Partnership process comes under fire

The legality of some of the Government's guidance on how Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships in England should operate has been questioned by a local authority after its inquiry into a shortfall of places for three-year-olds. John Sinott, chief executive of Leicestershire County Council, expressed 'serious doubts' about the guidance produced by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), in a hard-hitting report published by the council last week. The report followed an inquiry the council had ordered into what led to the parents of many three-year-olds in Leicestershire being told in September that their children would lose their...