In recent weeks, I’ve been examining how different European countries structure care; not only in terms of cost, but also in terms of design.

Austria introduced the idea that work structures can be intentionally designed to align with family life rather than forcing families to adapt around rigid systems. Denmark illustrated how continuity of support can significantly reduce the long-term economic impact of motherhood. Spain demonstrated how care can be framed as shared public responsibility. Germany showed what happens when access to childcare and reduced hours are embedded in law. The Netherlands revealed how labour markets can normalise part-time work alongside childcare infrastructure.

France introduces another important dimension: what happens when early childhood care is not treated separately from education, but integrated into the public system itself.

In France, the transition from childcare to preschool is not left to market availability or private coordination. From the age of three, children attend école maternelle, a universal and publicly funded preschool system that operates within the national education framework.

This matters because when early education is structured as public infrastructure, participation in the labour market becomes more predictable. Parents are no longer navigating a fragmented childcare landscape year by year. Instead, the care and education system provides a stable framework that families can plan around.

France does not eliminate every challenge associated with balancing work and care. Childcare places for younger children remain in high demand, and regional disparities exist. But the overall structure reflects a deliberate policy choice: early childhood care and education are treated as integral components of social and economic life rather than as services families must assemble privately.

For Ireland, where childcare access and affordability remain central barriers to maternal employment, this raises an important question.

What changes when care is not only subsidised, but structurally embedded within the education system itself?

Childcare Before Age Three

Before children enter the universal preschool system, France operates a diverse network of early childcare options designed to support families during the first years of life.

These include municipal crèches, private crèches, family crèches, and licensed childminders known as assistantes maternelles, who provide care within their homes under state regulation. Together, these services form a broad childcare ecosystem rather than a single model of provision.

Funding support is administered through France’s Caisse d’Allocations Familiales (CAF), the national family benefits system. Through a combination of subsidies and allowances, families receive financial support toward childcare costs, with the level of assistance adjusted according to household income and employment circumstances.

This structure reflects an underlying assumption within French family policy: that access to childcare enables labour market participation and should therefore be supported through public infrastructure.

Availability challenges still exist. Demand for crèche places remains high in many regions, and securing a place for younger children can be competitive, particularly in larger cities. As in most countries, the earliest years present the greatest supply pressures.

But the system does not rely on a single childcare pathway. Instead, it offers multiple regulated options supported through national funding mechanisms, allowing families to combine formal childcare, childminders, and preschool as children grow.

This layered approach becomes particularly significant once children reach the age of three, when the system shifts from childcare provision to universal early education.

École Maternelle — Universal Preschool

The most distinctive feature of France’s early childhood system begins at age three.

At this point, children enter école maternelle, a publicly funded preschool system that forms part of the national education framework. Unlike childcare services, which may vary by provider or location, école maternelle is integrated into the education system itself.

Preschool attendance in France is therefore not only widely available it is effectively universal. Since 2019, education in France has been compulsory from the age of three, formalising what had already been a long-standing practice of near-universal preschool participation.

These schools typically operate within standard school-day hours and follow the structure of the broader education system. As a result, once children enter école maternelle, parents move from navigating childcare markets to relying on an established public institution.

This shift is significant.

When early childhood education becomes part of the public education system, it changes the conditions under which families organise work and care. Parents are no longer dependent on securing private childcare arrangements year after year. Instead, the system provides a predictable framework that supports both child development and labour market participation.

For children, école maternelle offers structured early learning and social development. For parents, it provides stability. The transition from early childcare to preschool is not a fragmented handover between private providers but part of a continuous public system.

This design does not eliminate all challenges surrounding childcare in France. Access to places for children under three remains uneven, and demand can exceed supply in some regions. But once children reach preschool age, the landscape changes dramatically.

Care becomes education, and education becomes infrastructure.

What This Means for Maternal Employment

The structure of France’s early childhood system has clear implications for labour market participation.

When childcare and preschool are widely available and integrated into public infrastructure, returning to work becomes less dependent on navigating private arrangements or absorbing unpredictable costs. Instead, parents can plan their employment decisions around a relatively stable care framework.

France maintains relatively high maternal employment rates compared with many European countries. According to Eurostat data, around seven in ten mothers with young children participate in the labour market. While this figure is influenced by many factors, including labour market conditions, cultural expectations, and family policy, the structure of childcare and early education plays an important role.

The availability of école maternelle from age three provides a particularly significant stabilising point. Once children enter the preschool system, parents are able to rely on consistent hours and universal access rather than navigating childcare markets year by year.

This does not eliminate all constraints. Parents of children under three may still face challenges securing crèche places, and regional differences in childcare availability persist. But the system reduces the duration of this uncertainty. Instead of extending across the entire early childhood period, the most complex childcare phase is concentrated in the first years of life.

For many families, this creates a clearer pathway back into employment.

Participation becomes less dependent on whether childcare can be secured indefinitely, and more connected to how families choose to organise work and care within a predictable framework.

The French model therefore illustrates a broader principle.

When early childhood care and education are treated as public infrastructure, the question of whether parents can work shifts from a matter of access to a matter of choice.

What This Means for Ireland

Ireland has taken important steps in recent years to expand early childhood supports. The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme now provides two years of free preschool for children before they begin primary school, and additional subsidies through the National Childcare Scheme have helped reduce costs for many families.

These developments matter, and they reflect growing recognition that childcare plays a central role in enabling parents to participate in the labour market.

However, the structure of early childhood provision in Ireland remains quite different from the French model.

While France integrates preschool into the national education system from age three, Ireland’s ECCE programme operates for more limited daily hours and for a shorter portion of the year. Families frequently need to combine ECCE with additional paid childcare in order to cover a full working day.

Access to childcare for younger children also varies widely depending on location and provider availability. Costs remain among the highest in Europe relative to household income, and after-school provision for older children remains uneven across regions.

As a result, many Irish families continue to assemble childcare through multiple arrangements, combining preschool hours, private childcare, informal care, and adjusted working schedules.

This does not mean parents are unwilling to work.

Rather, it reflects the conditions within which those decisions are made.

When childcare systems are fragmented, participation often depends on a family’s ability to coordinate multiple forms of care and absorb significant costs. When care and early education are embedded within public infrastructure, as in France, the framework becomes more predictable.

The contrast is therefore not about parental preferences.

It is about how systems shape the practical conditions under which families organise work and care.

A Structural Question for Ireland

Comparative analysis is not about identifying perfect systems.

It is about understanding what different policy designs make possible.

France demonstrates what happens when early childhood care and education are treated as part of national infrastructure. Once children reach the age of three, participation in preschool is not dependent on market availability or private coordination. It is embedded within the public education system.

That design creates predictability.

Parents can plan around school structures rather than navigating childcare markets year after year. The transition from early childcare to education is not fragmented, but continuous.

Ireland has already begun important conversations about how care should be structured, from childcare reform to broader discussions about family policy and labour market participation. These conversations matter, and progress is underway.

But the comparison raises a broader question.

If early childhood care and education were treated more explicitly as part of public infrastructure, how might that reshape the conditions under which families organise work and care?

Comparative analysis does not suggest replication. Countries differ in history, demographics, and economic structure.

But it does make one thing clear.

The way care systems are designed shapes participation, stability, and choice.

And design is always a policy decision.

This article is part of Karla’s wider series exploring care, work and economic security for mothers across Europe and Ireland.

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