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Childcare in ERDF Mechanisms for reconciling professional and family roles for women and men as a chance to actively participate in the labour market Expert conference accompanying the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Family and Gender Equality 20 October 2011, Cracow, Poland Liesbet De Letter Unit for Thematic Coordination and Innovation, DG Regional Policy 1 Funding for childcare facilities through ERDF • No direct funding from Commission, all MS/regional level • Depending on priorities in OPs • As “childcare infrastructure” category of expenditure: 586.363.380€, 0,2% of total ERDF budget • Cannot distinguish daycare & kindergarten (show excel data) 2 Funding for childcare facilities through ERDF To complete the picture: • Combined with other “social infrastructure” • Under “business support measures” • Through URBACT • Through Interreg IVC • Linked to other exercises like the shift from institutional to community-based care • In the Roma Pilot project: early childhood education and care • … 3 High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming in the Structural Funds • Since 2004, ESF + ERDF • High level representatives from Member States (Ministries) + some gender bodies/departments • Exchange between Member States • Inviting experts + projects • Linked to priorties of Roadmap/Strategy • 2008: paper on childcare and care for other dependants, + cases presented • Will continue in the form of technical ESF/ERDFmeeting under COCOF 4 High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming in the Structural Funds Issues highlighted: • Measures related to infrastructures and facilities: – Building and upgrading of infrastructure for childcare – Pre- and after school facilities – Facilities for studying mothers and mothers working in industrial zones – Centres for the elderly and people with disabilities – Investments of private firms/universities in childcare facilities 5 High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming in the Structural Funds Issues highlighted: • Measures related to services: – Diversified care services (children, dependant people, the elderly) – Services to parents and children wiht incurable diseases – Childcare for a limited period for women who are just looking for a job or have just found a job – Telecare for old people and persons with disabilities 6 High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming in the Structural Funds Issues highlighted: • Measures related to training and qualified workers: – Training for professional people on childcare – Creation of job opportunities for women in a situation characterised by a lack of qualified staff • Other measures: – Support to flexible forms of work, part-time and temporary employment – Awareness raising concerning the return of mothers into the labour market 7 Examples from policy learning database • Salzburg (AT): Implementation of Company all-day child care facilities in the rural area of Salzburg http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/projects/practices/details.cfm?pay=AT&the=85&sto=1624®io n=ALL&lan=7&obj=ALL&per=ALL&defL=EN • Malburgen (NL): Establishment of a Multi-cultural Educational – and Care Centre (MOZC) http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/projects/practices/search.cfm?LAN=EN&pay=ALL®ion=ALL &the=85 8 Sanctimonious twaddle “Sir, I’m surprised to find myself joining the green-ink brigade, writing outraged letters to the FT, but I could not let this comment from Lucy Kellaway pass unchallenged: “Childcare problems are no excuse, at least not for professionals. Being a working parent means having back-up arrangements, and a back-up to the backups.” What a load of sanctimonious twaddle (“My cure for an outbreak of Weak Excuse Tendency”, September 19). Is Ms Kellaway too rich to have experienced real childcare problems? Or is she a great deal nicer than the remark suggests, thereby attracting the abject devotion and total co-operation of friends and family? In any case, such fatuous assertions simply feed the modern delusion that children can and must be fitted into any corporate schedule. How dare we fail in our professional duty if our children are suddenly left without care – is that it? No real parent, at least none that I’d want to have, or be, would subscribe to such a view. It’s just lipservice for the wholly discredited workplace ethos that nothing at all must interrupt even the smallest part of the corporate mission. It’s also a sop to that vile propaganda, usually aimed at women, that having children need involve no sacrifice and no compromise.” John Mervin, Brooklyn, NY, US (Financial Times, 21 September 2011) 9