The most durable international alliances aren’t those formed in opulent political chambers, you realize at some point in between the paperwork and the planning sessions. They were gathered in secret by early childhood educators in Norway, Greece, Croatia, and a British non-governmental organization that just wouldn’t accept Brexit.
That is precisely what OMEP UK, the World Organization for Early Childhood Education’s UK branch, has been doing. OMEP UK was already leading an Erasmus+ project with partners in several nations, advancing work that was fundamentally about something far more pressing than geopolitics: how teachers show up for very young children, at a time when the larger political discourse about Britain’s relationship with Europe was still raw and unresolved.
Developing Teacher Competencies for the Future was the name of the project, which ran from October 2015 to July 2018. Kidsa Øvsttun AS in Norway organized it, and OMEP UK was joined by counterparts in Poland and Croatia, as well as a kindergarten in Greece. The grant, which came in at 191,412 EUR, is not a huge amount by European Commission standards, but it is significant enough to have an impact on early childhood education, a field that seldom receives the kind of funding it merits.
It’s worth taking a moment to consider what the project truly produced. In addition to the professional development work with educators, it directly contributed to a book that was edited by two members of the OMEP UK Executive Committee and included additional contributions from other members that examined parental partnership programs throughout Europe. The book reads more like a field report from people who have actually stood in nursery hallways and observed families navigating strange systems than it does like a policy document. The writers of that piece seem to have a sincere belief that something was at risk, not only in theory but also for particular kids in particular rooms.
Looking at the timeline, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the project was underway during the Brexit referendum. About eight months into this partnership, in June 2016, Britain decided to leave the EU. Nevertheless, the alliances persisted. It might come as no surprise that educators who focus on early childhood inclusion share a certain stubbornness about what really matters. It still has significance, though.
Since then, the larger picture of Erasmus+ has changed significantly. The European Commission suggested expanding the program’s budget to 2034, and by 2024, participation had increased to over 1.4 million annually, a significant recovery from the pandemic decline. Building Bridges: Fostering Early Childhood Education Across Cultures, a different Erasmus+ small-scale partnership that was started in 2025, is currently bringing Sweden, Spain, Romania, and Turkey together around inclusive curriculum development for migrant and underprivileged children. This suggests that the model that OMEP and its peers helped establish is still finding new expression.
Although recent signals from London and Brussels regarding a post-Brexit reset feel at least somewhat encouraging, it is still genuinely unclear whether UK organizations can fully re-engage with these structures. However, as OMEP UK’s previous project showed, networks can withstand political upheaval as long as their members continue to be dedicated. Whether it is 60,000 euros or close to 200,000 euros, the idea is the same: maintaining cross-border early childhood education is worthwhile, even when crossing borders becomes more difficult. It’s not easy to prove that.
