Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has been, since the 1992 Council Recommendations on child care, a recurring topic on European policy agendas. In recent years the importance of high quality services for young children has been further emphasised. Socio-economic, educational and civil rights based rationales for investing in high quality services for young children and heir families have been laid out in European and International policy documents. Throughout the EU, there is a consensus on the need for more and higher quality services, increasing integration of 'childcare' and 'early education', and enhanced training and status for the workforce whose members are known as essential to quality provision. But this consensus does not extend to how to achieve these goals: national strategies and approaches vary and the European Commission has identified a lack of common understanding of the competences of practitioners working with young children and their relationship to the outcomes for children in high quality early childhood services.
The topic of this research, therefore, is a comprehensive study of the competences required by staff working in ECEC. The study will be grounded in international research on quality, competences and professionalism in early childhood. At European level, a wide range of member states and candidate countries will be included in the survey and detailed case studies will be conducted. As required by the Commission, a definition and framework for competences will be provided and recommendations for action at professional and national and European policy level will be developed.