Social Investment and Child Care Expansion: A Perfect Match?

The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it attempts to critically examine at a conceptual level the links between theories of Social Investment (SI) and Childcare expansion. Although ‘the perfect match’ between the two is often taken for granted in the specialized literature as well as in policy papers, it will be argued that a more nuance approach that ‘unpacks’ this relationship is needed. Secondly, the paper will provide empirically grounded cross-national evidence of the evolution of Early Childcare and Education (ECEC) provision in a number of selected European countries in terms of expansion and coverage on the one hand and quality indicators (such as child/staff ratio and working conditions of professionals) on the other.  Despite an increase in spending over the last two decades in many EU-15 countries, even in an overall context of cuts in public budgets, wide variation still exists in the way in which expansion takes place. A trade off is observed between coverage and quality of provision. Thus, we conclude that greater social spending in childcare should not be automatically associated with SI. A crucial dividing line that determines to a large extent quality of provision in ECEC is the increasing differentiation between pre-school education for children aged three and above and childcare for the under threes.