

48:49over time. I saw it in the schools from

48:53here from Barcelona. All the changes

48:55that were implemented still last.

49:00Can I now access this?

49:02Can I click on here and access this

49:05website? The website of the project.

49:12I would like to access the website just

49:15for a moment.

49:23I just want to show you some materials

49:26that are available in English,

49:31Norway, and Catalan. I don't know if the

49:33translation to Norway is correct, but

49:36you can access it. SP

49:54can you please go to the slide of the

49:56presentation the first one and I'm I

49:59know for sure that the link will be

50:01there.

50:06>> Shall I do it?

50:09here.

50:31>> Well, you can do it at home. I will just

50:34explain you what you will find there.

50:39When you go there,

50:42please students check this website and

50:45also professionals

50:48you will see that

50:50there are some training materials

50:54and then workshop materials.

50:58this last workshop materials. There are

51:01some interesting videos that schools

51:04made reflecting on the learnings of this

51:08project and how the lunch time in every

51:11center changed

51:13and how they improved in many other

51:15aspects.

51:17I wanted to spend some minutes talking

51:19about this but it won't be possible.

51:22Having said that, then I will move on to

51:25the final conclusions. to stick to the

51:28time.

51:30This project

51:32proved

51:35that improving the well-being in the

51:37early childhood requires an integral

51:41model

51:43through reflective materials through a

51:47distributed leadership

51:52through exchanges and selfreflection.

51:56and centers need to transform this

51:59pedagogic culture.

52:03We need to be to reflect as

52:05professionals. You won't end your

52:08studies and you will know everything. I

52:10will retire and I will there will still

52:12be things that I don't know. There will

52:15always be changes.

52:17You will need to keep on training

52:19yourselves.

52:21At the end of this project, we also

52:23published a book where we gathered all

52:26the material.

52:33And this is the end of my presentation.

52:39And I trust that you will check what I

52:42was explaining before about the project

52:44and the website. Thank you so much.

52:53Thank you, angels.

52:56Honestly, it's a pleasure. I took a lot

52:58of notes from your presentation

53:03because many things are very necessary.

53:06So, I want to thank you because I think

53:08it was very illustrative and it's very

53:12worth it to listen to the things you

53:14explained again and again. I don't know

53:16if there are questions from the room. We

53:18needed to end at 11, but since we

53:21started a bit later, we will have just

53:2310 more minutes for questions or

53:25reflections

53:27from the public

53:30over there. Perfect.

53:42>> Good morning. I think that your

53:45presentation was extremely interesting

53:47and I would like you to

53:50tell us a bit more about the critical

53:52thinking at two to three years.

53:59>> How we can do it? Okay.

54:04Well, when I talk about critical

54:07thinking and how to encourage this kind

54:09of thinking in all ages, critical think

54:12is very difficult to tell uh children

54:14very happy you were able to take all

54:17your stuff and something different. You

54:20must be happy. Oh, lucky you. It's very

54:23different to have a different tone with

54:25a kid right now. It's going to rain or

54:28to tell the child, "Oh, I can see many,

54:31many clouds here. I don't know what's

54:33going to happen. It is not the same when

54:35you say to a kid to ask uh the child

54:40questions. Do you think that we can do

54:42this or that? Do you think that this is

54:43going to work or you want to try on? Why

54:47not? Do you want to try? Yes, let's do a

54:49bowl. How do you want to build this

54:50boat? I'm going to do it with some

54:53board, sticks, and wood. And do you

54:56think it's going to work? Do you want to

54:58put a stone, but it's going to brown?

55:01Well, we don't give all the answers. We

55:03talk about 2, three year old. Please

55:06bear in mind that the people, the child,

55:09the children, they need uh responses.

55:11They do need answers. They do need

55:14adults to be there. So in early ages, we

55:21misunderstand

55:23what do you want for ch for dinner? It

55:26is you, the adult that you select the

55:29children dinner.

55:31But another thing is you to decide do

55:33you want more potato or more beans you

55:36have to decide. So decisions should be

55:39taken by these early ages. I don't know

55:43if I gave you an answer. Yes. Okay.

55:50Do we have more questions?

55:57Thank you so much for such a great

56:00presentation and from the university

56:02viewpoint this idea of the professionals

56:06that must reflect upon things

56:09and to be aware but this is an idea that

56:13goes round but when we have the

56:15education plans and when we have to

56:18renew the professional identity when we

56:21start working in a nursery right I do

56:23have the feeling that in our country

56:25will like a lot recipes tell me what do

56:28I have to do how many ingredients what

56:30do I have to do at 9 at 9:30 so this

56:33idea of critical thinking for

56:35professionals they are very fancy words

56:38but in reality

56:40people are lazy we don't like to have

56:42this uh critical thinking so from the

56:45universities

56:46uh perspective and also from the school

56:49perspective as the receivers the

56:52research you know that shows that the

56:54early years are very important for us as

56:58professionals. Do you have any hint or

57:01tip for these critical thinking to be

57:04included as an strategy and not just to

57:06be fancy words?

57:09There are two fields. I'm also a

57:12professor at the university and many

57:15students they ask me this is what for

57:18this is why why do we need this?

57:21You know these are we love recipes.

57:24Instagram is full of followers.

57:26Pinterest is full of follower. So I tell

57:28them to make things straightforward with

57:31AI. Do it. Do it. And then you'll have

57:33an assessment and you will ask me about

57:35the AI results. And I have a noral

57:38interview. I have a conversation with

57:41them because we don't know what students

57:43think. And we have other direct and

57:46straightforward reflection exercises. I

57:49want you to read. I want you to

57:51elaborate your own thinking. This is a n

57:54issue related for future students for

57:56future professionals. We as that we want

58:00this critical thinking. know we in the

58:02universities we don't know what we are

58:03offering as task

58:06teamwork and so on so forth well I don't

58:08know if this is an issue right now right

58:10here but

58:13people they want to make things very

58:15quickly right and it's for schools we

58:18have a very big issue we don't have

58:20enough time to be together and the time

58:23for meetings it's not used for the main

58:26purposes many meetings are dealing with

58:29preparation of things and for 03

58:31education it's more than ever less hours

58:34for us as professionals meetings we

58:36don't prepare anything everything is

58:38ready we do have the commission we do

58:40have right you will have this and that

58:43in our meetings we discuss

58:46discuss one topic we write an action you

58:50know the first changes that we have in

58:53our uh lunch times through how we had

58:57lunch with two three years we said to

58:59ourselves we like his tables, this uh

59:02teacher that has back pain. So, do we

59:05like this kind of

59:08furniture and dealing rooms and cantens?

59:13We don't have time to reflect upon the

59:16real problems and the time that we have,

59:19it's not enough. Sometimes

59:22I realize that you are very anxious and

59:25the families are asking for a specific

59:28answer. We are more and more stressed

59:31because many parents are demanding a

59:34lot. What's our position? We do need all

59:37the menus.

59:39What can we do when we are beaten by the

59:43children? What about the schedule? We

59:46should be so strict when we open the

59:48school and when we close the school. Now

59:51I have two grandchildren.

59:54One goes to the school from 9:5 grade

59:56adaptation very quickly and the school

59:59understood that well and girl is okay

1:00:02and the other uh grandchild loads of

1:00:05problems you know we had to ask for a

1:00:08maternity leave but you know in the

1:00:11school there are only three kids in the

1:00:13classroom only three you see we need to

1:00:17think about it we have to make things

1:00:19happen this way this way and only this

1:00:21way I don't know if I'm answering

1:00:23between the lines. But to me, we do need

1:00:26a professional that thinks how she do.

1:00:31Otherwise, we'll be opening and we'll be

1:00:33still in the party of colors, you know.

1:00:43Thank you very much, angels.

1:00:46I work at the University of Pik and now

1:00:51as we came with many students we feel

1:00:54very very thankful. Thank you for coming

1:00:56my dear students and now we are having

1:00:59classroom here. Yesterday we talked

1:01:02about this community work working with

1:01:04the families and I wonder I asked to

1:01:06myself how can we bring this idea of

1:01:10well-being how these cantens and meal

1:01:14time playgrounds together with family

1:01:19very diverse families. Can you talk

1:01:21about a little bit more how did you work

1:01:24from these project these uh questions

1:01:28and also do you have any tip for these

1:01:31second year university students how to

1:01:34get closer with families to have a

1:01:37better relationship and to better

1:01:39understand the complexities but also the

1:01:42wealth that this diversity entails.

