Content and Objectives

Everyday integrated early childhood and pre-school support services, most of which are already available in Bremen, are systematically linked to form a support chain that begins during pregnancy and continues until the child starts school.

The accompanying scientific research of BRISE, which has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for eight years so far, investigates the question of what cumulative effects a coordinated support programme has on the cognitive, social and emotional development of children. Children whose families use the support services in the municipality of Bremen at their own discretion are considered as a comparison group. Over a longer period of time, a total of just under 600 socio-economically and culturally disadvantaged Bremen families were included in the sample as BRISE families.

The aim of the study is to identify strategies to give all children a good start in school and to support long-term measures to reduce educational inequalities. The experiences in Bremen support an early childhood policy in providing equal opportunities for all children and in promoting, involving and protecting them in their development. In this way, the project contributes directly to the mission of the research group to identify measures to reduce early educational inequalities and to better utilise and develop educational potentials in an ageing society.

The education and family economics sub-project "Cost-effectiveness analyses within the framework of BRISE" conducted at the BiB examines the efficiency of the individual early childhood education and care programmes of BRISE as well as the funding chain as a whole. Such efficiency analyses make it possible to contrast the impact of the programmes with the resources that have been put into the programmes. This approach promises to catch up with Anglo-American intervention studies, many of which have been accompanied by similarly grounded efficiency analyses.

The long-term study BRISE is a joint project of various research institutions. Overall, this project complements research in the field of early education and care and, with its specific focus on early support for parents, especially mothers, can provide valuable information on how effectively and, above all, efficiently socio-economically disadvantaged families can be supported in order to also develop potential here as early as possible.