Held to account

Why should local authorities be responsible for targets in the Foundation Stage - and what can practitioners do to help them? Lesley Staggs weighs up their new duties There is an understandable - and very well-founded - concern among most early years practitioners at the mention of the word 'targets'. They bring images of our youngest children being hot-housed and pressurised with the consequent erosion of the opportunities to make the most of the 'here and now' that underpins the work of early years practitioners. There's also a suspicion that this is, yet again, a downward pressure driven by...