To the point : Supporting Families in the Foundation Years - A welcome document

The Government's key statement on early years, Supporting Families in the Foundation Years, jointly produced by the DfE and the Department of Health, was launched on 19 July. It has not received the attention it deserves. Given all our fears about the dismantling of public services, we could not have hoped for a more comprehensive and well thought-out paper.

The document is particularly strong in areas where, in my view, we have done less well in the past. For the first time in one place, the Government is offering a coherent story that links pregnancy, childbirth, infancy, early education and primary school. For example:

• Expectant mothers will be supported through universal, high quality maternity care.

• All new parents will be supported in their transition to parenthood.

• Health visitors will provide expert preventive healthcare for parents and children until they are five.

• Children's centres, based in the community, will provide access to a range of integrated universal and targeted services.

• When a child is aged about two, nurseries, pre-schools and childminders will give parents a short summary of their progress.

• All threeand four-year-olds will continue to be entitled to 15 hours of free early education per week for 38 weeks of the year.

• A new Early Years Foundation Stage framework will help practitioners to get children ready for the opportunities ahead of them

• Parents should have a good choice of primary schools in their area.

Early years practitioners and managers should be congratulating ministers as well as themselves, as the Government consulted widely in the production of the document.

So, is there bad news? In terms of the document itself, I have one small concern about increasing the flexibility of hours for children in group care to better accommodate working patterns. I fear that a small number of children will miss out on the benefits of early education because the hours they attend are not really the best for learning. For example, a mother may have a part-time job late afternoons. Using her free hours to cover her work time will reduce her childcare costs, but it is unlikely that a tired three-year-old at nursery from 4 pm to 7 pm five days a week will get the same cognitive and social benefits as attending five mornings.

But there are two more substantial concerns. First, I am not sure how the detail of these commitments aligns with the new 'localism'. To what extent will the delivery of the offer be up to local authorities and their health partners? How much diversity across England will be tolerated? Given the removal of all dedicated early years grants and the failure to ensure a 'ring fence' on the new Early Intervention Grant, how will local authorities faced with cuts in other areas make good on these extensive promises?

Second, the tumultuous changes in the NHS at local level will make collaboration across services more difficult. In my local area, Milton Keynes, our PCT was co-terminus with the local authority, and joint planning was steadily improving. Our PCT has recently merged with Northamptonshire, and the responsibility for commissioning a range of children's services including speech therapy, occupational therapy and community paediatrics still seems uncertain. While the commitment to increase the number of health visitors is welcome, it is unclear whether GP commissioners will want them based in their own practices or in children's centres. In times of great organisational change, the disruption to systems of joint working that were beginning to take hold, may take years to repair.

ACCOUNTABLE TO ALL

Given these concerns, we should all be using Supporting Families in the Foundation Years as our source document in defending services at local level. Parents should be made aware of what the Government has promised them. They will not be satisfied if told that it is up to local authorities to deliver. One of the key principles in the Government's Open Public Services White Paper is accountability - public services should be accountable to users and to taxpayers. That accountability surely includes the Departments of State responsible for the commitments to families set out in this excellent document.

Supporting Families in the Foundation Years