Editor’s view - What really matters
Monday, June 26, 2017
The result of the General Election, with an unexpected hung parliament, has obviously been momentous.
Plans to ditch infant free school meals have themselves been ditched, the return of grammar schools has been abandoned and the texture of Brexit (hard/soft?) uncertain.
The 30 hours programme is still lurching towards full implementation, but we are unlikely to see much attention paid to the early years for quite some time.
At the time of writing, we are still waiting to see which DfE minister has the childcare brief - with these responsibilities likely to be added to one of the existing ministers’ roles.
However, other events have made all this seem trivial, insignificant. The horror of the Grenfell Towers fire has deeply touched us all, with many in the early years community directly affected or with connections to the children and families tragically killed or made homeless.
Our story on pages 4-5 relates the plight of the nursery that was based in the tower, now crowded into temporary premises and having lost everything, though thankfully all their children are now accounted for. Others we talked to, however, still have families missing or have lost ex-colleagues.
It reminds us that education alone cannot solve all the problems of disadvantage. Without safe, adequate housing, state support, an equal place in society and equal access to justice for all, we are still a long way from where we need to be.
And we must not forget refugees either. See our feature on pages 16-17 to read about a project to develop practitioner understanding of families seeking sanctuary in the UK.
