Rumbold (1990)

Notes on the text

Preliminary pages Correspondence, Contents, Membership

Part 1 Issues and proposals

Part 2 Material to aid practitioners

References

Annexes

The report of the Committee of Inquiry into the quality of the educational experience offered to 3 and 4 year olds, chaired by Mrs Angela Rumbold CBE MP

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1990
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

ISBN 0 11 270721 1

Part One: Issues and proposals

1 Introduction
[page 1]

1. This Committee was established by the Secretary of State for Education and Science in March 1989, with the following terms of reference:

To consider the quality of the educational experience which should be offered to 3 and 4 year olds, with particular reference to content, continuity and progression in learning, having regard to the requirements of the National Curriculum and taking account of the government's expenditure plans.

To take into account in this consideration:

i. the diversity of needs and types of provision;

ii. demographic and social factors;

iii. the nature of training for teachers and other professional staff involved in the education of children under 5.

2. We have endeavoured to remain within these terms of reference, particularly in framing our recommendations. This has meant confining ourselves to issues directly concerned with the quality of provision for the under fives. We believe, however, that there is a compelling need to address the issue of quantity; and we would urge those who make provision to recognise the extent to which demand outstrips supply, and to secure a continuing expansion of high quality services to meet children's, and their parents', needs.

3. As the terms of reference make clear, diversity has been the hallmark of provision for the under fives. The various parts of the system may change in size and character as a result of central and local decisions, public and private, but this essential feature will remain.

4. Schools and parents are not, therefore, the sole educators of 3 and 4 year olds. It is the Committee's view that all adults who spend time with the under fives - whether they be parents, teachers, playgroup workers, nursery nurses or other staff in day nurseries, childminders or nannies - have their own distinct and important contribution to make to the education of young children.

5. We believe it to be vital that all who work, or are involved, with young children recognise the importance of their educational role and fulfil it. While our report is likely to be of greatest relevance to those engaged specifically in under fives' education, in whatever setting, it is designed to offer a framework for development and practical help for all concerned with young children.

Coverage

6. Within this wide audience different groups will vary markedly in their special interests; for example, policy makers may well have less interest than teachers and trainers in teaching method; and providers will differ in the scope and formality of their educational approach.

7. In this light our report is presented in two parts. Part 1 discusses the issues and sets out our proposals. Part 2 offers more detailed thoughts and guidance from which providers of all kinds are invited to draw according to their need.

8. Much sound work is going on in the education of children under 5. But we believe that there is a need, made the more urgent by the rapid pace of current change and development within the education system as a whole, to raise the quality of a good deal of existing provision. Given the limited time available to us, therefore, we have not attempted to make this report all-embracing; rather, we have tried to distil and clarify those issues we consider it essential to address in order to secure improvement in quality, and to draw attention to other, often consequential, issues and implications. We invite all those working with the under fives to reflect on these points and to consider the most effective response.

2 Starting points
[pages 2 - 6]

Facts and figures

9. Provision for the under fives takes a variety of forms. This chapter outlines the characteristics of the main ones, and indicates the scale on which they operate. Further statistics appear in Annex 2.

10. The data we are able to give suffer from a number of defects. The Department of Education and Science and the Department of Health collect figures at different times in the year and on different bases, educational figures being for children and childcare figures being for places. The figures are not complete: those for family centres and combined nursery places do not appear, nor those for peripatetic nursery teachers. For these reasons it is not possible to derive a comprehensive statistical base.

11. The national statistics for particular services may conceal wide local variations in what is available. Where they permit meaningful comparisons to be drawn these relate entirely to the quantity of the facilities provided and say nothing of their quality. We believe a more satisfactory statistical base is needed as a basis for policy making and recommend that the two Departments commission a study to establish how this might be done.

12. Unless otherwise specified, all figures are for England only for 1989; a subsequent figure in brackets indicates the comparable figure for 1979. As general background, the numbers of 3, 4 and 5 year olds in England for every alternate year during the last decade are given below:

Estimated population figures (thousands)

Local authority: nursery education

13. Nursery education is designed to further children's emotional, social, physical and cognitive development, complementing the learning that takes place in the home. Nursery schools and classes run by local education authorities provide free education for children between the ages of 2½ and 5. They are staffed by trained teachers, who will generally have had specific training in the education of very young children, and nursery nurses. The availability of places in nursery schools and classes varies considerably between local education authorities, from 0 per cent to 65 per cent of 3 and 4 year olds. 78 (71) per cent of children in nursery schools and 87 (81) per cent in nursery classes attend part time, usually for five half days a week.

