Childcare-policy responses in the COVID-19 pandemic: unpacking cross-country variation

Abstract

From mid-March 2020, childcare services and schools were closed around the globe in the fight of the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation, unprecedented in the history of modern welfare states, brought striking crosscountry differences in pandemic childcare-policy responses. They varied particularly in the reopening phaseboth in being more lenient or strict, and in being universal or selective. This article presents a conceptual framework that allows to unpack and classify variations in the design of immediate childcare-policy responses to COVID-19, which became (primarily) driven by public-health-related goals and therefore transverse existing conceptualisations. We argue that specific responses are resulting from a country-specific combination of pandemic prevention strategy (either focused on high-risk groups or the whole population), and childcarerelated policy concerns (e.g. educational goals, or work-family reconciliation). The distinct childcare-policy responses are then developed, and empirically illustrated on the basis of data collected for 28 European countries. This provides a basis for future research into the crosscountry variation of responses, as well as gender and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Risk-Aversion for Negative Health Outcomes May Promote Individual Compliance to Containment Measures in Covid-19 Pandemic

“…In particular, into the context of Covid-19 pandemic, the risk of falling ill is weighed against the risk of losing the job and, thus, possibly compromising the living standards (Godinic et al, 2020;Rutter et al, 2020). In addition, people who work, find themselves having to organize and manage job activities and childcare as best as possible in this uncertain situation, sometimes without sufficient support of the institutions, trying to appropriately balance needs and sustainability (Del Boca et al, 2020a,b;Leduc and Liu, 2020;Blum and Dobrotić, 2021;Ruffolo et al, 2021).…”

Implementation of preventive measures to prevent COVID-19: a national study of English primary schools in summer 2020

“…On 1 April 2020, an estimated 172 countries had implemented nation-wide school closures, affecting 84% of enrolled students [ 8 ]. Countries’ responses for reopening schools thereafter varied in timing and approach [ 9 ]. Measures included re-opening to targeted students, smaller classes, keeping students in fixed groups, use of face masks, increased hygiene, use of physical barriers, temperature checks [ 9–11 ].…”

Unpacking the Childcare and Education Policy Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from the Canadian Province of Quebec

“…However, the other objective, helping parents to balance earning and caring activities, has received more political attention, because the network has been unable to meet the demand, due its popularity and the lack of space to accommodate every child. In the second section, I build from Blum and Dobrotić's (2020) conceptual framework to examine four policy goals for reopening childcare centres and schools, as parents, especially those with elementary school children, rely on schools to provide care while they work (Friendly, Ballantyne, & Anderson, 2020). These goals are (1) protecting public health, (2) promoting academic success / fostering early education, (3) addressing social inequalities, and (4) helping parents to reconcile employment and care activities.…”