1:01:46Listen to the families. We don't have to

1:01:48give them a recipe. No, every family has

1:01:51its own way of parenting and educating.

1:01:54But if we shared things, it could be

1:01:57very inspiring, right? All centers and

1:02:01schools, they recorded the changes that

1:02:03we witnessed during meal time, how kids

1:02:07participated and this helped us to see

1:02:10how things happened. During the family

1:02:13meetings, we share the video and how

1:02:16children they were able to put water on

1:02:18the glass to put the oil on the plate.

1:02:21And after one week, the families went

1:02:23there and they said, "Well, we finished

1:02:26all the supermarket of the uh water jars

1:02:31and oil uh recipients, they can do it at

1:02:35home." And the same happened when they

1:02:37played. You know many times and this is

1:02:40something that I tend to repeat

1:02:42sometimes meetings with family are very

1:02:44tough. Your kid development this age it

1:02:48is important and you know this model of

1:02:52transplanting by him and we keep recipes

1:02:56to the families and the only thing that

1:02:58we have to as families is to share what

1:03:00we do in the school. The better the

1:03:03images, the more the images, the better.

1:03:06Oh, that's how you make things happen.

1:03:07Yes, we do it this way and that way. And

1:03:10this is very help helpful for them to

1:03:12get inspiration as a family. There are

1:03:14some families they didn't value that it

1:03:17was important to have lunch with their

1:03:19children. They left there and they do

1:03:22other things and kids they had lunch on

1:03:24their own. And now when they have lunch

1:03:26together, everything goes very smoothly.

1:03:28So sharing these moments is always

1:03:30great, right? You don't give a recipe to

1:03:33families. You don't tell the families

1:03:35you have to do it this way. You will see

1:03:37my dear students when a kid

1:03:41drank a bottle of milk as a breakfast.

1:03:46Who am I to say that this is not a good

1:03:48breakfast when for a three-year-old?

1:03:52Probably the family reality is very

1:03:53different and we can make things

1:03:55differently in the school. But I'm not

1:03:57judging anything from the family side. I

1:04:00want family to trust me. I want family

1:04:02to tell me. So when you start a meeting

1:04:05with the relatives and parents, welcome.

1:04:07Today we're going to talk about

1:04:09importance of 2, three years old.

1:04:12No, I want family members to introduce

1:04:15themselves.

1:04:16And now we're going to show right we

1:04:19have a snack

1:04:21peak of what your kids do. and we showed

1:04:25the videos of what we recorded. Is this

1:04:28an answer for you? Satisfied?

1:04:31>> We do still have a five minutes. I don't

1:04:34know if there are other questions.

1:04:39I had many questions

1:04:43and

1:04:44after

1:04:46reading Towi project

1:04:49but we are running out of time but

1:04:51probably these few minutes that we have

1:04:53just to thank you again and also to talk

1:04:56about thank you so much for talking

1:04:57about the project. I think that we all

1:05:00that we are in this room you offer some

1:05:04hints and tips how to prepare

1:05:06participants and also the level of

1:05:07commitment and implications that this

1:05:10project had. We will read in depth this

1:05:13project and also this will help us to be

1:05:16able to create this critical thinking

1:05:18and not only visit and visit through

1:05:20Instagram and Pinterest and it's like

1:05:23tourism in the schools. No, instead of a

1:05:26pedagogical tourism, we really need to

1:05:28reflect upon that and will help us to

1:05:30create these handbooks and manuals that

1:05:32you presented. Thank you very much and

1:05:35let's carry on with today's seminar.

1:05:38[applause]

1:05:46Now we'll have a coffee break as planned

1:05:50and let's see in half hour a quarter two

1:05:54Coffee break will be upstairs. On the

1:05:57left side you will see the arrows

1:06:00indicating the

1:06:03place for the coffee break.

1:06:14>> Thank you.

1:06:18>> Hola.

1:06:20>> Hello. Hi. So you didn't mind

1:06:23We kindly ask you to take your seats and

1:06:26we are going to start. We're going to

1:06:28resume.

1:06:31>> So, we're waiting for people to get in.

1:06:34So, please.

1:06:44>> So, we are going to resume this session.

1:06:46Listen, right now we'll have a time for

1:06:50this round table that will deal with

1:06:53knowledge research by knowledge to

1:06:56better address current service

1:07:00challenges. It's going to be moderated

1:07:03and introduced by Sabila Ibu. She's a

1:07:07researcher uh PhD and

1:07:12specialist in global education systems

1:07:15centered on the development of early

1:07:19childhood. Please

1:07:22>> good morning everyone.

1:07:23>> Uh welcome to this round table. The

1:07:27question our panel is asking today is

1:07:29how can evidence help us to improve

1:07:32services in early childhood education

1:07:34and care. It's a real pleasure to share

1:07:37this session. Um, and I think that the

1:07:38timing of this round table within the

1:07:40conference program is particularly

1:07:42interesting. So, just a few opening

1:07:45thoughts to share. Research has shown us

1:07:48that early childhood education and care

1:07:50is an investment with immense social

1:07:52return.

1:07:54But yesterday,

1:07:58>> oh, the translation is not working.

1:08:02Um,

1:08:03okay. Let's give it a second and just

1:08:05check.

1:08:08Does someone want to tell us if it's

1:08:10working?

1:08:16>> Okay, we got a thumbs up.

1:08:20Okay, let's let's start again. Let us

1:08:23know if it's not working. So, research

1:08:26has shown us that early childhood

1:08:28education and care is an investment with

1:08:30immense social return. But yesterday and

1:08:33this morning we have heard a lot about

1:08:35the challenges facing early childhood

1:08:38systems, inclusion challenges, equity

1:08:41challenges, challenges with community

1:08:44participation and the realities of

1:08:46delivering services in different urban

1:08:48contexts.

1:08:50So I think the question that naturally

1:08:52follows is what can research actively

1:08:55contribute to addressing these

1:08:57challenges?

1:08:59This is more than simply just what does

1:09:01the evidence tell us. It's about

1:09:03translating evidence into better

1:09:06systems. It's about understanding what

1:09:08knowledge is most useful to

1:09:10practitioners, policy makers, and of

1:09:12course, families, and where the gaps are

1:09:15between what we know and what early

1:09:17childhood systems are currently doing.

1:09:21I believe that research can give us two

1:09:22critical pieces that work hand in hand.

1:09:25The why and the how.

1:09:28The why is really answering why invest?

1:09:31Why is this an area that demands public

1:09:34funding? And the how is really about

1:09:37what works? How do we do this? And many

1:09:40of the presentations have really covered

1:09:42these more tangible aspects of early

1:09:45childhood systems.

1:09:47So we have three speakers today who

1:09:49bring quite different perspectives to

1:09:51this uh this question or these

1:09:52questions. Lia Peneda, director of the

1:09:54Barcelona Institute for Childhood and

1:09:56Adolescence. Sylvia Blunt, professor at

1:09:59the Autonomous University of Barcelona,

1:10:01and Martino Sarapion, senior research

1:10:04program coordinator at Kofas Families

1:10:06Europe. Each of these individuals will

1:10:08share their thoughts on how research can

1:10:10affect improvements in early childhood

1:10:12education and care, helping us sharpen

1:10:15both the why and the how of our work.

1:10:19So, firstly to introduce Sylvia. Sylvia

1:10:23is professor at the autonomous

1:10:25university of Barcelona and a researcher

1:10:27in the field of education with a

1:10:28background in psychology. She

1:10:31coordinates the Arif research team which

1:10:33brings together research on childhood

1:10:35families and education and her work

1:10:38focuses particularly on early childhood

1:10:40families professionals inclusion and

1:10:43collaboration between educational and

1:10:45community actors. She also has extensive

1:10:48experience working directly with

1:10:50teachers and practitioners and

1:10:52supporting families and professional

1:10:54teams. So, she does a lot. She does

1:10:56everything. Um, and she brings an

1:10:58important perspective on how knowledge

1:11:00is translated into professional practice

1:11:03and into the everyday experiences of

1:11:05children and families. So, thank you for

1:11:07being here and um yeah, please go ahead.

