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We need an overhaul of England’s early childhood system, not ‘just’ more childcare

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 23 March 2023

Peter Moss.

A child's hands handling toy building blocks

Credit: FeeLoona / Pixabay

Ahead of his UCL Lunch Hour Lecture on 11th May, Emeritus Professor Peter Moss sets out why ‘just more childcare’ is not the answer to England’s early years needs.

Last week’s Spring Budget saw the latest of many attempts by successive governments to fix England’s broken early childhood system. More funding was directed at childcare. But expensive childcare is just one symptom of a flawed system, itself the product of decades of government neglect followed by a failure to think critically and holistically once early years gained policy attention from 1997.

The result today is a hodgepodge of fragmented services, coupled with weak and poorly co-ordinated leave provision. (more…)

Early childhood provision: are we moving forward, backward – or both?

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 11 October 2018

Helen Penn
The Labour party manifesto brings in a new policy on early education and childcare. It extends the government’s 30 hours of free childcare programme to the parents of all two-, three- and four-year-olds and improves the training of childcare workers. How new or radical is this policy? Can it deliver?
In my new book Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible: A memoir of work in childcare and education (Routledge) I explore the changes in early education and childcare policy over the last 50 years, from the point of view of someone working in the services and trying to change them. On 6 November, a conference at the UCL Institute of Education, Looking Back, Looking Forwards, will take the debate further.
When I began as an early years teacher in London 50 years ago, there were three (more…)

Childcare policy: we need decent pay for the workforce and flexibility for parents

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 4 February 2016

Antonia Simon and Charlie Owen
A large body of research evidence shows that good quality childcare makes a big difference to children’s start in life. However, according to new research published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, many children do not have access to childcare of a sufficient standard to achieve good developmental outcomes.
Children, especially those under three, the study argues, often do not receive childcare from highly qualified staff. This is important because evidence from research such as the IOE’s Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education programme (EPPSE) indicates that higher staff qualifications contribute significantly to a preschool setting’s quality. The implication is, therefore, that youngsters who miss out on top quality staff are likely to fall behind youngsters who don’t.
But could the problem relate to childcare workers’ shockingly low pay? (more…)