• Objective 4: Improving access to childcare (including early childhood education and care (ECEC))

The rise of women’s labour market participation also increases the need for care for children in households. In this view, the Barcelona objectives stated that, by 2010, structures should exist that could welcome at least 90 % of children aged between 3 years and the age of education, together with at least 33 % of children less than 3 years old.

The provision of high quality and affordable ECEC plays a key role in children’s development and well-being. As illustrated in Guerin (2013), ECEC improves educational results and is effective in tackling inequality that affects children from early age, which generates significant long-term returns on investment. This is in line with the Europe 2020 objective of social inclusion and poverty reduction.

As indicated by the Commission (2014), ECEC also prevents early school leaving (ESL). Moreover, ECEC helps to increase parents’ access to employment and thus to an adequate income. While the access of affordable ECEC (and childcare in general) is crucial, it appears, however, that in several countries, some improvements are needed for them to benefit from the full potential of ECEC.

Taking later stages of education into account too, in some countries, PHS includes remedial classes and could therefore lead to a direct improvement in the educational results of the beneficiaries. Moreover, household services can also contribute indirectly to the improvement of children’s educational results, given that their use of PHS gives some parents more time for their children, which might include educational support. Finally, it has been underlined in various studies that childcare support has an impact on the participation of women in the workforce.

From the 1980s to 2007, the 0.2 percentage point increase in the coverage of childcare services has produced a 2.8 % increase in European female labour force participation rates (Thévenon, 2013). It is also the assumption introduced in a 2013 study by the Austrian Chamber of Labour, which proposed a virtuous cycle for public investment in childcare. The model calculation assumes that an investment of €100 million per year in childcare by the Federal Government and a similar investment by the Länders (in addition to the ongoing costs) will create between 30 000 (most pessimistic scenario) and 45 000 (most optimistic scenario) new jobs. They will be direct jobs in childcare but also in surrounding sectors. They will also include parents engaging in paid labour. The Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour estimates that the direct revenue generated by higher employment rates and savings in unemployment benefits would, in all scenarios, exceed the cost of supporting measures after four years. In addition, “once investment in construction is completed, the returns could exceed the costs by EUR 14 to 168 million”.

The employer-supported childcare vouchers programme implemented in the United Kingdom has helped approximately 700 000 families to afford childcare since 2005. Of the childcare vouchers’ users, 83 % are basic rate taxpayers, with the largest take-up being among manual and unskilled workers.

• Objective 5: Improving access to elderly care/long-term care/care for people with disabilities

As a result of the decrease in their physical capacities, elderly people have important PHS needs (from domestic help to care). Currently, care for the elderly can be too expensive for some people. In that respect, measures to support PHS could help the elderly to afford those services and therefore help them to stay at home for longer instead of moving to rest homes. It has been proven that ‘deinstitutionalisation’ of elderly care (i.e. the trend towards reducing institutional care in favour of homecare/proximity and community care) has several advantages with regard to results, well-being, and so on. Moreover, the cost of providing home care is not necessarily higher than providing institutional care (it might even be lower), as discussed, for example,. in OECD (2011).

A similar observation holds true for people with disabilities, who may also need PHS. Affordable, good quality PHS could enable them to remain independent.

The Spanish “Dependency Law” adopted in 2006 seeks to guarantee comparable access to LTC services for people who cannot lead independent lives for reasons of illness, disability or age. In November 2014, there were 729 313 beneficiaries with effective benefits and 167 869 people currently waiting to receive benefits, which corresponds to a 45.13 % decrease in comparison to January 2012.