policy makers have recognised that equitable access to quality ecec can strengthen the foundations of lifelong learning for all children and support the broad educational and social needs of families and they have therefore increased the resources allocated to this sector over the last decade with this trend governments have taken recent initiatives that aim to enhance the quality of ecec services and improve the equity of access to ecec settings this is in contrast to the public debates of the past which were limited to quantitative issues and public spending was mainly concentrated on measures to expand access to affordable ecec