14. Overall, 296,000 (210,000) - 24 (19) per cent - of 3 and 4 year olds attend nursery schools or classes. Staff:child ratios are slightly higher than in 1979, at just over 1:10 overall and 1:23 for teaching staff only, but remain within the variations experienced over the period as a whole.

15. In 1986-87, the latest year for which such data are available, the average annual cost per pupil was £1,505 in nursery schools and £1,030 in nursery classes, the figures for 1979-80 being £805 and £510 respectively. Forecast out-turn for nursery capital expenditure in 1988-89 was £17.1m, the out-turn for 1979-80 being £4.7m. Local authority recurrent expenditure on all under fives in school was approximately £510m in 1988-89, implying expenditure per pupil of £1,255. It is not possible to provide an equivalent per capita figure for 1979-80; recurrent expenditure on the under fives in that year was £177m.

Local authority: reception classes in primary schools

16. Parents are obliged by law to send their children to school from the start of the term after their fifth birthday but it is open to LEAs and schools, if parents wish, to admit their children to primary school earlier in the year in which they become 5. Policies on early admission vary between, and within, authorities. It has been relatively commonplace for children to be admitted at the start of the term in which they become 5, when they are known as 'rising fives', but the trend is towards once-yearly admission. This brings in younger 4 year olds.

17. Primary schools are staffed by trained teachers (of whom, however, few have received nursery training) and some also employ nursery nurses and/or untrained ancillary staff in reception classes; policies vary from authority to authority. Similarly, the quality of education provided for the under fives in reception classes varies very widely, depending on a range of factors, including planning, staffing provision, and staff training.

18. The number of 3 and 4 year olds in reception classes fell markedly between 1975 and 1982. Since then numbers have risen at a rate comparable with those in nursery provision. Contrasting with the latter, the whole of the increase has been in the 4 year olds. Most of the 252,000 (218,000) children in reception classes attend full-time.

Playgroups

19. Playgroups cater for children aged 3 (or sometimes 2½) to 5, aiming to provide education through play. Parents pay a fee for each session. Groups also offer support to parents, and many offer opportunities for learning and involvement. The local availability of playgroups varies; numbers are highest where there is least LEA nursery education provision.

20. The playgroup movement has stressed the notion that parents are the prime educators of their children. There are many different types of playgroups, but two thirds are community groups. These are managed by parent committees and run by playgroup workers with parent helpers. Group leaders are usually trained through the Pre-school Playgroups Association (PPA), a registered educational charity to which about 80 per cent of playgroups belong. Other playgroups are run by local authorities or by private individuals. It is estimated that about 64 per cent are non profit making groups run by committees of parents; 33 per cent are run by individuals, on either a commercial or a non profit making basis; and 3 per cent are run by social service departments.

21. Most children attend playgroups for two or three half-day sessions a week. Most groups are open for five sessions a week but have to restrict the number of attendances per child so that more children can be accommodated. A growing number of playgroups in membership of the PPA - currently 700 - operate extended hours and rather more than 200 are 'opportunity groups' catering for children with special needs. In addition, some 25,000 children with special needs are integrated into other playgroups.

22. All groups, except those operating on Crown premises, have to be registered with the local authority social services departments. The registration requirement is preserved by the Children Act 1989; but from now on it is persons - individuals or committees - who run a playgroup outside of a domestic setting who will be registered.

23. Playgroups currently provide some 407,000 places (the figure for 1979 is not available). It is estimated that they are attended by between 40 and 60 per cent of 3 and 4 year olds. Parents pay a fee averaging £1 per session. Average annual expenditure per child is £90; the estimated income from all sources to playgroups is £50m - through fees, grants and fund raising.

Private nursery education

24. Little information is available on private nursery schools. If they take only children under 5 they are not obliged to register as schools with the DES, and are registered by social services departments either as private nurseries or as playgroups. No data are available on the number of such schools or on their staffing or the fees they charge.

25. The Department of Education and Science collects information by age on the number of pupils in independent schools. Such schools provide for 23,017 (16,986) under fives on a full-time basis and 18,158 (11,078) part time - around 3 per cent (2 per cent) of 3 and 4 year olds.

Local authority day nurseries

26. Local authority day nurseries provide full or part time day care for children who are considered to need specialist help. They are run by social services departments, and most children are referred by those departments because they or their families are experiencing health or social difficulties. Many day nurseries are now changing their approach, working for shorter sessions with parents and children together rather than simply providing care for the child through the day; these are sometimes known as 'family centres' (see also paragraphs 35-36 below).

