The stress we put on children

The start of a new year provides an appropriate opportunity to focus on the position of young children in early years provision. While there is much talk of the importance of quality among a range of 'stakeholders', their own voice in this debate is barely heard. Or are they perhaps making their feelings known in other ways?

There is growing evidence that young children are suffering from increasing and serious stress. For some, it may be brought on by the demands placed on their parents, who are combining parenting and full-time employment, while for others the reverse applies as stress results from the strains within workless families, or families coping with a variety of complex problems, of which unemployment is only one.

It is an uncomfortable thought that the very shape of current early years provision may be implicated in generating some of the stress suffered by young children. The way services are delivered forces a complex pattern of attendance on many young children. In any one week, or even in any one day, continuity, a stable peer group, familiarity with their carers and educators, and the chance to build attachments to these practitioners, often do not materialise. Yet we know that without these elements, the potential benefits of early years provision for children may remain elusive.

How many young children actually experience the full Foundation Stage curriculum in one stable setting? How many three-and four-year-olds attend 'out-of-school' care in different settings at the end of a long day? How many childminders cannot give extended periods of concentrated attention to their youngest charges because of the demands made by the 'school run' for other children in their care? These are the kinds of questions young children have every reason to put to us.

The challenge of creating sustainable, comprehensive and integrated early years provision in every community remains considerable.