On 14 June 2021, the Council of the European Union adopted a Recommendation establishing a “European Child Guarantee”, with a view to guaranteeing access to six key services for “children in need”: • effective and free access to four services: high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC); education and school-based activities; at least one healthy meal each school day; and healthcare; and • effective access to two services: healthy nutrition and adequate housing. The purpose of the present report is to assess the extent to which low-income children in France do indeed have effective (or effective and free) access to these services. In France the starting age of compulsory schooling has been 3 since 2019: since public education is free, free access also effectively starts at that age. However, ECEC is neither universal nor free for children under 3. Despite many possibilities (collective daycare, childminder at the family’s place, childminder at their place, etc.), free and effective access is therefore not guaranteed, especially for low-income children, who are much less likely to attend childcare facilities than other children. Many barriers prevent them from accessing ECEC, ranging from financial barriers (for instance the cost of a childminder) to the unequal availability of collective daycare, such as crèches, depending on income, social origin or location. As public education is free in France, mandatory activities related specifically to teaching are free for all, such as books or IT. However, other costs are supposed to be borne by families when mandatory, such as basic materials, clothing or transport. To compensate for these costs for low-income children, several cash benefits are made available to families by the government (such as the back-to-school allowance), local authorities or the school. Although free meals are not provided for low-income children, the 2018 national strategy on poverty launched two measures intended to promote free meals. First, a financial incentive for municipalities that offers social pricing to families whose children eat in the school canteen (€1 meals). Second, a breakfast fund aimed at municipalities that offer free breakfasts to schoolchildren in recognised priority areas. The French health insurance system reinforced its universal character when it established universal health protection on 1 January 2016. This general access to the health insurance system does not discriminate between households according to income or age. As a result, healthcare is supposed to be free for all children. However, some additional costs are not well covered by basic healthcare and a complementary healthcare plan is needed, which is free for low-income households. Many low-income children do not have effective access to healthy nutrition. Almost 7 million French people use food banks, almost one quarter of whom are single parents and heads of large families. Measures implemented by public authorities to promote healthy nutrition mainly relate to two areas: direct support for healthy food by supporting the main charity networks, and the instigation of plans and programmes aimed at improving food quality. Finally, housing allowances as well as universal social housing (which represents 15.6% of main residences) are available to help low-income households afford adequate housing. In 2020, including children and other dependants, 13.3 million people lived in a household that received a housing benefit, which was about 20% of the population. Among these beneficiaries, 17% were couples with children, and 21.2% were single-parent families. On the other hand, almost a quarter (23%) of social housing is occupied by couples with children. Among households with children, large families are over-represented in rented accommodation, most of it social housing.