27. Most day nursery staff are trained nursery nurses, and some have additional social work qualifications. Section 26 (1) of the Education Act 1980 empowers local education authorities to make the services of a teacher employed at a nursery school, or a primary school with a nursery class or classes, available to a day nursery with the agreement of the teacher and school governors. However, this is seldom done. The age range catered for is 0 - 5, though very few nurseries take children younger than 18 months. Day nurseries provide 28,789 (28,313) places -1 per cent of the number of children under 5.

Private day nurseries

28. In the last two or three years there has been considerable growth in the number of private and voluntary day nurseries registered by local authority social services departments. From 1,044 in 1986 the number increased to 1,696 in 1989. The available data do not distinguish the different types of registered day nursery or provide information on staffing or fees.

29. The provisions of the Children Act 1989 require the registration of persons - individuals, private companies and committees - who provide day care services outside of domestic premises. The regulatory framework remains unchanged.

30. Private nurseries provide 45,026 (22,381) places, rather over 1 per cent of the number of children under 5.

Combined nursery centres

31. Combined nursery centres, usually run jointly by the local education authority and the local authority social services department, provide day care and nursery education for a full day for children from a few months to 5 years old - though in practice few take many children younger than 18 months. Many also offer a range of support services for parents.

32. The centres are staffed by teachers and nursery nurses; some also employ social workers and health visitors. There are no national data on nursery centres; but some 40 are in membership of the National Association of Nursery Centres. They vary widely in their approaches.

Childminders

33, Childminders, who must be registered with local authority social services departments, take children under 5 into their homes for two or more hours per day, for which the parents pay a fee. The arrangement is usually a private one between parent and minder, though some local authorities sponsor the placement of 'priority' children.

34. Since 1982 (the first year for which national figures are available) the number of registered childminders has increased from 44,145 to 83,904. Nearly half are members of the National Childminding Association which provides information, advice and support. Firm evidence is lacking, but the available information suggests wide local variations between minders in terms of whether they are trained or not, the hours they work, the level of facilities they offer and the degree to which they receive support from their local authority.

Family centres and other forms of family support

35. There are no national data on family centres (although it is known that some 500 belong to the Family Centre Network); and no single definition of what such a centre is. The main types are:

a. therapeutic centres;

b. centres which have evolved from social service day nurseries (see paragraph 26 above). While some may have changed little more than their name, others admit children only in the context of a programme of work involving the parent(s);

c. centres focusing on community work, often established by voluntary childcare organisations;

d. 'self-help' centres which have grown out of voluntary community groups such as playgroups.

Parents at home

37. We estimate that nearly 10 per cent of children start compulsory schooling with no experience of pre-school groups outside the home, either through parental choice or because no provision is available. But we believe it is important to recognise that the remaining 90 per cent spend more of their waking hours with their parents than they do in nursery provision; the role of parents as the first educators of their children must not be underestimated. Many parents lack confidence in their ability to support their children's early development, however; and we believe that early educators have an important part to play in enabling parents to take an active part in their children's learning.

Special needs

38. Health authorities are under a duty by virtue of Section 10 of the 1981 Education Act to inform a child's parents if they form the opinion that a child under 5 has, or is likely to have, special educational needs, and to bring that opinion to the attention of the LEA, after discussion with the parents. A distinction is drawn between those children under 2 and those aged between 2 and 5. Under the 1981 Act a child under 2 may be assessed by the LEA if the parent agrees and must be assessed if the parent requests it.

39. 'Special educational provision' for a child under 2 means any kind of educational provision including support and advice to help parents to help their children. Parent and toddler groups, opportunity groups, and other forms of provision by social services and voluntary bodies are important in the educational context. LEAs are advised to give priority to children with special educational needs in admitting children to nursery provision. Many local authorities operate Portage services - programmes of early intervention developed in the United States of America - and other pre-school parent support and home-based learning programmes. Most Portage schemes are receiving, or have previously received, funding through the Education Support Grant Scheme. At January 1989, about 3,970 children under 5 had statements of special educational needs.

Toy libraries

40. Educators may benefit from specialist resources and advice. One such service is offered by Play Matters, the National Toy Libraries Association. 1,200 toy libraries are in membership, some 40 per cent of which are in educational establishments. They undertake community work with children under 5 and disadvantaged families, and currently serve more than 14,000 families in all.

