SW-EDI: A tool to promote health equity and strengthen the compensatory mission of preschools

More than half of Sweden's municipalities use socio-economic weighting for resource allocation to their preschools to enable compensatory measures. However, it is unclear how much of this compensatory potential is realised.

Work package 3 intends to investigate methods to strengthen the compensatory mission of Swedish preschools. This includes strengthening the preschool's ability to adapt its activities to the needs of the child group, promote equal health, and improve communication during children's transition to the preschool class.

The first of the target areas identified in the public health policy of Sweden concerns the conditions of early life. In particular, it emphasises the existence of equitable preschool education of high quality. This is also reflected in the national preschool curriculum, by a requirement to allocate resources according to children's needs. This is a principle commonly referred to as proportional universalism (PU).

Despite major societal investments in both preschool and child health care, disparities in the health of Swedish children have increased over time. One of the reasons for this paradox is that the welfare sector may not be achieving the PU principle. In order to do this, the organisations within this sector need to improve their ability to identify needs and vulnerabilities within the population, a need expressly echoed by several preschool organisations.

This project aims to investigate the feasibility of implementing the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a screening tool for developmental health that identifies needs and vulnerabilities at the group and population level, in the Swedish preschool environment. The EDI is currently used as a national census in both Australia and Canada, for both developmental work in local preschool settings, as well as to support education training and resource allocation at the organisational level.

The instrument's data is divided into five domains and can be used both to strengthen the work with the specific group of children as well as to contribute to more accurate resource allocation at the organisational level. The five domains are: Physical health and Well-being; Social Competence; Emotional Maturity; Language and Cognitive Development; and Communication Skills and General Knowledge. These overlap significantly with the objectives of the Swedish preschool curriculum.

In the years 2023-2029, an updated translation of the EDI instrument (SW-EDI) will be made, as well as be culturally adapted to the Swedish preschool context. Furthermore, the instrument will be tested in different municipalities, with varying socio-economic conditions around the country to test the feasibility, suitability, and acceptance of working with such an instrument long-term in Sweden.

More information about the project

General information about the research project (only in Swedish)

Information about the instrument from our Canadian collaborator