Child care in the UK
“We will be offering free universal education to every child – from nursery school at three” was the promise of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Labour Party Conference.
“All this is part of the revolution in services for parents and the under fives” announced the Prime Minister, “now 7,000 extended schools, moving from zero to 3,000 Sure Start Children’s Centres, the doubling of nursery education – two-thirds of a million more child care places.”
Speaking exclusively to the PES, British Minister for Children, Young People and Families Beverley Hughes, explained the Labour Government’s child care revolution.
“In 2004 we guaranteed a part-time nursery place to every 3 and 4 year old” said Beverley Hughes. Initially the offer was for 12.5 hours, to be extended to 15 hours next year and to 20 in the future.
The Minister told the PES that the old distinction between child care and pre-school education had been swept away and that early years provision was now based on integrating child care, education and development.
One step in this process is the setting up of the hugely successful Sure Start Children’s Centres of which there are 1,500 across the country, a figure which will more than double by 2010. These centres are a one-stop shop for children and families bringing together child care and education, family support and health services for the under fives.
One centre – in East Staffordshire – has four child care rooms, a baby room and a crèche. There is a day care room for children with special needs and health care professionals – physiotherapists, occupational health therapists, speech therapists, a dietician, midwife and paediatrician – running clinics. An outreach team runs parenting support groups in the community. There’s a toy library and training courses for parents.
Another is an ‘early years foundation stage’ which brings together curriculum guidance and standards for learning, development and care of children from birth to five, and is intended for all professionals working with the under 5s whether in school, private day-care or a childminder.
In parallel, there are many extended schools providing activities before and after school – such as breakfast clubs and homework support. By 2010 every secondary school will be open from 8am to 6pm.
Labour inherited diverse child care services with public and private facilities and decided when in come into power in 1997 to help all sectors and types of facilities to grow. “To improve availability and quality we had to start from where we were” said Beverley Hughes. Local authorities were given a broad duty to ensure sufficient child care of the right quality for parents who want to work, and to achieve that by working with all providers.
So in addition to the new Sure Start Children Centres and nursery classes in schools, there are tax credits for child care costs for low-income families, and child care vouchers that employers can buy for their workers that are tax and national insurance exempt – thereby offering big savings to businesses and employees.
Beverley Hughes acknowledges there are challenges ahead – not only in implementing the Labour Government ambitious plans, but also in improving the quality of child care which she admits is variable. There is a detailed strategy in place for improving the workforce in child care – but aims such as increasing the number of graduates in private sector child care and pre-school education takes time to achieve. Beverley Hughes acknowledges that affordability is also still an issue for some parents.
“Our commitment is for universal, flexible child care” said Beverley Hughes, and there can be no doubt that child care has expanded and improved very impressively in Britain under Labour, and the Government remains determined to continue to provide more and better child care for all.
