Access for children in need to the key services covered by the European Child Guarantee : an analysis of policies in the 27 EU member states : 2023

On 14 June 2021, the EU Member States unanimously adopted Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 establishing a "European Child Guarantee" (ECG). The objective of the ECG is to offset the impact of poverty on children and to prevent and combat their social exclusion. To this end, Member States are recommended to guarantee for "children in need" (defined as persons under 18 who are at risk of poverty or social exclusion): - effective and free access to four services: high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC), education and school-based activities, at least one healthy meal each school day and healthcare; - effective access to two services: healthy nutrition and adequate housing. At the request of the European Commission, and with a view to helping it set a baseline for monitoring the implementation of the ECG, the European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAN) has assessed the extent to which low-income children, i.e. children living in low-income households, have (effective/free) access to each of these services in the 27 EU Member States. For each service, "low income" refers to the national low-income criterion (or criteria) that apply to the service in the country - such as having a household income below a certain threshold or living in a household receiving the minimum income, etc. In a nutshell, the ESPAN assessment shows that the vast majority of Member States have mechanisms in place to ensure that all, or at least low-income, children have access to the services covered by the ECG. However, these mechanisms vary considerably in reach, and all 27 countries have challenges to meet - sometimes challenges regarding access to (almost) all services, sometimes regarding access to some of the services and/or to some components of a service (within healthcare, for example, prescribed medicines are not free in several countries).