International comparisons

41. Because of the wide variety of education and care provision within and between countries, and the different educational systems they operate, international comparisons are difficult to draw. One factor affecting comparisons is the different ages at which compulsory schooling begins. Among countries for which the Department of Education and Science has statistics, only the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have a starting age of 5 (the latter only since 1985): over most of the European Community it is 6, and in Scandinavia it is 7. Taking all group provision, and both full time and part time attendance, the rate of participation of 3 to 4 year olds in the United Kingdom (estimated to be 86 per cent in 1987) is relatively high. It is exceeded only by Belgium and France where over 95 per cent of these children attend school for all or most of the day.

42. For education settings alone, the participation rate in the UK is 45 per cent, a figure exceeded in most EC countries. However, EC countries generally have a much larger proportion of enrolments than the United Kingdom in the private sector of education. A contrasting pattern is found with day care. In the United Kingdom a very high proportion of day care facilities are provided outside the public domain. Of these facilities by far the majority are provided by the largely voluntary playgroup movement.

43. Even at this level of generality comparisons relate only to the quantity of what is offered. Comparisons of quality are even harder to draw. With these qualifications, however, we include at Annex 3 a summary prepared by Peter Moss in 1988 for the EC. It sets out the main characteristics of provision within member states for children in the age groups 0-2, 3-5 and 6-10 between the years 1985 and 1986.

Recent trends and developments

44. The outline of existing provision set out above illustrates the diverse nature of provision for the under fives. This is the result, at least in part, of a historical distinction between 'education' and 'care' which has resulted in the formulation and implementation by a variety of agencies in the public, private and voluntary sectors of their own policies designed to meet specific perceived needs.

45. In education, the expansion of nursery provision during the 1970s, in the UK as elsewhere, had a substantial 'compensatory' component: much was financed, for example, through the Urban Programme as a means of providing enrichment for children who were considered economically and socially disadvantaged. In part the aim was to minimise, by the time children embarked on their statutory period of schooling, inequalities arising from their differing backgrounds.

46. Thus nursery education was widely seen, in crude terms, as existing to provide what the home could not. The consequent targeting of resources to providing mainly for those children considered most in need meant that, overall, nursery education was insufficient to meet the requirements of all parents. Many families who were outside the categories considered disadvantaged therefore turned to alternative forms of provision. The playgroup movement, for example, saw a steady growth during the 1970s. The playgroup philosophy is based on self-help, and is intended to foster parents' constructive involvement in all areas of their children's development.

47. During the last decade, the overall educational context has changed considerably. Legislation has, for example, increased the involvement of parents in their children's education in various ways; established the principle that children with special needs should wherever possible receive education within mainstream provision; and introduced a nationally-determined framework for the curriculum.

48. These changes have direct or indirect effects upon education for the under fives; and there have also been specific developments within nursery education. For instance, the compensatory aspect now has less emphasis. Increasingly, 4 year olds have been accepted into reception classes of primary schools. This trend has been partly due to falling primary rolls in some areas and the resultant release of space, and partly to parental concerns, especially over summer-born children who otherwise may have only seven terms of infant schooling. While this development is generally to be welcomed, there has been widespread concern over the adequacy of much of this provision, from the standpoint of the staffing and equipping of classes and the breadth and balance of the education offered; this concern has been borne out by research and by a survey of the quality of provision undertaken by HM Inspectorate (1).

49. Also during the 1980s, attempts were made to consolidate views on the aims and methods of education for the under fives. Professor Margaret Clark's analysis of the findings and implications of recent research (2) draws together a substantial body of information. HMI have considered various aspects of education of the under fives, both as a discrete topic and in the context of broader analyses of aspects of education (3). Provision for the under fives has also been the subject of review by the House of Commons Education, Science and Arts Committee (4).

50. A number of developments in recent years have had significance across the various different forms of provision for the under fives. Increasing recognition has been given, and value attached, to differences in children's cultural background. Encouraged by joint circular letters from the Department of Education and Science and Department of Health in the late 1970s, local authorities have sought to develop collaboration by the providers of services for the under fives; and these efforts receive reinforcement from the Children Act 1989. The demand for services has continued to outstrip supply though there has been substantial expansion in both the voluntary and private sectors.

51. There have been a number of significant developments in the field of day care: greater emphasis on local authority social services departments and other statutory authorities working to keep together families under stress; increased focus by local authority day nurseries on helping parents to develop their parenting skills; growing interest from employers in the private and voluntary sectors in developing services in order to recruit and retain female staff; a greater recognition of the educational role of parents; and an improved image for childminding as a parallel form of day care to day nurseries. The Children Act 1989 - a major landmark in the development of services for children - brings together local authorities' duties and powers to provide day care themselves; to regulate independent provision; and to review, and report on, all the services in their area taking account of the educational facilities available.

