Sam Gyimah visits Paris to share ideas on high-quality childcare

During his visit, Mr Gyimah met with his French counterpart to explore how high-quality childcare can be expanded to ensure all children have access to it.

Mr Gyimah said, ‘We are committed to making sure that every family, regardless of their background, has access to high-quality, affordable childcare.

‘In France, high-quality childcare is central to efforts to support families to balance their work and home life. That’s why I’m keen to find out what works for them, and share best practice with our European neighbours.’

A key topic of discussion was how French childcare providers manage early years education and support parents in getting back to work.

France has a number of ways of delivering early years education, including ‘bridging classes’ to prepare children for school, crèches coaching parents back to work, childcare centres based in nursing homes and pre-schools supporting the parents of children at risk of being taken into care.

As part of the agenda, Mr Gyimah examined the quality of childcare provision in disadvantaged communities.

In a meeting with France’s National Family Benefits Fund Agency, the minister shared ideas on recent funding reforms and the provision of additional childcare places.

At France’s Ministry of Education, he considered recent reforms of early years education, training of early years teachers and how resources can be allocated to disadvantaged children.

Mr Gyimah also stressed the importance of early years education ahead of the Government’s plans to offer 30 hours of free childcare for working parents of three- and four-year-olds in England next year, as well as introducing tax-free childcare from 2017.