Transcript No Slide Title

Child poverty and wellbeing in the EU
Seminar on child well-being
Florence 29/01/2009
Isabelle Engsted-Maquet
DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Structure of presentation
I.
II.
Indicators in the context of the EU social
inclusion strategy
2007 report on child poverty and well-being
Part 1: Child poverty: Benchmarking based on crosscountry analysis
Part 2 & 3: Enhancing the monitoring of child
poverty and well-being at EU level
III. Next Steps
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
I - OMC how does it work?
• Political agreement on common objectives
• Establishing common indicators
• Translating the EU objectives into national/regional
policies (National Reports on Strategies for Social
Protection and Social Inclusion)
• Common analysis and assessment of the National
Reports : Joint Report + supporting document
• PROGRESS to promote policy cooperation and
transnational exchange of learning and good practice.
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
I – Development and use of indicators
• In the OMC context, indicators are developed
– Collectively, Empirically and on the basis of expertise (Indicator’s SubGroup of Social Protection Committee)
– Criteria for selecting indicators, Typology
• They measure both
– Performance and outcomes
– Impact of policies that are supposed to influence social cohesion
• How are they used?
– using a common framework for diagnosis and setting priorities
– comparing best practice
– measuring progress and targeting
• Where?
– By MS in the National Strategy Reports
– Joint Report (Supporting documents)
– Commission web-site:
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/common_indicators_en.htm
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
I – The Social inclusion portfolio
1. At Risk of poverty rate (60% of median) + poverty thresholds
2. Persistent at risk of poverty rate (2 out of 3 years in poverty)
3. Relative median poverty risk gap: Distance between median
income of the poor and the poverty threshold
4. Long term unemployment rate
5. Population living in jobless households
6. Early school leavers
7. Employment gap of migrants
8. Material deprivation (to be developed)
9. Housing (to be developed)
10. Self-declared unmet need for care
11. Child well-being
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
The SPC report on
child poverty and child well-being
1. in-depth evaluative review of child poverty and
social exclusion across EU countries;
=> diagnosis of main causes of poverty
2. review of existing monitoring arrangements in
the Member States;
3. 15 recommendations for analysing and
monitoring child poverty and social exclusion
at EU and national level
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/docs/social_inclusion/20
08/child_poverty_en.pdf
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Part 1: Evaluative review
What we can do with the already agreed indicators
• Child relative income poverty outcomes
• 3 main factors: how they impact on child income poverty
– Socio-demographic characteristics of household (Size and composition,
age and educational attainment of parents)
– Labour market situation of parents (Employment rates of parents,
Children living in jobless households, In-work poverty)
– Governement intervention (Tax-benefit system, Child care)
• Other dimensions of children social exclusion
– Material deprivation (incl. Housing)
– Educational outcome (Early school leavers, PISA, SILC module on
intergenerational transmission of disadvantage)
– Focus on children with a migrant background
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Diagnosis on child poverty
GROUP A
GROUP B
Child poverty
risk outcomes
Children in
jobless households
In-work poverty
Impact of
social transfers
AT
+
+
++
++
CY
+++
+
+++
+
DK
+++
+
+++
++
FI
+++
++
+++
+++
NL
+
+
+
+
SE
+
(++)
++
++
SI
++
+++
+++
++
BE
+
--
+++
+
CZ
-
--
+
+
DE
++
--
+++
+++
EE
--
--
+
-
FR
++
-
++
++
IE
-
---
+
+
SK
-
---
+
+
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Diagnosis on child poverty
GROUP
C
GROUP D
Child poverty
risk outcomes
Children in
jobless households
In-work poverty
Impact of
social transfers
HU
---
---
-
+
MT
-
--
--
-
UK
--
---
--
+
EL
--
+++
--
---
ES
---
+
---
---
IT
---
++
---
--
LT
---
+
--
--
LU
--
+++
--
+
LV
---
-
--
--
PL
---
-
--
--
PT
--
+
--
--
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
4 Country groupings according to main
determinant of poverty
• Group A (AT, CY, DK, FI, NL, SE, SI): countries
performing well on all fronts achieve lowest poverty rates.