52. Provision for the under fives has also received increased attention from the wider public. Demographic change has alerted employers to the need to attract mothers of young children back to work. In consequence, there is an increasing market for childcare of various kinds. This and the legislative developments outlined above have increased interest in what is provided, and pressure for a more coherent and comprehensive set of services for children under 5 and their parents.

53. The context in which this Committee has examined provision for the under fives is, therefore, a dynamic one. A wide range of bodies and organisations is likely to be concerned in the development of services for young children. We urge them to take into account, in developing their strategies, the important issues of quality which we address in this report.

3 Characteristics of young children
[page 7]

54. The period from birth to age 5 is one of rapid growth and development, both physical and intellectual. At this stage, children's developmental needs are complex and interrelated.

55. Young children follow recognised patterns of development; but within any group of under fives there will be considerable variation between individuals. These differences are intensified because very young children do not have in common the experiences provided by formal schooling. Any attempt by educators to bring a common structure to their experience should take account of these variations, and should be designed to fulfil children's individual needs.

56. Very young children do, however, have in common certain characteristics which enable educators to plan experiences and activities that can be shared by a group. For example, children are generally active learners, operating most effectively through first-hand experience. They make sense of the world by exploring objects, materials and emotions in situations which have meaning for them. For young children, purposeful play is an essential and rich part of the learning process. Play is a powerful motivator, encouraging children to be creative and to develop their ideas, understanding and language. Through play, children explore, apply and test out what they know and can do.

57. Young children are also naturally curious: they want to know why and how things are as they are. They ask a lot of questions and need immediate and appropriate responses. This demands a willingness to talk to and answer the child thoughtfully, accurately, comprehensibly and in a way that leads to further questions. Children's imagination can be nurtured by responding to their curiosity. With encouragement and stimulation, this curiosity will develop into a thirst for, and enjoyment of, learning.

58. At this early stage, children gain a great deal from interaction with others, both adults and children. As the child moves from the close relationship of family life into new situations such as nursery school or playgroup, the close involvement of parents can supply both important continuity for the child, and information for the educator about the child's interests, experiences and needs. Establishing a partnership with the home at this stage provides a firm foundation on which subsequent educators can build.

59. Educators should also recognise and respond to the diversity of society, and the need to avoid stereotyping on the basis of race, sex or special needs. How this may best be done will vary according to local circumstances; but the aims will be to enable all children to respect and value ethnic and cultural diversity, to encourage positive self-images among ethnic minority children, and to ensure that high expectations attach to all groups alike.

60. A good relationship between pre-school setting and home also fosters the establishment of a loving atmosphere of approval and acceptance which young children need. A child's emerging self-awareness and self-confidence depend upon the quality of these early encounters with other people.

61. Finally, it is easy for adults to forget that young children growing up in the 1990s have been born into a different world from that in which their own childhood was spent. For example, many more of their early encounters with the world outside home will come at second hand, through the medium of the television, than was the case even 20 years ago; computers are commonplace; and the means by which children move and manipulate their toys is likely to owe more to the microchip than to clockwork. Such differences may be the more marked where the parents were born overseas and the children in the UK. Young children will, in consequence, have a very different view of the world from their parents' generation; and those adults who encounter the under fives must always keep this in mind. They should also be ready to make full use of the opportunities offered by technological change: new technology can, wisely and carefully used, present rich opportunities for the educator to stimulate the child's interest and imagination.

4 Aims of early childhood education
[page 8]

62. The overall aims of education are common to all its phases and to all the institutions and organisations involved. They were encapsulated in the 1978 Report of the Warnock Committee (5):

'To enlarge a child's knowledge, experience and imaginative understanding, and thus his awareness of moral values and capacity for enjoyment; and ... to enable him to enter the world after formal education is over as an active participant in society and a responsible contributor to it.'

'promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society; and

prepares such pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.'

'The aims for under fives are basically the same as those for any other phase, with the exception that very young children need a considerable additional amount of care. Care and education for the under fives are complementary and inseparable.'

63. In planning how to fulfil these objectives in the education of the under fives, the starting point must be the needs and characteristics of the child; the educator must assess these through observation and by collaborating with parents. The wide range of developmental stages and needs of very young children puts a great responsibility on educators to provide a curriculum which can take into account the similarities and differences within any group of under fives and also provide continuity with what went before and progression to what will follow. Those responsible for planning the curriculum must also take positive action to ensure that no children are being denied opportunities on account of their race, sex, social background or special needs.

