This chapter discusses the provision of early childhood education for children from disadvantaged backgrounds in the six study countries. ‘Early childhood education’ is used in a broad sense to take account of all educational measures targeted at children under the compulsory school age. Since a high proportion of children under school age attend ‘mainstream’ primary school in a number of countries, the term ‘early childhood education’ is more accurate than ‘pre-school’. In practice, however, it is often difficult to disentangle educational measures from broader childcare provision. Such provision addresses a diverse set of objectives, including promoting the educational and social development of young children, and/or facilitating the access of parents to employment or training. While some services (such as pre-school provision in mainstream primary schools) are clearly ‘educational’ in focus, other measures, such as playgroups, often incorporate an emphasis on educational development in the broad sense. In fact, the EU Council Recommendation on Childcare suggests that member states “should try to ensure that … [childcare] services combine safe and secure care with a broad education or pedagogical approach”. Provision in the six study countries entails a combination of these ‘welfare’ and ‘education’ functions. The relative balance between these two perspectives, along with the extent to which such measures target children from disadvantaged backgrounds, will be discussed in this chapter.

The first section outlines some of the innovations in provision for young children from disadvantaged backgrounds developed in the United States since the 1960s. The second section discusses the level and nature of early childhood educational provision in the study countries, and the extent to which it targets children from disadvantaged backgrounds (however this is defined). The third section presents some examples of projects that have been designed to target these young children. Conclusions are presented in the fourth section of the chapter.

Background to early childhood intervention programmes

The development of early childhood intervention programmes in Europe and elsewhere has been heavily influenced by the projects initiated in the United States in the 1960s, as part of the ‘war on poverty’.