Discussion of findings
Strategic recommendations and national priorities addressed by ESF+ funding
The implementation of ESF+ funding in Finland is influenced not only by EU-level strategies but also by national political priorities, particularly those outlined in the Government Programme a Strong and Committed Finland, led by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (Finnish Government, 2023). Funding calls do not cover all priorities addressed in EU and national strategies but focuses on certain recommendations. The emphases reflect Finland’s demographic context, where population growth is projected to slow and decline (see Alho & Valkonen, 2024), and additional workforce is needed.
The Government Programme supports the goals of promoting inclusion and equality, including initiative to strengthen democracy and participation, with a focus on children and youth. These efforts aim to build a just and inclusive society and combat segregation. Research highlights the need to for equality in education. For instance, a Nordic study by Helakorpi et al. (2023) has shown that students with immigrant backgrounds are at increased risk of discrimination and bullying and face a higher likelihood of discontinuing their studies. In Finnish early childhood education, Loukola (2023) identifies the presence of racism and white normativity within the system. According to the researchers, the Nordic education system does not adequately meet the needs of children and young people from immigrant backgrounds (Helakorpi et al., 2023). However, professionals express a willingness to develop more inclusive educational services for all children (Loukola, 2023).
The first ESF+ funding call emphasized guidance for youth in cultural and sports services and structured leisure activities. The third call continued this focus, supporting projects that develop and pilot supervised leisure activities in art, culture, sports, and other fields for youth aged 15–19 in upper secondary and vocational education. It also included initiatives offering performances, visits, and workshops for children and young people aged 7–19. This emphasis reflects the Government Programme’s recognition of physical inactivity as a major societal challenge. Only one in three children and young people, and one in four adults engage in sufficient physical activity to maintain health. The consequences extend to learning, work capacity, national defense, and the economy - estimated to cost Finland €3.2 billion annually.
To address this, the Government calls for a comprehensive, cross-sectoral approach, beginning in early childhood services. It aims to ensure that every child and young person can participate in at least one leisure activity of their choice, with special attention to those without a hobby or who have dropped out. The national Schools on the Move programme (LIKES, 2025) supports this goal, including mapping opportunities for leisure activities during school holidays. These recommendations in the Government programme might explain the emphasis on physical activity and leisure in ESF+ funding calls. While Government Programme supports access to children’s culture, it simultaneously outlines €125 million in cuts to the Ministry of Education and Culture's subsidies (Sokka & Nokela, 2025). ESF+ funding has thus been directed to cultural services to help sustain the sector.
Although the National Child Strategy’s implementation plan (Finnish Government, 2022) extends beyond individual government terms, it sets more enduring development themes in addition to those outlined in the current Government programme. These include promoting family-friendly policies and supporting the reconciliation of work and leisure time. When examining ESF+ funding calls, national priorities tend to emerge more clearly than the development goals set at the EU strategy level. This reflects the strong influence of domestic policy frameworks in shaping the practical implementation of funding.
Within the Innovation and Skills in Finland 2021–2027 programme’s theme Development of services for children, young people and families and promotion of well-being towards equality and its funding calls the priorities of Finland’s National Child Strategy are actively reinforced. This alignment is consistent with the Government Programme, which acknowledges the diversity of families with children. The Government seeks measures to positively influence the birth rate, with particular attention to the challenges faced by families with small children, single parents, student families, and families with multiple children.
Despite Finland’s relatively strong gender equality and women’s position in working life, socioeconomic and cultural differences among families pose challenges to family life and parental well-being. The second ESF+ funding call focused on parenting support, reflecting priorities from both the National Child Strategy and the Government Programme. The Government aims to provide low-threshold services for families, with attention to couple and parenting support, the best interests of the child, and the individual circumstances of families. European research (e.g. Dewilde, 2025) highlights the individual and societal impacts of child poverty and socioeconomic disadvantage. Preventing the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage (see Dewilde, 2025) can been influenced, for instance, through strategic allocation of funding.