64. The advent of the National Curriculum for children of compulsory school age clearly has implications for the work of those who are responsible for children up to that age. We believe that it is timely to outline a general approach to the curriculum which may help inform the thinking of all concerned with the under fives. There should be no suggestion of a 'National Curriculum' for children of that age; we consider, rather, that what is needed is a flexible framework from which a curriculum can be developed to suit the needs of individual children in a variety of settings. This should be based on principles which complement those underlying the construction of the curriculum for children of statutory school age. In the following section, we consider these principles in the context of the needs of young children.

5 A curriculum for the under fives
[page 9]

65. It is the educator's task to provide experiences which support, stimulate and structure a child's learning and to bring about a progression of understanding appropriate to the child's needs and abilities. Careful planning and development of the child's experiences, with sensitive and appropriate intervention by the educator, will help nurture an eagerness to learn as well as enabling the child to learn effectively.

66. We believe that, in fulfilling this task for the under fives, educators should guard against pressures which might lead them to over-concentration on formal teaching and upon the attainment of a specific set of targets. Research (2) points to the importance of a broad range of experiences in developing young children's basic abilities.

67. The educator working with under fives must pay careful attention not just to the content of the child's learning, but also to the way in which that learning is offered to and experienced by the child, and the role of all those involved in the process. Children are affected by the context in which learning takes place, the people involved in it, and the values and beliefs which are embedded in it.

68. For the early years educator, therefore, the process of education - how children are encouraged to learn - is as important as, and inseparable from, the content - what they learn. We believe that this principle must underlie all curriculum planning for the under fives.

69. Chapter 14 in Part 2 of this report considers the process of learning for under fives and sets out a series of statements which emphasise the interrelationship of the child's experiences, and which we believe should inform the planning, organisation and implementation of a curriculum for the under fives.

70. The curriculum - which we take to comprise the concepts, knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills that a child needs to develop - can be defined and expressed in a number of different ways. These varying approaches include frameworks based on subjects, resource areas, broad themes or areas of learning. After considering alternatives, we have adopted for the purposes of this report a framework based on areas of experience and learning.

71. This framework, which follows that outlined by HMI in their 1985 discussion document, The Curriculum from 5 to 16 (7), embodies nine areas of experience and learning: linguistic; aesthetic and creative; human and social; mathematical; moral; physical; scientific; technological; and spiritual.

72. Analysing the curriculum in these terms can help to ensure appropriate breadth and balance, and to achieve continuity with the National Curriculum. It does not follow that the way in which the work is organised and experienced will adhere to this analytical framework. Thus, aspects of different areas of learning may be grouped together and integrated in a 'cross-curricular' approach. What is of prime importance is that the curriculum should be coherent in terms of the child's existing knowledge, understanding and skills, and that it should be experienced in an environment which fosters the development of social relationships and positive attitudes to learning and behaviour.

73. Chapter 15 in Part 2 of this report considers, in turn, each of the areas of learning and experience, and looks at ways in which the education offered to the under fives can contribute to the development of their understanding and skills in each area.

6 Effective curriculum planning and implementation
[pages 10 - 13]

Introduction

74. Effective curriculum planning and implementation requires common and clearly-understood aims, objectives and values. These will form the basis on which is built the framework of attitudes, expectations, relationships and physical environment which children - and their parents - will experience.

75. We believe that the aims of the curriculum will most readily be achieved where skilled and knowledgeable staff:

a. hold high expectations of all children, not limited by stereotyped views about class, cultural background, sex or special educational needs; and

b. value parents as their children's first educators and as active partners in the continuing process of education.

76. Successful curriculum planning involves clear perceptions about the various objectives of the curriculum and how different activities can contribute to their achievement. But curriculum planning is not a once-and-for-all operation: it is a continuous cycle involving planning, observing, recording, assessing and returning to planning in the light of the intermediate stages.

77. At different times those concerned - children, staff, parents, and governors or management groups may be involved at various levels of planning. For example, staff will have a clear view of the curriculum framework of their institution and will collaborate with children - both individually and in groups - in planning their own activities; they will collaborate with parents in planning longer-term objectives for their children; and they will come together as a team in planning their own overall approach and work.

78. An important element is an understanding of the interests and abilities which each child brings from home and from other early experiences. Parents have an important role in imparting detailed information as a basis for the educator's initial planning of provision which is appropriate to the child's interests, experience and abilities. Thereafter, the planning process needs to be sufficiently flexible and responsive to build on new learning possibilities as these emerge.

