To the Point: Do we now expect less?

We are now a decade on from the publication of the last
government's ten-year childcare strategy. Then, there was real anxiety
about the public's acceptance of a role for government in childcare.

Now, a more common complaint is that government is not doing enough to fix our childcare problems. But we must also accept our shortcomings. We still fall too short on quality.

Ten years ago, there was a lot of discussion about the importance of the quality of childcare. The international evidence pointed strongly to the significance of graduate-led settings if childcare was to have a positive impact on child development.

The ten-year strategy created a transformation fund with the aim of having a graduate in every setting, creating more of a level playing field between maintained and PVI sectors. A new book, An Equal Start? Providing quality early education and care for disadvantaged children, assesses the progress made. The short answer: not enough. Only four per cent of staff in non-maintained settings are graduates, and only just over a third of children who access the free entitlement in the PVI sector do so in a setting that employs a graduate.

In taking stock of where we have got to, the book also provides fascinating detail about childcare systems in other countries. We are not bringing up the rear internationally when it comes to quality, but one thing is clear: our minimum qualifications are low by international standards. We no longer have an explicit policy commitment to graduate-led childcare, and the Government does not demand enough improvement for the money it invests. In fact, quality has been overtaken in the policy conversation by affordability.

Of course, making childcare more affordable is critically important, not least because child poverty has a devastating impact on child development, but it is time to sharpen the focus on quality again.