Early Life Family Care – a basic compilation (Regina Klein)

Investing in early years provides the greatest potential of reducing health and social inequities (Health 2020). Early Life Family Care (ELFC) is an EU-wide  cross-sector, multi-professional + disciplinary approach  to provide integrated health promotion, parental support and preventive child protection services from pregnancy until school entry. The cooperation of   health, social and education system  is a common arrangement in EU countries. However, this cooperation operates under different national and regional umbrellas (Early Childhood Intervention/ECI, Early Childhood Education + Care (ECCE),  Early Childhood Prevention/ECP, Family Key Work, Family Care, Family Support eg.).   ELFC (our chosen term) was developed against the backdrop of general societal changes and a shift from a ‘medical’ to a ‘social’ framework ,  involving the child, the family and the environment (Link to Health)

To integrate all inter-playing multi-dimensional layers, ELFC demands a border-crossing perspective on networking and family care, which moves beyond mono-, multi- and interdisciplinary towards a jointly developed and transformed new knowledge base ensuring seamless transitions from childlessness to parenthood, from the stay in hospital to the return back home, from formal to informal support, from one hand to another.  from one hand to the other. One transition, which currently remains  unaddressed, comprises migrants‘ transitions from one culture to another. It is here where TOBP steps in to fill missed trans-cultural gaps, where families and children risk to fall through the cracks.