Strategic gaps and unaddressed themes
One overarching theme, child-friendly justice, is absent from the analysed national normative documents. The six related recommendations from the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child are not reflected in the National Child Strategy, the Innovation and skills in Finland 2021–2027, or nor in the national theme or funding calls. However, the government’s shared learning platform eOppiva (HAUS, n.d.), includes several modules on child-friendly justice, and is widely used across sectors, including municipalities and educational institutions.
Digitalization, despite its prominence in national strategies, is not clearly visible in the examined funding calls. This may be since EU-level recommendations have already been extensively implemented in Finland. Digital competence is embedded in national education steering documents, and the Ministry of Education and Culture, together with the Finnish National Agency for Education, actively promotes digitalization. Strategic goals include ensuring digital skills for all, fostering innovation, and positioning Finland as a global leader in technology education. These goals are supported by initiatives such as alignment papers on digitalization in education (see Berisha et al., 2023). Thus, Finland has invested in digitalization in other forums than funding of ESF+. Despite Finland’s progressive approach to digitalization, certain risks remain concerning digital safety, as well as the accessibility and equity of increasing digitalized services (cf. Alexopoulou, 2025). In Finland, the entertainment-oriented media use of digitally native children and youth during leisure time may not be in balance with the pedagogical use of digital platforms in education (Mertala, 2020). Investing in the digital skills and safety of vulnerable groups – especially children – would be of considerable importance.
Nutrition and housing-related recommendations from the ECG are not addressed in the National Child Strategy. However, each child attending comprehensive school in Finland can enjoy a free school meal. This responds to the ECG recommendation to provide children in need with free and effective access to at least one healthy meal each school day.
It is important to notice, that the theme Developing services for children, youth and families and promoting well-being towards equality is not the only national priority in the Innovation and Skills in Finland 2021–2027 programme that draws upon the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, the ECG, and the National Child Strategy. Projects under priority axis 6 (Combating material deprivation) within objective 6.1 (Resources for life), address issues related to child poverty and children’s nutrition. In addition, initiatives under priority axis 5 (Fostering social innovation), particularly those aligned with objective 5.1 (Safety nets for the future of young people), partially reflect elements of the guiding strategies that are not fully encompassed by the theme Developing services for children, youth and families and promoting well-being towards equality. These include efforts to combat violence against children and to ensure child protection. However, the contents to child-friendly justice remains unaddressed within these frameworks.
Fragmentation and strategic coherence
The ESF+ is the EU’s main instrument for investing in people and supporting the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. With a budget of €142.7 billion for the period 2021–2027, the ESF+ will continue to provide an important contribution to the EU’s employment, social, education and skills policies, including structural reforms in these areas. (European Commission, n.d.) ESF+ is a significant financial instrument, and it is justified to look at how ESF+ funding allocation implement key strategies. Like Rapley (2021) states, documents produce specific realities and the realities they produce have effect. In this study it is traced these effects, because those presumably have great importance for the realization of children's rights.
It is both important and ethically necessary to critically examine how funding is allocated, especially when it concerns children’s rights and well-being. The document analysis revealed that while EU-level strategies provide a broad framework, their implementation at the national level is shaped by country-specific needs and priorities.
Finland’s approach reflects this dynamic: although numerous strategies exist across different administrative levels – European, Nordic, and national – not all are fully integrated into the National Child Strategy, nor is such integration necessary. National programming must remain responsive to domestic contexts and needs. However, the fragmented nature of strategic guidance raises questions about coherence, coordination, and accountability in the implementation of children’s rights. When multiple strategies intersect without a clear overarching framework, it becomes difficult to assess whether the entirety of the strategic landscape is truly governed or understood by any single actor.
This lack of EU-level coordination may pose ethical and practical concerns. From the perspective of children’s rights and the principle of equality among European children, it is problematic if the totality of funding allocated to children is not systematically coordinated. Without a comprehensive overview, there is a risk that certain priorities, such as child-friendly justice, may be overlooked when national governments make selective policy choices based on domestic considerations.
Moreover, this raises the question of how strongly the best interests of the child and the rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are weighed against broader societal and economic pressures. If funding decisions are primarily driven by economic imperatives, the normative commitment to children’s rights may be compromised. Future research should explore how strategic coherence and rights-based prioritization can be strengthened in multi-level governance contexts, ensuring that no essential aspect of children’s well-being is left behind.
