Municipal Governance and Integrated Early Childhood Services:Scaling Intersectoral Coordination in a Romanian Metropolitan Area

Integrated early childhood systems require coordination across education, health, and social protection, making them a demanding test case for local governance and intersectoral administrative capacity. This article examines how municipal authorities can act as conveners and coordinators of integrated service delivery, using the Primokiz-supported process in Brașov Municipality (Romania) as a case study. Data comes from a structured situation assessment within the ‘Romania Grows with You’ initiative, including three focus groups (professionals, parents of children in partner kindergartens, and parents of children in partner nurseries) and 1,049 parent questionnaires. Findings point to a set of governance-relevant constraints: fragmented referral pathways across sectors, uneven specialist coverage across neighborhoods, limited inter-institutional routines, and workforce bottlenecks that weaken early identification and intervention, often compensated through private or NGO provision, with equity implications. The municipality-led coordination process translated these constraints into a metropolitan early childhood strategy covering 17 communities and into inter-municipal learning networks, illustrating how local administrative capacity and ‘soft’ coordination tools can scale beyond single jurisdictions. The article contributes to public administration debates on decentralization, collaborative and network governance, and the role of municipalities in complex service systems, offering relevant lessons on pathway design, workforce coordination, and institutionalized local governance for equity.