Basic skills (literacy, maths, and science) are widely regarded as foundational to achieving personal fulfilment, employability, and social inclusion (European Commission, n.d.). They can be nurtured through high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) programmes to leverage young children’s educational possibilities and ameliorate some of the challenges facing those identified as being at risk(Shonkoff & Fisher, 2013). However, although quality in ECEC has been widely conceptualised (Ishimine et al. 2010), there is a scarcity of systematic research around the effects of specific features of ECEC programmes on basic skills. This paper aims at identifying and mapping effective ECEC programmes and interventions that foster students’ basic skills to inform educational policy and practice in Europe. A scoping review was carried out between April and July 2023 to map ECEC interventions that foster basic skills (Arksey & O'Malley, 2005). Following the PRISMA statement and the checklist (Higgins & Green, 2011), a total of 533 papers met the inclusion criteria (peer-reviewed publications in English from 2013 to 2023, involving educational interventions of more than 10 participants in school settings, and reflecting quantitative findings on basic skills among primary and secondary students). Only those that reported having a positive effect on basic skills and having employed a longitudinal, quasi-experimental, and/or RCT design, were selected for a subsequent meta- analysis. Four international databases were used for the scoping review: Web of Science, Scopus, Psycinfo, ERIC. Rayyan was used to collate and screen the papers for eligibility. Out of the 91 papers analysed, 3 proved to have a positive impact in Science, 61 in Literacy, 15 in Mathematics and 12 in more than one basic skill. Those interventions having a positive impact in science included play-based strategies and training for teachers to foster science knowledge. Literacy programmes saw the majority of positively correlated interventions. Out of the 61 papers dedicated to any literacy area, those based of dialogic or shared reading, along with programmes to boost or improve technology-mediated reading were particularly prominent. Programmes oriented to parents and teachers were also popular among the retrieved papers (12/61). Interventions that improved maths included number sense, play, storytelling and physical activity. Maths mediated by digital devices was the focus of 4/15 papers, and curriculum-based maths learning was at the core of 3/15 articles. This work aims to contribute to evidence-informed policy and practice by systematically identifying the features of successful ECEC interventions contributing to improve future learning outcomes.

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