1:11:10>> Thank you.

1:11:14So, thank you Sabila and thank you for

1:11:16the the first team, colleagues, friends.

1:11:20I'm very happy to be here and to be able

1:11:22to to talk uh about early childhood and

1:11:26families. Uh

1:11:30>> I'd rather prefer to do it in Catalan or

1:11:32do it in English.

1:11:33>> So, so my timing is uh adequate. So, let

1:11:39me begin with a question. Think about

1:11:41what it takes to become an expert in

1:11:44almost anything. Think about an artist,

1:11:47an sport person. How long it takes.

1:11:53An athlete trains for years with a

1:11:56coach, with a nutritionist, with a

1:11:59psychologist. An artist developed

1:12:01through practice, experimentation, and

1:12:03feedback. An economist economist spends

1:12:06years studying and learning how to apply

1:12:10the knowledge and even so sometimes get

1:12:12it wrong.

1:12:13We accept that developing these

1:12:15abilities requires preparation, guidance

1:12:19and support.

1:12:20So how is possible that when becoming

1:12:23parents we so often expect them to

1:12:27simply know how

1:12:31parenting involves enormous

1:12:33responsibility yet we frequently treat

1:12:36them as a common sense. Yeah you become

1:12:39a parent a mother and you'll know.

1:12:44So parents need opportunities to learn

1:12:47through experience. Reflect with others

1:12:50and receive guidance also and support

1:12:53especially those who had not a

1:12:56background uh of a context with love

1:13:00with guidance or they are suffering from

1:13:03any mental illness or the children have

1:13:06some sort of health issues. So how can

1:13:09they just

1:13:11learn how to be a father, a mother,

1:13:14parent? So today I will explore what

1:13:17research tell us about this support and

1:13:20why it remains uneven and how family

1:13:22spaces and parent groups can become

1:13:25reliable part of these early childhood

1:13:27services.

1:13:36Becoming a parent begins before birth

1:13:39for most of the parents. This question

1:13:41has become very personal to me because

1:13:43I'm delighted in the next uh few weeks

1:13:46in November I will be a grandmother. So

1:13:50my daughter-in-law has been received

1:13:52such a great attentive medical care,

1:13:55blood test, scans, videos, glucose

1:13:58checks, uh regular appointments and I'm

1:14:01very grateful for that.

1:14:03But

1:14:05nothing about what is going to happen.

1:14:08How are you going to become a mother?

1:14:11What happen if the baby cries which

1:14:13will? Uh how to be supportive with your

1:14:16partner? What's happening in your life?

1:14:19Nothing at all.

1:14:22So uh preparing to give birth

1:14:26there is groups but always very linked

1:14:29to health. How to give birth? how to

1:14:32breathe, how to recover the pelvic floor

1:14:35after birth. But what about that

1:14:39difficulty of becoming mother or father?

1:14:42So pregnancy is therefore an opportunity

1:14:44to begin

1:14:47to be and to have supportive

1:14:49conversations to lean to one another to

1:14:52know what to ask or what to expect. So

1:14:55I'm not talking about the school

1:14:56parents. Please don't we don't need you

1:14:59know certificate it's not about that

1:15:05we have uh so many evidence the first

1:15:08thousand days from pregnancy not from

1:15:11birth from pregnancy to the second year

1:15:14to the second birthday help shape lifong

1:15:18health learning and resilience.

1:15:21It's the really sensitive moment and we

1:15:25have so many evidence. We need more but

1:15:28we have already so many evidence.

1:15:31Chronic adversity including poverty,

1:15:33isolation, disability, mental health can

1:15:35contribute to prolonged stress. Without

1:15:38sufficient supportive relationships,

1:15:40this can become toxic stress affecting

1:15:43development and increasing later health

1:15:46and learning risks. Parents also go

1:15:49through profound changes. Varoya Carmono

1:15:53with the B mother project. They have

1:15:56realized that nobody was analyzing what

1:16:00happened to the brain of a mother during

1:16:02pregnancy and after birth. And

1:16:05apparently what they found is that the

1:16:07brain changes so much and after six

1:16:11years all those changes are still there.

1:16:15hormones, physical changes are amazingly

1:16:18in the brain of a mother and that

1:16:20changes after the birth um the

1:16:25uh gray mass drops and they have found

1:16:29out that that helps bonding with the

1:16:31child and that helps to be less

1:16:34aggressive and less frustrated.

1:16:37So if our body is ready to do that to

1:16:40bond with children why are we not

1:16:43supporting these parts fathers change as

1:16:46well less obviously but they only change

1:16:49if they bond with the children if they

1:16:51don't if they are not with their

1:16:52children their brain don't change so

1:16:55those are amazing findings that we need

1:16:57to look at them and and work accordingly

1:17:01sirning body siring commission helped

1:17:04translate early development research

1:17:06search into France's first demand

1:17:10prim of the first thousand days policy

1:17:14including local centers that gather all

1:17:17the professionals needed from pregnancy

1:17:19until the three years old of age.

1:17:22Nurseries, family spaces,

1:17:24genealogologists, nurses, social

1:17:27workers, teachers, everything under the

1:17:30same roof. Amazing.

1:17:45So after after birth

1:17:48contact with services focus mainly again

1:17:51on health measurements of specific

1:17:54concerns between those appointments

1:17:56parents are living the daily reality of

1:17:58carrying a baby. A question may feel so

1:18:02small for a medical consultation but

1:18:04still occupied mostly of parents day and

1:18:06the worries.

1:18:08Why does my baby crying when I put them

1:18:11down? Am I doing something wrong? Does

1:18:14anyone else feels like this?

1:18:17I don't feel myself. Why I'm crying so

1:18:20much?

1:18:22Mental health issues affect and affect a

1:18:25lot.

1:18:26So this is the regular parenting groups

1:18:28can have an important role to have

1:18:31somewhere to go somewhere to turn and to

1:18:34have supportive and to be asking any

1:18:37silly question that is important to you.

1:18:40So the challenge for services is to make

1:18:42this everyday support visible

1:18:46and back to the basics what the baby

1:18:48needs. We are thinking a lot on parents

1:18:52on adults working time but what the baby

1:18:56needs research tell us that baby really

1:19:00what it needs it's somebody there

1:19:02looking at him looking at her being

1:19:05there playing

1:19:07feeding caring and if there is no time

1:19:12that's not possible and the first

1:19:13thousand in days of the baby are so

1:19:17crucial as we were saying before So this

1:19:20relationship developed through ordinary

1:19:22moments feeding, holding, take, talking,

1:19:25responding and playing. Family spaces

1:19:27allow professional to work alongside

1:19:30caregivers in those moments and to have

1:19:32other models seeing other fathers, other

1:19:34mothers, other children playing and how

1:19:37to deal with a a small conflict or how

1:19:40to play with a child. Some families tell

1:19:43me I don't know how to play

1:19:45and they are telling me you have to play

1:19:47with a child. How do you play if nobody

1:19:49played with you?

1:19:59So unequal conditions um for parenting

1:20:04have really long-term effects. So we

1:20:07need to really deal with this first

1:20:10three years of age. Families have very

1:20:12difficult conditions and they're very

1:20:14diff different as well in which always

1:20:16to provide this care. Some have time,

1:20:19secure incomes and people nearby that

1:20:22can help. But many face insecure work

1:20:25and suitable housing or experience in

1:20:27raising children with very little

1:20:30support. This different affect the

1:20:32opportunities available for children and

1:20:34the pressures on their caregivers. So

1:20:36parenting group cannot solve poverty or

1:20:38replace mental health issues but it has

1:20:42a place where to feel you are part of

1:20:45the community as we were saying

1:20:46yesterday. So family need supports and

1:20:51needs to sit with a community and feel

1:20:54part of it.

