The Covid-19 virus outbreak in late 2019 - early 2020 led to a surge of remote working, where the majority of EU white collar workforce was compelled to work in an out-of-office setting; this comes to a sharp contrast compared to past years, where just 5-10% of EU employees have been working remotely. Nevertheless, such a rise in remote working has not been unprecedented; there has been a steady, yet minimal, increase through the years in the numbers of remote workers (esp. in the ICT sector), with a similar spike during the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak and other similar cases of business interruptions. The difference this time is that the increase in remote working due to Covid-19 virus outbreak has been fuelled both by more flexible and decentralised management practices, as well as more widely available technologies. Moreover, people are more used to it, be it for work or for personal communication. This led to an immediate and creative adaptation of workplaces to a remote work mode, where in many occasions the entire workforce worked from home.

Children have the right to participate in all matters affecting them, freely expressing their opinion and having it respected and considered. Young children’s participation is key to developing a culture of human rights, democracy, and rule of law. Therefore, young people’s active participation and decision-making in society must be protected and encouraged from an early age. Even though children’s right to participate is key to education quality, its implementation in early childhood education (ECE) remains a challenge. To support high-quality ECE through the implementation of children’s right to participate, we propose a multilevel professional development approach.