The report, Early childhood education and care policy in the United Kingdom, is being officially launched in Stockholm today (Thursday) at a conference on early childhood education and care policy organised by the Ministry of Education and Science in Sweden and OECD. Completed last December, it takes an overview of early years policies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The report traces how early education has evolved over the past 200 years from New Lanark, near Edinburgh, where Welshman Robert Owen founded the first infant and nursery schools in 1816.
The OECD report praises the progress Labour has made with its early years policies since 1997. It says, 'The review team was impressed with the Government's attempt to redress many years of neglect in the early childhood education and care field and to mobilise people and resources in the service of young children and their families.
'Early childhood provision in the UK has begun from a relatively low base. It is now benefiting from significant funding and a radical reform of policy, co-ordination and planning. The result has been a remarkable number of new initiatives launched in a brief period.'
However, it warns, 'The agenda will require continued strong funding over the coming years if progress is to be maintained, and a stable, national early childhood education and care system established.'
The report calls for a comprehensive early childhood education and care policy from birth to the age of five, instead of the Foundation Stage for three-to five-year-olds. It says the current approach by the Government 'reflects compartmentalised thinking toward the early years, seeing early education primarily as a preparation for school and later life, and childcare as a support to working parents'.
It recommends that all children under statutory school age be entitled to full-time childcare places, which would help children in families on low incomes.
The National Early Years Network welcomed the report. Chief executive Eva Lloyd said, 'We cannot give poor children poor-quality provision. The Government needs to make direct investment in early years services. This report is very encouraging about what has been achieved in the past four years, but it also highlights serious deficiencies which we hope the Chancellor will deal with in his second term.'
A second report, Sound start, an overview of the early years policies of 12 OECD countries, was also given at the Stockholm conference. One of its authors, Dr Helen Penn of the University of East London, said, 'In certain ways I think we have gone backwards over the past four years, with almost all of the expansion being in the private sector. Public services still have a lot to offer, but the Government hasn't thought through how to use them properly. There are all sorts of attributes in public services people admire, such as the belief that people must come before profits. Just as we value the NHS and education in this way, the same should also apply to childcare.'
The other 11 countries covered in the report are Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the United States.
The reports are available on the OECD website www.oecd.org
