The extra-ordinary Plan 2007-2009

Expert Conference Accompanying the Informal Meeting
of Ministers for Family and Gender Equality:
"Mechanisms for reconciling professional and family
roles for women and men as a chance to actively
participate in the labour market"
Cracow 20-21 October 2011
This conference is supported by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity – PROGRESS (2007-2013)

"Mechanisms for reconciling professional and family roles for women and men
as a chance to actively participate in the labour market "
Increasing the childcare supply: the Italian example
Roberta Ceccaroni, Senior Adviser, Department for Family Policy, Italy

The Institutional Context in Italy
The Department for Family Policies
From 2006, a Department for Family Policies (DFP) of the Presidency of Council of
Ministers was established. At present, a Secretary of State, member of the
Government, Senator Carlo Giovanardi, is responsible for the Department.
A special plan has been launched from 2007,
Extra-ordinary three-year plan 2007 2009,
through an agreement between central and local authorities
(Intesa in Conferenza Unificata – Government Regions and autonomous areas)

The Institutional Context in Italy
The new constitutional rules identify three sectors of legislative power:
a) exclusive State legislative power
b) combined legislation (State and Regions share the competence)
c) residual legislative power
The State identifies the essential levels of social services and benefits concerning civil
and social rights that should be guaranteed in the entire national territory, the
fundamental principles and the general norms
Everything else is under the Regions’ competence
The Local Government manages the administrative activities

The Italian Context
• Fertility rate: 1,41 Italy 2,23 OCSE (2009)
– In 1963: 978.110 newborns, in 2010: 561.944 newborns
one out of every three women born in the baby boom years has no children
• Female employment rates (15-64) - Eurostat 2009:
– Italy 46,4%
– UE27 58,6 %
After the birth of a child 25% of mothers resident in the South of
Italy and 15% of the residents in the North of Italy stop working (“To
be a mother” - ISTAT 2005)

Cross-country relation between female employment rates and total fertility rates
1980 2009
Sources: Employment rates - OECD Employment Outlook UN World Statistics Pocketbook, 2010; Fertility rates -
National statistical authorities, UN Statistical Division and Eurostat Demographic Statistics, 2010..

Relationship between the female employment rate in 2009 and the
change in the fertility rate in the period 1997-2009 (Del Boca and Rosina,
2009)

The female employment rates decrease strongly with the increasing of
the number of children:
From 0 to 1 child value drops by 5 points, from 0 to 2 children by 10 points and
from 03 children by 25 points
Female employment rate by number of children (under 15 years) OCSE

Female employment rate by age of youngest child
(OECD 2006)

Childcare services
The evolution trend during the last 40 years
• Firts legislative experience: law n.1044 of 6 december 1971
• Before: health care and assistance services Then: social services and
assistance, Now: an educational and welfare vocation (educational aim)
• A better articulation of the supply system, has been realized by making
the nido d’infanzia (the most important and consolidated typology of
education service) more flexible and by developing other integrative
services (in particular, the play-areas, the centers for children and parents
and home-based education and care facilities):
– integrated educational services
• A progressive differentiation among the main actors involved in the
creation and management of these facilities, with a growing presence of
non profit private subjects:
public-private integrated system of services

Childcare services
Territorial range (Istat 2004)
• The general dynamics of the system during the last years not only do not mitigate the
differences between territories but, on the contrary, tend to foster them
• Low supply at national level, with an average coverage of 11.4%, and a strong territorial
inhomogeneity coverage with average values equal to 4% in the South
% di bambini accolti
(numero di regioni nell'intervallo)
• Children who use the early
childhood services by geographical
area (out of 100 children aged
between 0 and 2 years):
19,4 a 24 (2)
14,8 a 19,4 (1)
10,2 a 14,8 (7)
5,6 a 10,2 (2)
1 a 5,6 (8)
11,4% Italy
27,5% Emilia Romagna
1,7% Campania
(Year 2004 - National Institute of Statistics
ISTAT )

The extra-ordinary Plan 2007-2009
Aims and Tools
Incrementing socio-educational services for early childhood by launching a
special plan, an extra-ordinary three-year plan 2007-2009, through an
agreement between central and local authorities (Intesa in Conferenza
Unificata – Government Regions and autonomous areas)
The aim of the agreement is to set up a “large, integrated, qualified and
varied” national network of early childhood services and to provide
complementary and innovative services at the workplace, in order to:
- promote children's wellbeing and development
- to support the parents' role as educators
- reconciling working life and caring for the family
The aims of the extra-ordinary plan are connected to the Lisbona objectives
(target of 33%), thus weakening the existent imbalances between the
difference parts of the country