They need to continue monitoring child poverty, since in
some of them it has recently increased.
• Group B (BE, CZ, DE, FR, EE, IE): countries with high
numbers of children living in jobless households.
Policies aimed at making work pay and at enhancing access
to quality jobs for those parents furthest away from the
labour market are needed.
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
4 Country groupings according to main
determinant of poverty
• Group C (HU, MT, SK, UK): countries with high levels of
joblessness and in-work poverty among parents.
Child poverty partly alleviated through relatively efficient
transfers, or because of strong family structures.
Policy mixes needed to enhance labour market access for
parents in jobless households' and second earners and to
provide adequate in-work income support.
• Group D (EL, ES, IT, LV, LT, LU, PL, PT): countries with
high levels of child poverty, very high levels of in-work
poverty and low impact of social transfers.
They need to adopt comprehensive strategies to better
support families’ income and enhance labour market
situation of parents, especially for second earners.
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Part 2: CHILD WELL BEING
Review of existing monitoring
• Review of existing tools for measuring child poverty
and child well-being;
focus on tools used for policy analysis/monitoring at
country level (analysis of questionnaires)
– Sources
– Indicators and the dimensions of well-being
– In-depth review of governance and monitoring
arrangements in 8 selected countries; identification of
good practices
– Other issues
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Part 2: CHILD WELL BEING
Data sources
• Overall household surveys
– Household budget survey, Living conditions and Labour force surveys;
Health interview surveys
• Administrative sources
– Important statistical tool in the monitoring of child poverty and well-being
in most countries
• Special surveys on children.
– Longitudinal: DK, DE, FR, IE, FI, UK
– Specific topics: FR, IT,AT, SE, UK
– Children as respondents: DK, SE, UK
• Data sources on children in vulnerable situation
– Children in foster care, in institutions, with special needs, etc
• Micro-simulation tools
• International surveys
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Part 2: CHILD WELL BEING
Indicators and the dimensions of well-being
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Economic security and material situation
Housing
Local environment
Health
Education
Social relationships and family environment
Exposure to risk and risk behaviour
The situation of vulnerable children
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Part 2: Indicators of child well-being
Use in policy context
• None of the countries cover all the dimensions of child
well-being proposed in our mandate;
• Almost all the countries have covered the dimensions of
‘income child poverty’ and ‘education’;
• Few countries have covered the dimension of ‘local
environment’ and ‘social relationships and family
environment’;
• Some countries have covered policy areas that were not
foreseen in our mandate, such as ‘social services and
infrastructures’, as well as ‘state expenses in social
programmes supporting families with children’.
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Part 2: Indicators of child well-being
10 in depth country reviews
• How the monitoring system actually works
• How it is integrated in the policy making
• 8 countries selected:
– DK, IE, IT, HU, PT, RO, FI, UK
• What is the value added of the monitoring
system in the policy making
• Key features
– Coordination across policy fields to address the multidimensional nature of child poverty and social exclusion
– Complex awareness raising process (NGOs, researchers,
international benchmaking, etc.)
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Part 2: Indicators of child well-being
10 in depth country reviews
• Knowledge building
– Enhancing statistical capacity
– Investing in long-term research programmes
– Investing in analytical tools
• Making the link between researchers, analysts and policy makers
– Policy recommendations emerging from research findings
– Reporting tools
• Making the link between policy measures and outcomes
– Hierarchy of indicators
– Use of targets
– Micro-simulation models and other analytical tools
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Part 3: 15 Recommendations for better
monitoring child poverty and well-being
Rec. 1: Setting targets at national level for the reduction of child
poverty based on a diagnosis of the causes of poverty in this
country.
