Nordic models of equity in Early Childhood Development (ECD)

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Nordic social democratic welfare systems are widely recognised as delivering high levels of equity andstrong performance in international league tables for child development. Pregnancy and early childhoodare a critical period for child development and a priority for tackling health inequalities across the life-course. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to analysing the comprehensive and integratedsystems of maternal health and Early Childhood Development (ECD) in the Nordic countries and toidentifying transferable learning about the systems, policies and practices that help to achieve healthyand equitable development.The aim will be to capture transferable learning for policy and practice from Nordic systems for ECD(conception-three) and the factors associated with relatively high performance and low inequity in ECDoutcomes. The research will take a mixed methods approach, comprising the following work packages:1. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: Development of an ecological conceptual framework for comparativeanalysis of the influences on key outcomes during the period of early childhood development (conceptionto age 3).2. POLICY & SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Operationalisation of the conceptual framework across four Nordiccountries (Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden) by mapping and delineating the features of ECD systems(governance; organisation; resources; policies; programmes; practices); as well as the wider socio-demographic, economic and cultural contexts. Analysis will identify the shared features of a potentialNordic model(s) of ECD - as well as features of distinction between the countries, considering theenabling conditions and political processes in their genesis3. CASE STUDIES: case studies of systems in two local areas will be carried out to provide in-depthunderstanding of how identified features of the systems operate on the ground and to identifytransferable practices. The case studies will include original analysis of local birth cohort study data,enabling empirical investigation of factors associated with positive and equitable child development