A new framework for data on public services. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) and compulsory education
The purpose of this deliverable is to report on the development of a new framework for collecting good quality institutional comparative data on public services, using Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), and primary and secondary education as pilot areas. Whereas comparative welfare state research has to an important extent focused on the income redistribution function of the welfare state (i.e. taxes and cash benefits), the public services dimension remains under-examined. This is true both in the area of Early Childhood Education and Care, as well as in the area of the affordability of compulsory (primary + secondary) education. As the literature reviews in the respective areas have demonstrated, both areas have been studied extensively, but indicators that are suitable for country-comparative research are available only to a limited extent. For both policy areas, new data were collected through a network of national policy experts. Taking together the policy indicators collected and the evidence reported regarding ECEC and compulsory education, this deliverable demonstrates the importance of a sustainable data infrastructure to collect policy indicators on these policy areas specifically, and public services in general. Institutional indicators that seek to codify the social rights as they are encoded in policies (and legislation) are important to understand the living conditions of Europeans, and complementary to existing data that are often survey-based. Expert networks are an effective method to collect such data.