Rec. 2: Impact assessment (micro-simulation models)
Rec. 3 to 6: Monitoring child poverty and well-being within the
OMC (NSR) and at national level, in relation to a common
analytical framework, orientation for ISG work on child
wellbeing
Rec. 7 to 13: Statistical capacity building at EU and national
level
Rec. 14 and 15: Improving governance and monitoring
arrangements at EU and national level (coordination, involving
stakeholders, invest in research, invest in analytical tools)
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
III - Next Steps
• Key policy messages endorsed by MS
• Evaluation of the new national strategy reports
using the diagnosis
• Target setting: 2009 Commission staff working
paper on child poverty
• 2009 EU-SILC module on material deprivation
includes
• Indicator’s Subgroup work programme
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Key policy messages endorsed by all
Member States
• Policies ensuring equal opportunities for all and improving
educational outcomes for each child.
• Fighting child poverty requires a combination of adequate
income support, quality jobs for parents; and enabling
services for children and their families.
• The best performers combine universal support towards all
children with measures targeted at the most disadvantaged
• Efforts to tackle poverty will gain leverage from an evidencebased diagnosis of the main causes of poverty and exclusion
in each Member State.
• Quantified objectives can be instrumental in making a
decisive impact on the eradication of poverty
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Possible impact of the EU benchmarking
exercise on child poverty
• At EU level:
•Agreed analytical framework, based on common EU indicators
increases the legitimacy and transparency of the EU diagnosis
•identifying the main causes of child poverty in each country helps
improving policy priorities
• At national level
•benchmarking the performance of each country against that of
countries sharing the same challenges
•better appreciation of the true magnitude of those challenges
and can signal emerging trends
•Facilitates mutual learning
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
Eurostat/ISG work
on material deprivation
• Main obstacle to a material deprivation indicator: choice of items
in EU-SILC
• TF to propose amendments to EU-SILC (2011-12)
• 2009 SILC module: test 50 material deprivation items
– Of which approximately 20 child specific material deprivation items
• Selection of items based on
– Eurobarometer consensus survey (Spring 07)
– Experts views + views of those experiencing poverty
– Analysis of incidence (current SILC + national data)
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
SILC 2009 module on
Material deprivation
• Can you tell me whether all the children in your household
have or can do the following?
- Yes
- No, can’t afford
- No, other reason
– Some new (not second hand) clothes
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Two pairs of properly-fitting shoes (including a pair of all-weather shoes)
Fresh fruits and vegetables once a day
3 meals a day
of which at least one with meat, chicken, or fish (or vegetarian equivalent)
Children books at home
Outdoor leisure equipment (bicycle, roller skates…)
Indoor games (educational baby toys, building blocks, board games,
computer games, …)
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
SILC 2009 module on
Material deprivation
• Can you tell me whether all the children in your
household have or can do the following?
- Yes
- No, can’t afford
- No, other reason
– (participate in) a regular leisure activity (swimming, playing
an instrument, youth organisations, etc)
– Celebrations on special occasions (birthdays, name days,
religious events)
– Invite friends round to play and eat from time to time
– Participate in school trips and school events that cost money
– Go on holiday at least 1 week per year
– Regular dental check-ups
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
SILC 2009 module on
Material deprivation
• And, do all children in your household have?
- Yes
- No
- Not applicable
– A suitable place to study or do homework
– An outdoor space in the neighbourhood where they can play safely
• Was there any time during the past 12 months when 1 the
children in your household really needed to consult a
doctor but did not?
- Yes, there was at least 1 occasion
- Couldn’t afford
- Too far to travel
- Waiting list too long
- other reason
- No, there was no occasion
• Idem “to consult a dentist”
• Idem “to buy medicine or medical equipment”
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission
2009 ISG work programme
• a) reflect on how to complement the existing EU indicators
with derived indicators and statistics that better reflect the
situation of households with children;
• b) take account of the child dimension when developing
indicators of material deprivation and housing;
• c) develop one or several child well-being indicators to cover
the important dimensions of child well-being that are still
missing or not satisfactorily covered in the EU framework
(health, exposure to risk and risk behaviour, education, social
participation and family environment, and local environment);
• d) make recommendations on how to best monitor the living
conditions of children in vulnerable situations.
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission