The Government's need to tackle secondary education in its second term of office is obviously pressing, but its feeling that the early years sector is now all hunky-dory - education secretary Estelle Morris saying, 'We delivered and it worked' - should be resisted. The early years sector is at a crucial stage of development. Among the issues that still need to be given attention and funding is the recruitment crisis - just where are all the people to staff the expansion going to come from, and how are they going to be paid the kind of money that will keep them? There's the confusing array of funding streams that early years managers are spending way too much time trying to access, and the debate over how the early years partnerships should be working.
The Government's need to tackle secondary education in its second term of office is obviously pressing, but its feeling that the early years sector is now all hunky-dory - education secretary Estelle Morris saying, 'We delivered and it worked' - should be resisted.
The early years sector is at a crucial stage of development. Among the issues that still need to be given attention and funding is the recruitment crisis - just where are all the people to staff the expansion going to come from, and how are they going to be paid the kind of money that will keep them? There's the confusing array of funding streams that early years managers are spending way too much time trying to access, and the debate over how the early years partnerships should be working.
The Foundation Stage is rightly praised, but reception classes in particular are struggling with unsuitable environments, too few trained staff, downward pressure from Key Stage 1 and conflicting messages about practice from the National Literacy Strategy.
The concentration on nursery education and childcare must continue. High-quality, universal provision at the earliest ages will reap dividends as children grow up.
