Experiences during the first three years of life have been shown to have a lasting effect on a child's development, and eventual life outcomes. Consequently, the need for high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is well recognised. Countries across Europe are facing complex problems that negatively affect their children. Challenges of immigration and integration are common. One in four children under the age of six in Europe is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and may need specific measures to support their educational needs. Prevention and early intervention practices and approaches have proven to be effective in addressing these challenges, particularly when they are focused on the earliest years of life. This project aimed to share best practice in the areas of prevention and early intervention (PEI) in disadvantaged populations, evidence-informed practice, practitioner training in PEI approaches, and the importance of ECEC as a preventative tool. The objective of the learning exchange was to allow partner organisations to develop and reinforce networks; increase their capacity to work at a transnational level; share and confront ideas, practices and methods in ECEC and PEI.The project comprised four partners:•International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI), a Dutch non-profit organisation with a worldwide brief;•the University of Coimbra in Portugal whose Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences is involved in research in the fields of parental and family education, early childhood education, and socio-educational interventions with children and families; •UiT – the Arctic University of Norway whose Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare is involved in research and education of professionals within child welfare and mental health in Norway; •the Northside Partnership hosted Prevention and Early Intervention Network (PEIN) in Ireland, a network of evidence-based practice, advocacy and research organisations across the Republic of Ireland that share a commitment to improving outcomes for children, young people, and their communities.The project involved a series of learning exchange visits to each of the partner countries, though the final study visit to Ireland had to be conducted online because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Activities during the exchanges included: visits to the host organisation with presentations on their work; site visits to local projects; expert inputs from academics, policy-makers and practitioners; project meetings. Each visit also involved larger open learning events with local and national stakeholders. Learning exchanges focused on a mix of research, policy and practice, and brought together experts in those fields. A total of 89 individuals from across the partner organisations participated in the four learning exchanges, with a considerably larger number attending the open learning events.Informed by the overarching theme of the project, each learning exchange visit focused on a relevant ECEC theme as follows:•Norway and Portugal: Prevention and intervention in the early years•Netherlands: How prevention and early intervention works for children with additional needs•Ireland: Pregnancy and early childhood, preparing for pregnancyThe partners adopted a range of methods to assess the impact of the project. These included:•an evaluation of each study visit, completed by participants immediately after an individual learning event; •an impact evaluation questionnaire that was completed by participants a number of months after a learning event. Notable short term impacts expressed by participants from across the four learning exchanges were:•new learning arising from exposure to diverse learning experiences;•appreciation of information-sharing and knowledge-exchange across jurisdictions•generation of new ideas for future research, practice and training in ECEC.Longer-term benefits consistently noted by participants were:•impact on individuals’ ECEC knowledge and practice, and on their perspectives relating to prevention and early intervention;•participants’ intent to apply new learning in practice, particularly in the development of new ECEC projects;•new learning acting as a basis for future institutional cooperation (for example, thirteen months after the study visit to the Netherlands, half of the participants had made follow-up contact with partners met during the exchange);•participants’ commitment to disseminate learning garnered through exchange visits across a range of fora.A quote from one of the project evaluation reports summarises the primary value of the project:“Information and sharing experiences appear as crucial to the improvement of professional and personal skills… Sharing knowledge and having the opportunity to watch and be immersed in real experiences seems to be a rich way to learn, develop new ideas and to project new programmes.”

This project was designed after an initial scoping exercise of national supports for parents in Ireland during transitions. Evidence shows that risk factors for successful transitions can be mitigated by a continuum of protective factors and thus support successful transitions. Exploring and addressing both universal and targeted supports will be prioritised in this project to reduce disparities among children from different backgrounds in accessing and engaging with formal and non-formal education. This project seeks to explore parents awareness and experiences of supports available to them and their children during the transition from pre-school to primary school, with a particular focus on parents of children living in disadvantage and/or vulnerable circumstances. The primary aim is to develop a support programme for parents to support their children during this transition and delivered by practitioners. Evidence shows that poor transitions affect children throughout their education and can have negative impacts on a persons long-term outcomes. Research shows that the approaches taken by pre-schools and primary schools range and differ significantly. This project seeks to improve transitions by enhancing awareness and skills of practitioners to enable parents to support children during this stage, and to do this in a pan European context. This project will carry out a literature review to identify existing services and supports, gaps in supports and transitions programme with the potential for implementation across Europe, quantitative survey research, and qualitative focus groups. The findings will be analysed and a suite of recommendations for supports will be made. The recommendations will lead directly to the development of a training programme and an online resource. The pilot programme ensures that a process of testing the materials will be implemented prior to finalising the programme and resource. Objectives of the project; -to complete a literature review and scoping exercise on evidence and best practice in supporting children’s transition from early years services to school including universal provision and targeted initiatives for the four participating countries. This includes identifying the policy, professional development and practice context in relation to supporting transitions in each participating country. - through consultation (surveys and focus groups) identify parental needs and how practitioners can most effectively provide them with information and support. -to develop resources which are accessible and relevant for both universal and targeted services-to develop a pilot train the trainer programme for teachers and early years practitioners to enable them to better support parents in managing children’s transition to primary school-review the results of the pilot to consider feedback of practitioners -produce high quality training materials and online resources that are relevant, accurate and easily accessibleThere are four participating programme countries. Each programme country will produce or collaborate to produce each intellectual output. Each of the four programme countries will administer parents surveys with a planned response of 100 per country. These parents will be representative of a general parent population of children aged 3-6. In each participating country there will a series of focus groups help with approximately 30 parents in each country. These parents will be representative of parents 'with fewer opportunities'. In total, 120 focus group participants, representing the vulnerable/ disadvantaged cohorts will participate. Over three Train the Train multiplier events delivered in three countries, 60 training attendees being either teachers or early years practitioners will be trained in the support programme using the developed materials and resources and will consulted for their feedback. The results envisaged include:-increased awareness, understanding and capacity by professionals and parents to support children during transition to primary school .-Increased understanding of what parents needs to help them support their children during transition to primary school. -the development of training resources/ materials and an accompanying training programme for professionals. -400 parents consulted with through surveys-120 parents consulted with through focus groups-60 professionals in three countries trained to deliver a support programme to parents. -An open online/ digital resources containing all documentation, including survey templates and final reports, and the complete training programme manualsThe potential longer term benefits include:Increased volume of professional delivering the support programme to parentsIncreased number of parents availing of the support programmeImproved quality and understanding of transitions and the issues impacting theseSustained levels of engagement by practitioners on Train the trainer programme