Quality in Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has gained an increasingly prominent position on European and national policy agendas. Quality of ECEC depends largely on the system as whole and on the competence of its components like staff, families and communities. The main problem that the partnership has identified and intends to address stands in the fact that involvement and participation of the parents and carers are scarcely or not sufficiently acknowledged as a key component contributing to quality of ECEC as a competent system. The project has four specific objectives: 1) To identify, test and mainstream best practices and innovative methods of participation particularly in context of diversity (socio-economic and cultural diversity, minorities, etc); 2) To improve the teachers competences pertaining strategies and approaches the involvement of parent by learning from the experiences of colleagues from other countries in Europe ; 3) To improve the integration and interaction of the different components of the system (children, practitioners, researchers, families, community); 4) To address participation in ECEC as a process in a more effective way through quality indicators; The partnership consists of 11 partners from 7 EU countries. The organizations involved in the partnership are: 3 pre-schools, 2 local authorities managing pre-schools, 1 teachers training organization, 2 universities, 2 research centers, 1 transnational networks of local and regional authorities. The project will involve 140 participants in the implementation meetings representing three main target groups: practitioners (pre-school teachers and managers, representative of local authorities and academics / trainers). The main activities foreseen consist of four two research meetings aimed at analyzing 1) the results of the research carried out on the existing situations in the partner countries pertaining participation in ECEC and 2) the development of quality indicators addressing participation as a process, a seminar aimed at the exchange of best practice, job shadowing activities of the personnel aimed at preparing the conditions for the cross-testing and mainstreaming of the practices pertaining participation. The result of the testing on the one hand and of the research (indicators and research based guidelines on participation) will lead to the creation of a European toolbox for fostering participation in ECEC systems at local level. The main results (impact resulting from the activities in the local conetexts of the pargners) of the project will be: Innovative forms of participation (enabling practices and methods) are identified and tested; A New European tool enhancing participation is created and disseminated Improved integration of the different components of the system (children, family members, practitioners, community Increased competences of the ECEC staff pertaining participation Increased internationalization and stronger European dimension in activities of the involved pre-schools Starting from existing quality indicators of participation, improved indicators more effective in terms of measuring participation as a process will be developed. The main long term impact of the project will be an increased awareness and centrality attached to participation of families and carers as a key component enhancing quality of the Early Childhood Education and Care.