1:20:58Research on parenting support help us to

1:21:01realize as well the long-term effects on

1:21:04cognitive language, self-regulation,

1:21:08emotions, so many aspects, cognitive

1:21:10aspects, physical aspects, learning

1:21:12aspects that are worth taking into

1:21:15considerations. Junk review 102

1:21:18randomized trials across 33 cont

1:21:22count countries and examining this

1:21:24parents intervention during the first

1:21:26three years. And the results help us to

1:21:28realize that is really now the time to

1:21:32have these services, this support for

1:21:35parents, not later when the difficulties

1:21:37come. Also later obviously, but not to

1:21:40wait until you know this pressure time

1:21:43is gone.

1:21:46So the evidence should guide the design

1:21:48of support along families knowledge and

1:21:50experience.

1:21:53So Hecman equation and many many people

1:21:56knows you know this uh price novel

1:21:59economist um they have shown that some

1:22:02high quality early childhood programs

1:22:04has an effect even for dropouts when

1:22:07they are much later in life. So really

1:22:12it's not lack of evidence, it's lack of

1:22:14policies, it's lack of really will on

1:22:18doing this. So the number of nurseries

1:22:21places is one indicator but we have so

1:22:24many other you know we've been talking

1:22:26about yesterday about family spaces and

1:22:28other another sort of services uh that

1:22:32are so in Milan and Finland. So we need

1:22:34to really gather all this together in a

1:22:37coordinated way.

1:22:41The Catalan brief identifies limited

1:22:43public protection for early childhood

1:22:45and parenting. There are valuable

1:22:47service very variable and committed

1:22:49professional very variable and quality

1:22:51professionals but access to support

1:22:53remains uneven. A family may have a a

1:22:57health center nearby yet not accessible

1:22:59parent group. Another may know about the

1:23:01family space but find that the hours,

1:23:04the cost or the location makes

1:23:06participation difficult. So our

1:23:08challenge is to make family

1:23:09accompanimement a reliable part of the

1:23:12public offer beginning during pregnancy

1:23:15not after birth.

1:23:18We have so many examples but uh France

1:23:21me of the mil primas the thousand

1:23:25premers and the England's family hub

1:23:28illustrates that it's possible and how

1:23:30service can connect around children and

1:23:32families.

1:23:34For Capalonia, we could develop

1:23:36welcoming community centers, living

1:23:38midwives, obstitricians, pediatrician,

1:23:40early childhood education, and family

1:23:42support professionals. Some service

1:23:44could share the same building while

1:23:46others work through a coordinated local

1:23:48network like we saw yesterday in the

1:23:50nurseries with the social educator

1:23:52working inside. So this center should

1:23:55also become ideas from family and local

1:23:57organization including cultural

1:23:59activities, workshops, and opportunities

1:24:01for motor support.

1:24:07And obviously families need clear

1:24:09accessible information about this first

1:24:12thousand days, the importance of them,

1:24:15the importance of being with a child,

1:24:17the importance of bonding and the

1:24:19effects that can have later. So

1:24:21responses relationships matter. How

1:24:23prolonged stress can affect development

1:24:26at what support is available. This

1:24:28knowledge should help parents to make

1:24:30informed choices.

1:24:33my son and my daughter-in-law after

1:24:36telling that uh they were expecting a

1:24:39baby, they were worried about putting

1:24:41the name down for a nursery. Can you

1:24:43believe that? Because they both work and

1:24:46if they don't do it early, they won't

1:24:47have space. They shouldn't be worried

1:24:49about that. So before knowing if there

1:24:52is other options or what they can do,

1:24:55it's sometimes they don't think about

1:24:58other options. So we need to you know

1:25:00help new parents, help parents to know

1:25:03that there is much more and what we

1:25:06need. So there is not a com um family

1:25:10spaces, family communities and other

1:25:12services are not a competition for other

1:25:14early childhood education like

1:25:16nurseries. They are complimentary and

1:25:18they are every all of them needed.

1:25:22So what it would be a more integrated

1:25:25system and not fragmented like it is

1:25:27now. Families would have a clear

1:25:29welcoming point of access to a network

1:25:31of support beginning during pregnancy

1:25:33and continuing as their needs change

1:25:36responsive. Jordi was saying yesterday

1:25:40access should be universal with more

1:25:42support for families facing greater

1:25:44difficulties. There is so many more than

1:25:49poverty,

1:25:50health issues, disabilities, so many

1:25:53situations that can be new or can be

1:25:57chronic that need supports. So this

1:25:59connection requires shared

1:26:01responsibilities, stable funding and

1:26:03protected time for professionals to

1:26:05coordinate.

1:26:10So uh five complimentary measures that

1:26:13could help to this idea of this family

1:26:15hubs. Uh first universal accompanion

1:26:20pathway from pregnancy to age of five.

1:26:22Second a university universal plan for

1:26:25prevention guidance and parenting

1:26:27support. Third a network for family

1:26:30centers and space. We know that

1:26:32well-being, like Angels was saying

1:26:34before, it's also feeling part of the

1:26:37community, feeling you can turn to

1:26:39somebody, feeling that you are looked

1:26:41after and you know you have the

1:26:43affection of others. Also

1:26:46um high quality education and care for

1:26:48children and they're free and also this

1:26:51stable governance connecting health,

1:26:53education and social service and municip

1:26:56municipalities.

1:26:58So finishing

1:27:02how it would look like. Let's us imagine

1:27:06this from a parents perspective. During

1:27:08pregnancy, you are invited to meet other

1:27:10expectant parents and discuss the

1:27:13transition ahead.

1:27:15After birth, there's a familiar group to

1:27:17return to with your baby. You can talk

1:27:20about your sleep, crying, changes in

1:27:22relationship, and the practical

1:27:24challenge of care. As your child grows,

1:27:28share play creates opportunities to

1:27:30observe, to exchange ideas, to learn

1:27:32from one another. And if you need

1:27:34additional help, there must be other

1:27:36professionals in that place that can

1:27:38help you.

1:27:41If your child starts nursery, the

1:27:42community you have built does not have

1:27:44to disappear. You still have a place to

1:27:47turn. That pathway adapts to family life

1:27:51changes. Its continuity comes from

1:27:53relationships and reliable access to

1:27:56support.

1:27:59So what make these services work?

1:28:02Integrations need resources and clear

1:28:05public responsibility. First protected

1:28:07time. Professionals need training in

1:28:10early development and group facilitation

1:28:12alongside paid time to listen to

1:28:14families. If we have social work and 10

1:28:17minutes per family, it's impossible.

1:28:21So reflect together and coordinate with

1:28:22other services needs time also. Second

1:28:25share governance health education social

1:28:28services and municipalities need common

1:28:30objective clear responsibilities and

1:28:32co-construct together otherwise we are

1:28:35carry on win a great system but very

1:28:38fragmented. Access must also be

1:28:40practical affordable services flexible

1:28:43hours and attention to language

1:28:44transport and weather all caregivers

1:28:47feels welcome.

1:28:49So just to finish, a community that

1:28:52values its childrens must make room for

1:28:56the people raising them. We have the

1:28:59positive parenting uh recommendation,

1:29:01European recommendation and and we need

1:29:04to to follow that too. Parents need time

1:29:06and material security,

1:29:09self um security also to feel that they

1:29:12are doing their best. They also need

1:29:15places to meet, share experience and

1:29:16receive support without feeling judged.

1:29:19Family spaces, parent groups, nurseries

1:29:21can give this commitment and practical

1:29:23form. So how can we make these spaces

1:29:27spaces a relable part of early childhood

1:29:30services so that every family has a

1:29:33place to turn and a community to growth

1:29:36with. Thank you.

1:29:39[applause]

1:29:46Thank you so much, Sylvia. That was a

1:29:48fantastic presentation. Um, so just some

1:29:52brief reflections on things that you

1:29:54shared. I think you did an amazing job

1:29:58of reminding us of both the why and

1:30:01introducing some ideas around the how.

1:30:04On the side of the Y, you mentioned

1:30:06neuroplasticity,

1:30:08cognitive development, and how that's

1:30:10catalyzed in the first few years of

1:30:12life, the risk to young children of

1:30:14toxic stress from healthy development.

