Protocol Renewed with the Municipality of Florence to Promote Early Childhood Education Services

The collaboration between the Istituto degli Innocenti and the City of Florence is renewed and strengthened. The two bodies signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding to promote the local system of services for children through joint policies to develop, update and innovate the city's system of educational services for the 0-6 age group and the activities of the Innocenti Children's Centre.

The Institute is a historical point of reference in the Tuscan capital in terms of protecting and fostering the potential of children. Both institutions have been continuously working together since the mid-1970s to develop and strengthen the city's system of educational services for children.

Objectives

The Institute and the Municipality of Florence will collaborate to carry out activities, projects, and initiatives in the educational field, pursuing a range of objectives. These include: defining integrated training and professional development projects for educational staff working within the local educational services; optimising the relationship between pedagogical quality and the sustainable use of resources, as well as testing these approaches within the Institute’s early childhood services; enhancing documentation and analysis activities conducted at the local, regional, and national levels; developing relationships and exchanges of knowledge with other national and international institutions; and implementing educational initiatives with cultural content aimed at bringing new generations closer to the area’s artistic heritage and to an understanding of the history of childhood, including through the “Keys to the City” programme.

The Institute provides the ideal context for promoting experimentation, monitoring and research activities, precisely because it hosts several services and functions aimed at children in an integrated manner, including the Museo degli Innocenti with the Bottega dei Ragazzi offering thematic workshops for children and families, the National Documentation and Analysis Centre for Childhood and Adolescence and the Regional Documentation Centre for Childhood and Adolescence, as well as a structured network of educational services and the new Florence Family Centre, recently opened together with the City Council.

Reducing Waiting Lists in the Municipality of Florence and Expanding Provision at the Istituto degli Innocenti

Children and families in Florence can benefit from a broad range of high-quality opportunities. The Municipality of Florence will make full use of the accommodation capacity of the early childhood education services run by the Istituto degli Innocenti (the Trottola, Biglia and Birillo nurseries, and the integrated 0–6 educational centre Girandola), with the aim of narrowing the gap between demand and the availability of places, and therefore waiting lists, while maintaining a high standard of service quality. In line with the objective of meeting families’ needs, the renewed Protocol also provides for an extension of afternoon opening hours until 5:30 p.m. for full-time services.