Implementation

79. Implementation is essentially the process of using resources of various kinds to achieve planned . educational objectives. Five specific issues can be identified as particularly important:

a. basic provision and organisation;

b. approaches to learning;

c. curriculum integration;

d. the role of adults; and

e. partnership with parents.

80. While we recognise that the ideal may seldom be attainable, it is important to secure the fullest and most appropriate use of those resources which are available, both physical and human.

81. Educators and their architects need to ensure that the learning environment both inside and out is well designed and organised so as to be accessible, comprehensible and stimulating for the children; that equipment is appropriate and in satisfactory condition; and that the best use is made of the particular opportunities offered by the locality.

82. A higher adult:child ratio is needed for young children than for those of compulsory school age. Favourable staffing ratios help children to make the most effective use of other resources: they allow children to work in smaller groups or individually with the support and encouragement they need; and they help foster the necessary sense of security in children whose experience of groups larger than their family may well be minimal. Easy access to an interested and responsive adult is also an essential means of reinforcing the learning process in young children.

83. We are concerned about the wide range of existing adult:child ratios within under fives provision - from 1:30 (or more) in infant school reception classes to 1:5 in some day nurseries. We recommend that the Department of Health and the Department of Education and Science, in framing the guidance to be offered on the implementation of the Children Act, should attempt to bring some coherence to the issue, taking account of factors such as staff qualifications, children's ages, the length of the day and the nature of the accommodation.

84. We take the view that a ratio of 2:26 is adequate in nursery classes when one is an appropriately trained teacher and the other a nursery nurse; we agree with the Education, Science and Arts Committee (4) that the presence of an additional adult (perhaps a parent), giving a ratio of 3:26, is desirable. For nursery schools where the head carries both teaching and administrative responsibilities a lower ratio has usually been judged necessary. In this setting 2:20 would be an adequate ratio, rather than 2:26.

85. Experience shows that reception classes of primary schools containing children aged between 4 and 4 years 9 months cannot function effectively with the staffing ratios applied to older pupils. The HMI survey (1) identifies as a prerequisite for good practice that

'class sizes are manageable taking into account the age range of the children and the number if adults available to teach them.'

86. For sessional playgroups, we commend the PPA recommendation of 1:5 where two adults working with a group of 20 children are unpaid volunteers.

87. The integration into mainstream provision of children with special needs places additional demands upon staff; in some circumstances this may require more generous staffing ratios and additional support from the local authority.

88. It is more difficult to reinforce learning in settings where staff changes occur during the day or where children and their parents have contacts with several members of staff: this may be bewildering, especially for the younger child. The practice of identifying a key worker for each child has developed as a remedy for this and we recommend its application across the different settings.

Approaches to learning

89. Young children learn effectively in a number of ways, including exploring, observing and listening. Playing and talking are, for young children, two principal means of bringing together a range of these activities. We believe that effective curriculum implementation requires careful attention to be given to providing fully for these.

90. Play underlies a great deal of young children's learning. For its potential value to be realised a number of conditions need to be fulfilled:

a. sensitive, knowledgeable and informed adult involvement and intervention;

b. careful planning and organisation of play settings in order to provide for and extend learning;

c. enough time for children to develop their play;

d. careful observation of children's activities to facilitate assessment and planning for progression and continuity.

'Play that is well planned and pleasurable helps children to think, to increase their understanding and to improve their language competence. It allows children to be creative, to explore and investigate materials, to experiment and to draw and test their conclusions ... Such experience is important in catching and sustaining children's interests and motivating their learning as individuals and in cooperation with others.'

a. easy access to adults who will stimulate and encourage dialogue;

b. the opportunity for children to work together, especially in pairs or small groups, can promote conversation and raise the level of complexity of their talk;

c. small, enclosed spaces encourage conversation better than larger, more open spaces;

d. adults who offer views, ideas and observations and who 'think aloud' elicit children's thoughtful participation more effectively than those who control the conversation, or those who do not intervene;

e. adults who encourage children to initiate questions;

f. a variety of shared experiences in different contexts can provide rich opportunities for talk;

g. children's existing language skills, both in English and in other languages, should be valued and supported.

Curriculum integration

93. Our preferred approach to analysis and planning of the curriculum through a framework of 'areas of experience' (paragraph 70 above) is intended to help educators see the potential for learning in the whole range of children's activities, both planned and spontaneous, and to encourage breadth and balance in the curriculum.