1:30:17You mentioned the importance of the

1:30:18first thousand days and how this starts

1:30:21not at birth but even prior to birth. Um

1:30:24and thank you for also bringing some of

1:30:26the theories from child development,

1:30:28Bulby Winnott, um attachment, how

1:30:31children's attention grows, how they

1:30:34explore, how they play. And then on the

1:30:37side of the the what how how does this

1:30:39actually work? What are some of the

1:30:41mechanics? You said parents need

1:30:44guidance and we need to be proactive

1:30:47about this. parenting support works. And

1:30:49you mentioned um not just one or two

1:30:52trials, but in fact systematic reviews

1:30:55of many RCTs that show that um when

1:30:59parents are supported, children benefit.

1:31:02You mentioned the Hecman curve and the

1:31:04the return on investment um in putting

1:31:07public dollars uh or euros under early

1:31:10childhood programs. Um and so we really

1:31:13have uh I think this idea that family

1:31:17care and early childhood care are both

1:31:21public endeavors. They both deserve

1:31:24time, attention and investment and

1:31:26they're complimentary and we need to

1:31:27think about how they can be integrated.

1:31:29You also mentioned some key pillars

1:31:32public finance, shared governance and

1:31:34protected time which we'll be coming

1:31:36back to in other presentations and in

1:31:38our wider conversation. Um, does anyone

1:31:41want to ask a question to Sylvia before

1:31:43we move to the other presentations?

1:31:49Okay. Um, in that case, I would like to

1:31:52bring our attention to Martino. Me just

1:31:55pass him everything.

1:31:58This is passing this as well.

1:32:01So just to um reintroduce Martino, he is

1:32:05senior research program coordinator at

1:32:07Kofas Families Europe and coordinates

1:32:11research within the European Observatory

1:32:13on Family Policy. His work focuses

1:32:16particularly on family policy, early

1:32:19childhood education and care, and the

1:32:21integration of policies and services

1:32:24supporting families with young children.

1:32:26His comparative work across European

1:32:28countries has highlighted the

1:32:30fragmentation that can exist between

1:32:32education, care, health and family

1:32:35support and the importance of stronger

1:32:38coordination across these systems. So I

1:32:41think Martino's perspective brings us

1:32:42from individual services to the wider

1:32:45policy architecture around families and

1:32:47young children. So please go ahead.

1:32:50>> Yes, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for

1:32:53the invitation.

1:32:54um to frame a little bit my intervention

1:32:58probably it's a perspective that is

1:33:00slightly different coming from Europe

1:33:02from an organization like mine to the

1:33:04other side of you have listened to in

1:33:06this two days I'll just uh

1:33:09frame a little bit where I am from not

1:33:11for self-promotion just to help you make

1:33:14sense what what I'm saying um my

1:33:17organization is an advocacy network

1:33:19we're civil society advocacy network

1:33:21based in Brussels we We have about 80

1:33:27members which are national organizations

1:33:31broadly speaking active in the field of

1:33:34social of family policy. So we have

1:33:37members that focus on early childhood

1:33:39development

1:33:41member whose focus is on single parent

1:33:44families. Uh many members are families

1:33:47with disabilities. Um so um a mixed bag

1:33:52and we represent them by the European

1:33:55institutions. I as Sabila said have

1:33:58two-fold role in the organization. I

1:34:01have the advocacy file on early child

1:34:03education and care and I coordinate this

1:34:08small research desk which is European

1:34:11Observatory on Family Policy which is a

1:34:14partnership we have with the Odisa

1:34:16University of Applied Science in

1:34:18Brussels. We do research for advocacy.

1:34:22The idea being that our advocacy work

1:34:24needs to be rooted in

1:34:28more than evidencebased

1:34:30research is more like in upto-date

1:34:33information on what happens around in

1:34:37across Europe. That is also I think the

1:34:39value we have uh for the European

1:34:42institutions like we act a little bit as

1:34:44a bridge between this detach Brussels

1:34:48institutions and what is happening in

1:34:51the field at the local level. And if we

1:34:53do that job properly, they listen to us.

1:34:55And

1:34:57the challenge is of course perhaps yeah

1:35:02the most challenging part of our job is

1:35:03to translate what we see on the ground

1:35:07into a language that resonates and makes

1:35:10sense for the European policy making

1:35:12process. So for instance, the last two

1:35:14years at EU level have all been about

1:35:18competitiveness

1:35:20and resilience.

1:35:22So if we want them to listen to us, we

1:35:25need to turn, I don't know, arguments on

1:35:27service quality and the need to tackle

1:35:31vulnerabilities into I mean to frame

1:35:34them at least in a discursive rap that

1:35:37makes sense for them.

1:35:40give an example of this like to enter my

1:35:43presentation in May last year we were

1:35:46invited to participate into this like

1:35:50high level conference on um tackling

1:35:53child poverty was was organized in

1:35:55Nikicoia by the Cyprus presidency of the

1:35:57European of the Council of the European

1:35:59Union and we were asked to bring the

1:36:02family perspective concerning

1:36:05what are the priorities when it comes to

1:36:07investing in in the early years and us

1:36:12based on our research based on the work

1:36:16we do of listening to our members. So

1:36:18like the the message was quite clear was

1:36:23that to include to ensure inclusive uh

1:36:26equal opportunities in early childhood

1:36:29development, we meaning European

1:36:33countries, we need to challenge the way

1:36:37we have structured and provided support

1:36:42over the past decades. We need to

1:36:45gradually move away from a fragmented u

1:36:51from fragmented programs of support

1:36:54towards uh what we call like an e ecosic

1:36:59vision of family and child well-being

1:37:04and to

1:37:07um

1:37:10I'm building the case for this argument.

1:37:13We um we explained that in okay in our

1:37:17perspective the material resources, the

1:37:23public facilities even like the parental

1:37:27employment setups are an important and

1:37:31essential baseline

1:37:34but it's just the foundations

1:37:37like early life trajectories like see

1:37:40explain much better than I can but

1:37:43Early life trajectories are largely

1:37:45shaped by the proximal uh proximal

1:37:48environmental processes. So like uh

1:37:50quality social emotional interactions,

1:37:52access to uh daily routine, um access to

1:37:56interactive materials like uh the

1:37:59interactions with adults at home,

1:38:02outside the home like intervening early

1:38:06on um closing equality gaps means um

1:38:13that public policies need to go beyond

1:38:18the separate provision of support items

1:38:22and make like a centerpiece of the

1:38:25strategy, the reinforcement of parental

1:38:29competencies and we call like the the

1:38:30the the domestic micro system

1:38:34>> to operationalize the supportive

1:38:36ecosystem. We have this uh a we always

1:38:40talk about this uh fourpillar

1:38:44for families for to achieve family

1:38:46welfare.

1:38:48We need resources.

1:38:51We need services

1:38:54and families need time sovereignty

1:38:57to perform the the the care

1:39:00responsibilities

1:39:01and then we need integrated governance

1:39:04which is largely what Sylvia was saying

1:39:06at the end. We need the structured

1:39:08cooperation between different uh between

1:39:12the different pillars to to glue them

1:39:15together to glue uh the provision of

1:39:19resources, the access to services, the

1:39:22the the the availability of of of work

1:39:25flexible working arrangement to give an

1:39:27example to glue them together into a

1:39:28single well-being strategies that

1:39:30families can actually benefit from. And

1:39:34uh like a glaring example of what

1:39:38happens when this integration is not

1:39:40there is the childcare gap that

1:39:44Alejandro already mentioned uh already

1:39:48mentioned yesterday and the the

1:39:52childcare gap. Well, it's good that they

1:39:53saw your slide yesterday on the child

1:39:55care gap. Uh the childcare gap is

1:39:59basically the period of institutional

1:40:03void and this is one our key message to

1:40:05the commission. Uh when the

1:40:10the period of well- paid parental leave

1:40:13ends

1:40:15and the statutory entitlement to

1:40:18full-time early child education and care

1:40:20has not yet started. So there is this

1:40:25period of lack of coverage in which

1:40:29let's say

1:40:31the public system externalizing

1:40:35or like the burden of care

1:40:41>> okay like [laughter]

1:40:44it's a gap and like externalizes the

1:40:48burden of care entirely on families

1:40:50which can turn to the private market

1:40:53which often offers extremely expensive

1:40:56solutions.

