Early Years
Key policy changes
Early Years provision is now considered to cover the years from birth to 5.
In 2003 the Government published a Green Paper called Every Child Matters,
www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters
partly in response to the death of Victoria Climbié.
Every Child Matters had four key themes:
- Increased focus on families and carers as the most critical influence on children’s lives.
- To ensure necessary intervention takes place for children in crisis and to protect children .
- Address weak accountability and poor integration of services.
- Ensure that people who work with children are valued, rewarded and trained.
Moreover, it identified five outcomes it deemed most important to children and young people:
- Be healthy
- Stay safe
- Enjoy and Achieve
- Make a positive contribution
- Achieve economic well-being
The Government believes by achieving these goals/outcomes it will narrow the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers and, in the long term, will reduce teenage pregnancies and the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training.
Following the Every Child Matters green paper the Government published Every Child Matters: the Next Steps
Every Child Matters: the Next Steps (PDF file)
and passed the Children’s Act 2004
Also in 2004 the Government set out its Ten Year Strategy for Childcare, this set out key themes for early years:
- Choice and flexibility – balancing work and family life.
- Availability of childcare places for children up to the age of 14.
- High quality childcare with a highly skilled workforce.
- Affordable childcare.
The Childcare Act (2006) was designed to transform childcare and early years services and meet the commitments from the Ten Year Childcare Strategy (2004).
The 2006 Childcare Act sought to formalise the role of local authorities in early years. It outlined new duties for the local authorities to:
- Improve the outcomes of Every Child Matters.
- Provide sufficient childcare for parents.
- Provide a parental information service.
Moreover, the Act reformed early years regulation and inspection arrangements and outlined the new Ofsted Childcare Register.
The report Next Steps for Early Learning and Childcare was published on 28 January 2009 and reviews the progress of the 10-year strategy and outlines the Government’s future plans for early learning and childcare.
Next Steps for Early Learning and Childcare
Curriculum – the Early Years Foundation Stage
The latest change in early years is the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage, which was legislated for in the Childcare Act 2006 and came into force in September 2008.
The Early Years Foundation Stage is designed to set the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five years old.
The Early Years Foundation Stage is based around four themes:
- A Unique Child
- Positive Relationships
- Enabling Environments
- Learning and Development
QCDA: Early Years Foundation Stage
National Strategies: Early Years Foundation Stage
Every Child Matters: Early Years and Childcare
Early learning goals
In 2007 it become a obligation on local authorities to provide information about every child on their profile in relation to the early learning goals. As in previous reports it seems girls tend to out perform boys in every area.
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Results in England, 2008/09
Sure Start
Sure Start is a Government programme which aims to achieve better outcomes for children, parents and communities.
It is the intention that Sure Start Children's Centres are a focal point within each community for parents and carers of children up to age five. Sure Start is designed so that it brings together everything families need - from midwives, health visitors and early years provision (integrated daycare and early learning) to parenting support, skills training and help to find employment.
The centres are designed to contribute to the Every Child Matters outcomes by:
- Improving health outcomes for children and families
- Reducing crime rates
- Reducing child poverty
- Enabling parents to study and work
- Helping lone parents to access work and training.
The Government aimed to have 2,500 Sure Start centres across the country by 2008. Now the aim is to have 3,500 Sure Start Childrens Centres by 2010.
The national evaluation of Sure Start is being carried out by Birkbeck College.
National Evaluation of Sure Start
This and other research can be found on the Sure Start website.
National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS) Publications
Participation
Compared to t20 years ago there has been a huge increase in participation in publicly funded early years provision. Trends of participation in maintained provision are set out in the Trends section of the DCSF website.
Trends: Early Education and Daycare
Participation in maintained nursery and primary schools is generally higher in the North of England than in the South where more children are enrolled with private and voluntary providers.
The daycare sector has seen a sharp increase in the number of day nursery places in recent years, with a corresponding fall in the number of places with playgroups and childminders.
In June 2008, there were 1.55 million childcare places and 100,600 childcare providers in England.
A DCSF survey of early years providers was published in July 2008.
Childcare and Early Years Providers
A survey of parents' views on provision was published in May 2008.
Childcare and Early Years Survey 2007 – Parents' Use, Views and Experiences
Funding
A Parliamentary Answer shows the spending on early years provision was expected to be £4 billion in 2007-08.
Another Parliamentary Answer listed the spending on Sure Start from £6.8 million in 1999 to £839.9 million in 2007.
Sure Start Programme: Per Capita Costs
The changes that are underway to bring funding for early years provision, which includes childcare, into a simple formula are proving controversial in that indications are that state funded nurseries may suffer which private nurseries have increased funding. The aim is to bring from 2009-10 a consistent method of counting and funding children in maintained and in private, voluntary and independent settings. From 2009-10 onwards, at local level, funding for children under 5 in maintained settings will be calculated on the basis of provision taken up, rather than places, as now. That will bring maintained settings into line with private, voluntary and independent settings (PVIs) Authorities are also being encouraged to fund maintained settings and PVIs under a common formula from 2009-10, and this will be required from 2010-11.
Funding Arrangements 2008-2011
November 2009