The extra-ordinary Plan 2007-2009
Budget
Agreement in Unified Conference (2007-2009)
l- 340 million euros of state resources
l- 264 million euros of co-financing
Additional resources with Agreement 2008 (2008)
- 106 million euros of state resources
- 17 million euros of co-financing
TOTAL: 727 million in three years,
446 state resources and 281 local resources
Additional resources with Agreement 2010 (Family policies)
- 100 million euros o state resources

The extra-ordinary Plan 2007-2009
Monitoring: first results achieved
● All state resources have been reserved (446 milion euros)
● According to the monitoring, up to now 88% of the state resources have
been allocated to the regions (394 million)
● Twenty regions and autonomous provinces have received the three
planned annual resources
● Latest ISTAT data in 2009: increase of 43,000 places in public childcare
services and services coverage of 13.6% (only pubblic services)
● MONITORING latest data in 2010: 17.9% estimated coverage

INDICATOR FOR TAKING CHARGE OF CHILDCARE (100 USERS FOR
RESIDENTS OF 0-2 YEARS) FOR THE REGION (ISTAT 2011)
School year 2009/2010

Children who use the early childhood services
by geographical area - Years 2004-2009 ISTAT
(out of 100 children aged between 0 and 2 years)

250.000
Children cared in childcare services (ISTAT 2004-2009)
231.341
215.063
200.000
188.324
185.048
194.803
201.559
176.262
192.944
150.000
146.152
150.110
159.909
165.214
100.000
nidi
Serv.Int.
totale
50.000
42.172
34.938 34.894 36.345 38.801 38.397
-
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Percentage of municipalities that have implemented childcare services
by geographical area (ISTAT Years 2004-2009)

The extra-ordinary Plan 2007-2009
Co-ordinated interventions of national policies
• Monitoring: quantitative, qualitative and managerial
• Survey on operating expenses and set up of a national statistic
•Technical assistance activity in the Southern regions of Italy (2 milion euros)
• Creation of nurseries in public administration: a pilot project to increase the early
childhood education an care services especially intended for public servant’s
children (25 million euros)
•Pilot Plan of “sezioni primavera”, experimental sections for children from 24 to 36
months 2007- 2010 (116 millions euros)
•AGIRE POR 2007-2013: best practices

Plan – Italy 2020
Co-ordinated interventions of national policies
• Italy adopted a National Action Plan for access and inclusion of women in the labour
market, entitled “Italia 2020”, in December 2009.
•This was later supplemented, on April 29 2010, by the National Plan on reconciliation
between work and family, by which to allocate 40 million Euros for relevant projects.
Both achievements encourage the presence of women in the labour market, by
introducing concrete new measures, such as the creation of child-care services,
economic support for those who work from home, through tele-working; and tax
breaks for Southern Italian women.
•This extensive program, together with the implementation of further positive actions
which provide for the possibility to pay contributions to private employers who
intended to introduce any reconciliation tools on the workplace (art. 9 of law no
53/2000) has paved the way to many projects making effective the principles of
gender equality, gender mainstreaming and higher living standards by promoting,
inter alia, female entrepreneurship, especially in the regions of Southern Italy - where
women experience particular hardships.

The extra-ordinary Plan 2007-2009
Challenges and perspectives
In the next months we will measure the first results
by monitoring the use of resources in the different Italian Regions
and the quantity of seats.
The goal is reducing the gap in South Italy.
The problem is to ensure high quality standards and affordable costs
We have experience that we have best practices that the world envies us
and severe shortage of quality services as well:
the prior challenge for national policy is to develop
the entire system,
while respecting the autonomy of the territories,
with a shared vision that focuses on the child, his welfare and growth.

"Mechanisms for reconciling professional and family roles for women and men
as a chance to actively participate in the labour market "
Dziękujemy! Thank you! Grazie!
Roberta Ceccaroni
Department for Family Policy, Italy
Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri
www.politichefamiglia.it
Via della Mercede 9, 00187 ROMA
06.67795395 fax 06.67796841 cell 3348184373
r.ceccaroni@governo.it