1:40:58And when the solutions are too

1:40:59expensive, that triggers labor market

1:41:03that the detachment from the labor

1:41:05market by by parents

1:41:09and uh yeah, I had like some some

1:41:16I think it's still

1:41:23Well, I had a few slides to to make

1:41:26sense what I'm saying. It was it was

1:41:28easier, but like I don't know. I I

1:41:31wanted to show you how the

1:41:33how the labor market plays out, how the

1:41:36childare gap plays out in relation to

1:41:38some indicators because you see that

1:41:40currently in Europe, we consider to be

1:41:43like only five countries that have

1:41:46successfully closed the gap that we

1:41:48don't count Germany. We think that we

1:41:50know there is there is Finland, there is

1:41:52Sweden, there is um there is Denmark,

1:41:56there is Estonia and there is Slovenia

1:41:59and these are the only four countries

1:42:00that the five countries that have closed

1:42:02it and you see that these countries

1:42:04performed for instance

1:42:06um

1:42:08if you look at 2025 labor force survey

1:42:10data you see that these countries that

1:42:13have closed the gap

1:42:16>> it's good news here you go

1:42:18>> look Then

1:42:21>> uh can I have it?

1:42:23>> You want to go try the back arrow?

1:42:26>> Okay. Well, anyway, can I go back and

1:42:29forth?

1:42:32Um Bueno, the the countries that have

1:42:36closed the gap are show the highest

1:42:40positive deviation to the EU average in

1:42:43full employment households.

1:42:46uh full employment household with

1:42:48children. That means that a household

1:42:50with children in full employment means

1:42:52that both parents

1:42:55despite children being in a household

1:42:57are still are both in full employment.

1:42:59And we see the countries that have

1:43:00closed the gap are among those that

1:43:02score the highest deviation from the EU

1:43:05average. Uh similar interesting

1:43:08uh

1:43:10I need to

1:43:16similar interesting trend is when can we

1:43:20move forward one slide

1:43:24that's

1:43:26but um it's interesting is um

1:43:32>> okay is it this

1:43:35>> uh thank you yes so this is the gap

1:43:39those in the bottom are the countries

1:43:41that have closed

1:43:53I Okay, but now it's working.

1:43:57>> It's not working. Okay.

1:43:58>> So, just let us know.

1:43:59>> Next, next slide.

1:44:01>> Yes.

1:44:03And uh this is part-time employment

1:44:06differentials among women based on the

1:44:09presence of children in the household.

1:44:11So you see that countries that have

1:44:13closed the gap with the exception of

1:44:15Estonia

1:44:18there is a reason for that are countries

1:44:20where in fact part-time employment is

1:44:24more frequent among women with children

1:44:27sorry without children than it is with

1:44:30women among women with children. So

1:44:32having children does not positively is

1:44:34not possibly associated with being

1:44:37funneled back into part-time. The

1:44:39opposite. Next slide.

1:44:43Um, when it comes to ECC attendance,

1:44:47again, countries that have close the gap

1:44:50show we're talking about toddlers aged

1:44:53one and two,

1:44:55high uh full-time attendance rates

1:44:59compared to what it's like. Uh, yes. And

1:45:03the same happens. This is interesting

1:45:06with children aropi which is the euroat

1:45:10acronym from at risk at risk of poverty

1:45:12and social exclusion. Again children at

1:45:15risk of poverty and social exclusion are

1:45:16much more likely like compared there is

1:45:19high diff positive differential with the

1:45:21U average in full-time attendance among

1:45:23ai children in countries that have

1:45:25closed the gap. Um now I'm not by any uh

1:45:31next slide uh stretch of imagination

1:45:34suggesting that there is a direct

1:45:37causation link between the closing of

1:45:39the gap and and all these results but at

1:45:43the descriptive level I don't know the

1:45:46trends are there these countries fare

1:45:48really well in terms of employment

1:45:50participation full-time ECC attendance

1:45:54um

1:45:55what do they have in common that was my

1:45:57question to you yesterday because I

1:45:58wanted to I know sh not like see more

1:46:02like new things I thought about there

1:46:05there are some common features and

1:46:07drivers between these countries that

1:46:09close the gap and one is that they all

1:46:13show quite long um leave periods around

1:46:1812 months well- paid parental leaves

1:46:22associated with a quite early onset of

1:46:25the entitlement to ECC again around 12

1:46:28and 13 months. It's interesting in the

1:46:30sense that the entitlement doesn't start

1:46:31at birth, doesn't start at six months

1:46:34and the parental leave doesn't last

1:46:36three years. It's around 12 months is

1:46:39the moment in which there is this

1:46:40alignment between the two frameworks. Uh

1:46:43second and this really interesting also

1:46:45all these systems are single cycle are

1:46:4906 they have transition from a split to

1:46:52an integrated 0 to6 ECC cycle under the

1:46:56ministry of education.

1:46:58I think maybe I have a couple doubts

1:47:02about Estonia but I think uh the other

1:47:04four for sure are all under education.

1:47:06Um and finally

1:47:10the investment in a highly qualified

1:47:13professionalized workforce which again

1:47:16accommodates all all the four. Um a

1:47:19third point but then I close because

1:47:21this I think I'm passing the ball. It's

1:47:23largely how you finished your

1:47:25presentation.

1:47:27It's not by chance that these countries

1:47:31Yeah. Maybe next slide. uh the

1:47:34integration between system, this

1:47:37alignment between complimementaryary

1:47:39programs, complimentary agencies also

1:47:42translates in the emergence of um

1:47:50public facility one-stop shop uh multi-

1:47:54agency hubs or family centers which are

1:47:59devoted to reconfigure

1:48:01disjointed parental assistance services

1:48:05into single facilities. And this is a

1:48:07trend that we actually observe across

1:48:09Europe beyond non-GAAP countries like

1:48:13this emergence

1:48:15across Europe in very different fashions

1:48:17in very different according following

1:48:19very different models of these um

1:48:24of these services or network of services

1:48:27that whether through single access

1:48:28points or through really elaborated

1:48:31well- drilled systems of mutual

1:48:35referrals between uh services. So you

1:48:38ECC personnel always knows what is

1:48:40happening or what is on offer in the

1:48:42social service sector which in turn can

1:48:44redirect you refer you to exactly the

1:48:46health care specialist you need in the

1:48:47perinatal phase. They're extremely well

1:48:50drilled network of coordinated services.

1:48:52This is happening uh everywhere and

1:48:56there is this trend of addressing the

1:48:58challenge of defragmenting the system of

1:49:01support that is available for for

1:49:03families and children in the perinatal

1:49:05phase. And these are just some graphs

1:49:07that display try to illustrate how the

1:49:10shape that these maybe in the next slide

1:49:13too how this how these systems are

1:49:16emerging. Sometime they they they merge

1:49:18together different support services. You

1:49:21have daycare services merging with

1:49:23parental guidance and social support.

1:49:25You have other family centers that are

1:49:28spring out of um I don't know local

1:49:32pediatric ambulatories. It's really

1:49:36country you go the system you find and

1:49:38it's an extremely interesting trend

1:49:40across Europe that we're trying to

1:49:42document and help uh disseminate. I

1:49:44think I'm I'm closing here because I

1:49:46went uh almost 20 minutes and I want to

1:49:50leave room but then we can come back to

1:49:52this maybe during the question.

1:49:56[applause]

1:50:03>> Thanks so much Martino and also I would

1:50:06just like to say you all are the most

1:50:07fantastic audience because even with

1:50:11power cuts and slide cuts and

1:50:13presentation cuts you've all been paying

1:50:16attention and giving good energy to

1:50:18those who are on stage. So, thank you so

1:50:20much. It's never easy when that happens.

