This publication consists of three papers that were produced in the 1990s as part of the work of the European Commission's Childcare Network. This work was situated within a set of European Parliament and Council of Ministers resolutions, directives and recommendations with regard to the child care dimension of the European Union's commitment to equal treatment for men and women in the labour market. Within the context of the Childcare Network's decade long work on child care, these papers were developed within the specific task given to the Network of "establish[ing] criteria for the definition of quality in childcare services."
The quality of the discussion on this topic contained in these papers makes them of substantial and continuing interest to those concerned with early learning and child care in countries such as Canada that are not part of the European Union. As the papers were no longer available in print nor accessible electronically, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit sought permission from the European Commission to make the papers available to a wide audience.
The three papers that make up this publication are:
- Quality in childcare services: Report on an EC Childcare Network Techical Seminar. Barclelona: May 4-5, 1990, by the European Commission Childcare Network
- Quality in services for young chidren: A discussion paper (1991), by Irene Balageur, Juan Mestres & Helen Penn
- Quality targets in services for young children: Proposals for a ten year action programme (1996), by the European Commission Network on Childcare and Other Measures to Reconcile the Employment Responsibilities of Men and Women
