Tuscany Region and Istituto degli Innocenti Join Forces to Promote the Nidi Gratis Initiative

The Tuscany Region and the Istituto degli Innocenti have signed a collaboration agreement for the implementation of “Analysis and Promotion Activities of the Free Nurseries Initiative in the Region”, a project funded by the 2021-2027 Regional FSE+ Programme with a total allocation of €100,000.

Nidi Gratis (Free Nurseries), an initiative launched by the Region in the 2023/2024 school year, enables families to reduce fees for 0-3 early childhood education services, thus ensuring broader accessibility and, in particular, supporting families in more vulnerable conditions. This strategic intervention aims to promote equal opportunities, combat educational poverty, and facilitate the balance between family and work life.

Under the new Agreement, which will run over 2025–2026, the Istituto degli Innocenti is tasked with carrying out a series of activities to analyse the results of the initiative and promote its dissemination throughout the region.

Specifically, the project includes:

• Preparing an analytical report on the impact of the initiative across the 35 educational zones in Tuscany, with particular focus on its effects on nursery enrolment and the saturation levels of the regional public and private provision system;
• A dedicated focus on five areas of the region where the initiative has had lower uptake, in order to understand challenges and identify strategies for strengthening participation;
• Implementing a multilingual social communication campaign, including 25,000 printed flyers and digital materials, translated into seven languages and distributed through paediatricians, maternity wards, municipalities, family centres, and local educational and social coordination offices;
• Engaging a network of institutional and associative actors - including ANCI, local health authorities, the Italian Federation of Paediatricians, and pedagogical and social coordination bodies - to ensure targeted and widespread dissemination of information;
• Organising 32 public information and promotional events, including the five seminars in the areas with the lowest participation mentioned above, three wider-area meetings with social and educational operators, one online seminar for paediatricians, and 23 awareness-raising days at maternity wards across the region.

The project also includes constant monitoring activities, an interim and a final report, as well as an evaluation questionnaire for the participants of the information initiatives.

Thanks to this partnership, the Tuscany Region and the Istituto degli Innocenti intend not only to assess the impact of the initiative, but also to expand its knowledge and use, strengthening the Tuscan education system in the spirit of the European Pillar of social rights and European policies on early childhood education and care.