1:50:22Um, so thank you for for staying with us

1:50:25and staying with Martino. Just um just

1:50:27to draw out a couple of ideas from what

1:50:30you shared, Martino. I think um your

1:50:34suggestion that we take an ecosmic view

1:50:37of child well-being is a really useful

1:50:39model. We all love Bronen Brener and I

1:50:41think um understanding that there are

1:50:43both proximal processes to children's

1:50:46well-being and healthy development and

1:50:48also more distal processes uh helps us

1:50:51to give shape to the various areas of

1:50:55endeavor and investment that might cross

1:50:57our path or that we might work with. Um

1:50:59the pillars that you mentioned

1:51:00resources, services, time sovereignty,

1:51:02integrated governance, also touch on

1:51:05what what Sylvia was uh was talking

1:51:07about and the the key problem that

1:51:10you're suggesting we need to solve this

1:51:12institutional misalignment of the child

1:51:14care gap between what is given in terms

1:51:17of support for parental leave and then

1:51:19when more formal early childhood

1:51:22education starts. Um this is perhaps a

1:51:25question that research can help us solve

1:51:27because ultimately this is a human

1:51:29capital argument. It does have strong

1:51:31links to female labor market

1:51:32participation. This this last few days

1:51:35we've also heard about the rights based

1:51:36argument uh the child development

1:51:38argument. We have to take all of these

1:51:40ideas together um and take that ecosic

1:51:43view. So thank you so much for that. Um

1:51:45and now moving on to Lia's uh

1:51:49presentation and comments. Just to

1:51:52introduce Lia in more detail. Lia is a

1:51:55sociologist and director of the

1:51:57Barcelona Institute for Childhood and

1:51:59Adolescence. She oversees projects

1:52:01focusing on the living conditions of

1:52:03children and adolescence in the city,

1:52:05listening to and involving children and

1:52:07improving public policies for them. Her

1:52:10training in leadership, social

1:52:12innovation, and children's rights

1:52:14amplify her rigorous approach to

1:52:16directing the institute's work. What I

1:52:18think is particularly valuable for our

1:52:20discussion today is that she brings us

1:52:21very close to the city level to the

1:52:23question of how research on children's

1:52:25experiences can actually inform public

1:52:28policy and services right here. So,

1:52:30thank you so much for being with us.

1:52:33>> Thank you, Savila. Thank you, um, Sylvia

1:52:35and Martino. It was really inspiring.

1:52:38I'm going to go on in Catalan because I

1:52:41express myself much better than in

1:52:43English and I think that um it will be

1:52:46more um interesting and clear if I I

1:52:49speak in Catalan. Um

1:52:53>> thank you. Thank you so much for this

1:52:56kind invitation.

1:52:58The title of my uh contribution is the

1:53:01art of developing evidence-based public

1:53:04policies because to me this is not an

1:53:07easy thing. It's not an automatic

1:53:08process. For many years, we've been

1:53:10training in this field and we want to

1:53:12boost these skills from our institute. I

1:53:15don't know how things are happening, but

1:53:16in the end, we are trying and trying and

1:53:18we reach to the conclusion and we have a

1:53:21lot of room for improvement to learn

1:53:24more and it's quite important to us. For

1:53:28many years, research highlighted the

1:53:29importance of these early stages of

1:53:32children. Sylvia made an amazing

1:53:34exposition. It was uh fantastic

1:53:37everything that you mentioned and

1:53:38shared. I'm going to repeat a little bit

1:53:40your word Sylvia. You insisted on that

1:53:43and Martino also talked about the

1:53:45importance of research as a source of

1:53:48inspirations towards these democracy

1:53:50strategies. This pressure that we have

1:53:52towards public policies to better

1:53:55incorporate services and also to better

1:53:58focus on these early children's stages.

1:54:01And also it is also very important to

1:54:03understand that official research to

1:54:06have a great impact and to be

1:54:07incorporated in policies needs some room

1:54:10otherwise we should be in another place

1:54:12right because research is clear to me he

1:54:15has a clear idea about the needs what is

1:54:17the social return on public investments

1:54:21uh for these early stages and this is if

1:54:24this is not happening we should wonder

1:54:25why and if it's happening why it's going

1:54:28so slowly and we should ask why why

1:54:32things are happening or not happening

1:54:34from our institute beyond trying to get

1:54:37closer to the evidence base of public

1:54:39policies in this specific case the

1:54:41Barcelonian case and local case to me

1:54:45there is behind the scenes a very

1:54:46important mindset change right we really

1:54:49need to change our mindset when we put

1:54:51on the table a better understanding

1:54:54social sharing what this really entails

1:54:56to be children today in our social

1:54:59context why is so important this

1:55:01strategy and how being so adultentric

1:55:06doesn't allow us to see children. How

1:55:09can we change this idea that the

1:55:11children in the end it's everywhere

1:55:14flying over the spaces and we do not

1:55:17understand that the family policies are

1:55:20very important to be together with the

1:55:23children. Next slide. I think it is me

1:55:26to ask you for changing slides or can I

1:55:29do it myself? Okay, great. Do I have the

1:55:31pointer? Fantastic. Thank you.

1:55:34So, I'm not going to stop. Uh I don't

1:55:36want to talk about this Hman curve

1:55:38because Sylvia already mentioned that.

1:55:40But this curve, one of the main

1:55:43arguments that shows for policies that

1:55:45when we invest in early children

1:55:47education, it is a great investment. And

1:55:50it has been more than demonstrated that

1:55:52that's the specific moment in time where

1:55:54we have a better ROI from a social

1:55:58standpoint when we distribute public

1:56:00resources as well. So we should put the

1:56:02accent in this uh strategy right from

1:56:06the institute

1:56:08what we do is to follow very closely

1:56:12children lives not only from educational

1:56:15perspectives but also many other fields

1:56:17of children lives and how they do grow

1:56:19in Barcelona how they are evolving

1:56:22progressing it's a very diverse city our

1:56:24city very different social realities

1:56:27different origins and also the efforts

1:56:29that we are doing for this early

1:56:32children education. The efforts well are

1:56:34good and we can see a very positive

1:56:37trend. Experts said that we should

1:56:40insist a little bit more on that.

1:56:42However, we made a great deal of effort

1:56:45and really the forecast for public spots

1:56:48for nurseries is growing. We completed

1:56:53with uh children's schools also with

1:56:55private uh nurseries and also for many

1:56:59children that do not are not educated in

1:57:02this early stage. It is not the same as

1:57:05we mentioned before. Needs are not the

1:57:06same from 012 to 3 years old. Right?

1:57:09Needs are different. However, it is

1:57:11vital to know that this demand exists

1:57:14and it's not satisfied 100%. When we

1:57:18compare with other cities, Spanish

1:57:20cities, we can witness that Barcelona

1:57:22really has an answer quite uh that

1:57:26offers an answer in a much more positive

1:57:28way when we talk about the amount of

1:57:30spots that we have for nurseries for

1:57:33early children.

1:57:35Martino also talked a little bit about

1:57:37the importance. Sometimes we take for

1:57:39granted where we are coming from. But if

1:57:42you allow me, I'd like to make a comment

1:57:45on our institute. Let me talk a little

1:57:48by it. Our institute, we are very small

1:57:50institution, but we are specialized on

1:57:53uh children and teenagers. We are not

1:57:56only promoting research, we take

1:57:58advantage of all the existing research.

1:58:00We are a very small unit such a way we

1:58:02need to take advantage of the uh

1:58:04previous researches, but we make efforts

1:58:06to create bridges, bridges between

1:58:09research and public policies. And we

1:58:11also want to highlight that we need to

1:58:14change the mental framework. This

1:58:16mindset need to change and we are

1:58:18boosting this change and we offer new

1:58:20ideas and nourishing this public debate.

1:58:24For more than 10 years we've been

1:58:26focusing on the creation of this build

1:58:28bridges. We created uh different

1:58:31guidance and also different materials,

1:58:34different strategies and also we

1:58:36implemented new measures for early

1:58:39children. So we also implemented the

1:58:41strategy that we approved a few years

1:58:43ago. It's going to be a great source of

1:58:45inspiration for all of you. And recently

1:58:48in the previous years before deploying

1:58:51this network of family spaces, we were

1:58:54able to map models ideas to deploy these

1:58:57family spaces and all along these years

1:59:00we were able to publish a report about

1:59:03the improvement of the levels of

1:59:05inclusivity that we are working in our

1:59:08nurseries. Well, here you have some of

1:59:11the main works. Probably these

1:59:13publications are quite intuitive about

1:59:16this

1:59:18construction or this link between

1:59:21integration and public policies, how to

1:59:23create them and how to create and build

1:59:26this bridge. Also we do have other

1:59:29programs and suddenly we realize that

1:59:32when we compare research with reality

1:59:34things well sometimes do not correspond

1:59:38with the real application of the

1:59:40research right when we create this

1:59:42bridge between reality and policies. We

1:59:46follow very closely the joint uh

1:59:48research center is a European think tank

1:59:51and they research a lot about the

1:59:53knowledge brokers which are the

1:59:55intermediaries for the knowledge. We can

1:59:58create this space that offers

2:00:00connections between research and

2:00:02politics and we do need some skills. It

2:00:05is not only a direct connection. [music]

2:00:08We do need a space for to work. with an

2:00:10intera connection between uh

2:00:12professionals and also to deploy much

2:00:14better all the skills that we have from

2:00:18our institute. We made like a series of

2:00:21researches for you to better understand

2:00:23what are the competences that we really

2:00:26need some things that are not automatic

2:00:29and we sometimes take it for granted. We

2:00:32need to understand science features and

2:00:34politics features features that are

2:00:36completely different. Science and

2:00:39politics are very different worlds. From

2:00:42the joint research center, some of the

2:00:44things that they say it is that it is

2:00:46very important to count with very

2:00:48sensitive uh researchers towards public

2:00:51policies and public decisors that know

2:00:54how to manage science and scientists,

2:00:57how to work with them. And this space

2:01:00for exchange is where we are at. It is

2:01:04also very important to observe and to be

2:01:07able to gather the knowledge to follow

2:01:10up very closely the programs that we've

2:01:13been deploying. It is also fundamental

2:01:15to be able to listen. Listening is

2:01:18vital. We do need to listen families. We

2:01:21need to listen professionals. We must

2:01:23listen children. We do have a program

2:01:26where we try to contribute and to gather

2:01:28and to better systematize this ability

2:01:31to listen children and to contribute to

2:01:35other institutions in the city. It is

2:01:37also crucial to create spaces for

2:01:39collaboration to have enough time to be

2:01:42aware about how we are implementing

2:01:43research in public policies together

2:01:45with community of practices to be aware

2:01:48about the competencies and the skills

2:01:50and abilities to have a cross related uh

2:01:53group of professionals also to put on

2:01:57the same table different professionals

2:01:59and responsibles that belong to

2:02:01different departments of the

2:02:02municipality of the city council.

2:02:04Sometimes they feel isolated. So we need

2:02:06to put them together around the same

2:02:08table. And also something that's very

2:02:11very important how to improve

2:02:12communication of our now with three

2:02:15different languages to make uh this uh

2:02:19well land to the citizens and to better

2:02:23communicate uh with the professionals

2:02:25working in this sector. We also thought

2:02:28a lot about difficulties that we can see

2:02:31in the academia world and in the

2:02:32politics world. Sometimes they do not

2:02:34know how to be together. They do not

2:02:37understand each other. Evidence proof

2:02:40projects they do need time. They need a

2:02:42different stages to be overcome and to

2:02:46be a good evidence-based work and also

2:02:49they need behind the scenes a great

2:02:51scaffolding and structure. Languages are

2:02:54different in politics and science and

2:02:58different logics as well. in such a way

2:03:00the political time is very quick, very

2:03:03rapid. They are not very well

2:03:05structured. When we talk about the

2:03:07political time and this also belongs to

2:03:09our reality in such a way we have some

2:03:11room for improvement for these two

2:03:14worlds to be together and to better

2:03:16understand each other. Research is

2:03:19always under tension. They need to take

2:03:22decisions, right? Also have to make very

2:03:25rapid decisions. But sometimes politics

2:03:28do not have enough time to assimilate

2:03:30and to absorb research results and many

2:03:33many times they do not enjoy and do not

2:03:35like the evidence right that the

2:03:37research uh is sharing. So sometimes

2:03:40politics they need to accept uh politics

2:03:43need to accept the critical points that

2:03:45need to be improved. Well, this is in a

2:03:48nutshell what I really wanted to share

2:03:49with you and I hope that you understood

2:03:51a little bit better the work that we do

2:03:53in our institute when we walk with these

2:03:57different plans strategies when we

2:03:59publish reports and also when we have

2:04:02this uh well order to have these

2:04:05guidelines of the services from 0 to 6

2:04:08years. If you allow me I'd like to talk

2:04:11about this guide. This guide in the end

2:04:14is something very useful. It's packed

2:04:16with research and evidences and also

2:04:18really makes us to improve in the end.

2:04:22So let me show you this guide

2:04:26as life begins, Barcelona begins, so to

2:04:30speak. And this is the title of this

2:04:32guide for infants from 0 to 6 years. And

2:04:35when we had this order and we had to

2:04:38comply with this task when publishing

2:04:41this guide, we did not only had to list

2:04:44all the services and opportunities that

2:04:46we offer for early children, but also we

2:04:49wanted to put some order to all the

2:04:51things that we have in the city for us

2:04:53to be useful for families and to

2:04:55showcase all the inputs that we got from

2:04:58the research field and from the

2:05:00evidence-based strategies.

2:05:03As an starter, one of the things that

2:05:05evidence shows is that access to

2:05:08resources is not a natural thing. You

2:05:10can have a resource, but the resource

2:05:11doesn't reach to the families. We know

2:05:14that there are families suffering many,

2:05:15many problems more than other families,

2:05:18and they do not know the resources that

2:05:20we have in the city. So we had to create

2:05:22this guide but also to draw an strategy

2:05:25to make this guide to reach each and

2:05:27every one of the families that have uh

2:05:30kids in the city through uh also a

2:05:33campaign among services for these

2:05:35spaces. family spaces as Martino

2:05:37mentioned to have this one-stop shop,

2:05:40right? A single window where

2:05:42professionals will inform families and

2:05:45families will know about everything that

2:05:47we can do to better stimulate all areas

2:05:50of our children lives. Not only school

2:05:53and care, but we also have leisure,

2:05:55nature, culture, arts, and many other

2:05:58things for our children to be more

2:06:01motivated and stimulated, so to speak.

2:06:05When we have the baby at home, usually

2:06:07the situation is a very vulnerable

2:06:09situation, very difficult and to have

2:06:12time to go outside and to get informed.

2:06:15During

2:06:17the breeding uh year, it is a great

2:06:20during the pregnancy. It's a great it's

2:06:23a great year for you to get informed

2:06:25about all the elements that exist in the

2:06:27city. Otherwise, when you have the baby,

2:06:28it's more difficult because you don't

2:06:30have time. and also to simulate all

2:06:32areas of a children's life. Uh this is a

2:06:36part of our research. We could not only

2:06:38offer a an education resource guide and

2:06:42education and health education care. We

2:06:45also had to include culture, leisure,

2:06:48sport and nature uh resources

2:06:53for these early ages, right? And we

2:06:55developed several activities for the

2:06:57families.

2:07:00So we created this uh pathway for early

2:07:04children to be able to connect these

2:07:07dots and to show all the opportunities

2:07:12for all these spaces that we offered in

2:07:14this guide. As we know that there are

2:07:16loads of inequalities in the city.

2:07:20We do have two icons that show the

2:07:24resources aiming at uh vulnerable uh

2:07:28families with uh children with

2:07:30disability and also some resources that

2:07:34are grant related and fund related for

2:07:37families that deserve this kind of help

2:07:40or are suffering economic difficulties.

2:07:44Something that we sometimes forget

2:07:47it is to stop and see and to assess the

2:07:50wise. Wise are very important. House are

2:07:54important as well. But to us is

2:07:56important to be aware about the wise.

2:07:58And this stops and these breaks in the