94. For the child, however, the curriculum is more likely to be experienced through a variety of broadly-based experiences. Many activities, play settings and other routines provided by the educator will relate to several aspects of learning. Useful examples of how an integrated approach to provision for the under fives can fulfil National Curriculum objectives can be found in the Early Years Curriculum Group report (9). Other examples may be found in Part 2 of this report; one such is the 'shopping arcade' described at paragraph 38.

Reviewing the curriculum

95. As we have noted in paragraph 76, curriculum planning is a continuous process. The curriculum is dynamic, and needs to be adapted in the light of practical experience, changing needs and increased knowledge. Educators must therefore build into the planning cycle a broad review of the effectiveness and value of the provision they make, extending beyond the immediate setting to include parent and community links, admissions policies, continuity, staff development and other factors which impinge on provision.

96. Reviews of this sort can occur at various levels. Some may involve individual educators, alone or with a colleague, looking closely at their own practice. Others may take the form of a self-evaluation of a team or institution by a variety of means ranging from informal staff discussion of aspects of provision to the structured involvement of parents, managing groups and advisory services. On a larger scale still, a review may be an external exercise involving the local authority or HMI. We consider approaches to the review of institutions or groups, and external monitoring, in Chapter 9.

97. Self-monitoring can be difficult and demanding. The educator must decide what aspects of practice to review, what information to gather and how this is to be done. Various individuals or groups may need to be involved - children, parents, colleagues, governors. Individual educators need both time and support to develop the approaches required to observe, reflect on and improve their own practice. We believe, however, that self-appraisal by the individual educator, with the aim of enhancing confidence and professionalism, lies at the heart of efforts to improve quality.

The role of the adult

98. If they are to support learning effectively, all adults working with under fives need to:

a. build relationships of trust with children so that they develop the confidence to take risks in a secure setting and can accept, use and overcome minor failures;

b. plan, with others, children's experiences on the basis of observation and assessment of their interests, abilities and needs;

c. be aware of their influence as a role model to the children and use it to challenge stereotyped ideas;

d. hold, and make explicit, high expectations of all children on the basis of a genuine belief in their ability to achieve;

e. value children's ideas and feelings;

f. collaborate with others involved in the child's learning and development (parents, carers, those involved in previous, parallel and subsequent provision, health visitors, social workers etc);

g. recognise their own need for continuing learning and professional development, and act upon that recognition.

99. We agree with the Education, Science and Arts Committee (4) that:

'parental involvement does not merely contribute to quality but is essential if early education is to be successful.'

100. What is needed is for educators to be able, and willing, to explain to parents how the experiences offered to children contribute to their learning, and to describe how their children are progressing. They need to be prepared to share responsibility with parents. This places considerable demands upon the educators: they need to be ready to spend time on it, and to exercise sensitivity; they also need to have enough confidence to invite parents to share in their children's education. They must ensure that they have the necessary skills to work effectively with parents.

101. We believe that educators are likely to be seriously hampered without a clear entitlement to 'non-contact' time which they can devote to fulfilling these tasks. Parents need to develop confidence in their relationship with educators, and educators need to be able to support parents, whatever the parents' level of involvement. We recognise that this has resource implications but believe that time invested in achieving this can pay rich dividends in the attitudes of parents and children to the children's learning. It is certainly crucial that educators and parents should recognise that they are all active participants in their children's development and education, and should act on that recognition.

7 Continuity and progression
[pages 13 - 15]

102. Continuity and progression are constant factors in the day by day and year by year progress of a child through the statutory years of education. They are no less important in the education of those below compulsory school age.

103. Continuity and progression are interlinked concepts relating to the nature and quality of children's learning experiences over time. Progression is, essentially, the sequence built into children's learning through curriculum policies and schemes of work so that later learning builds on knowledge, skills, understandings and attitudes learned previously. Continuity refers to the nature of the curriculum experienced by children as they transfer from one setting to another, be it from home to playgroup, from playgroup to school, from class to class within a school or from one school to another. Continuity occurs when there is an acceptable match of curriculum and approach, allowing appropriate progression in children's learning. Effective assessment and record keeping systems are the keys to these ends.

Environmental factors

104. Many children experience a bewildering range of transitions before they enter statutory schooling. They could, for example, move from home to a creche, a playgroup, a day nursery, a nursery class or school, or indeed between any or every one of these. Consequently children entering the reception class of a primary school are likely to have experienced very different settings, embodying different purposes, providing different opportunities presented by people with very different training.

105. Unless carefully managed the reception class could constitute yet another source of discontinuity, possibly leading to anxiety and stress. Four areas of potentially disturbing discontinuity have been described by Audrey Curtis (11):

a. changes in the physical environment and how these affect the child's movements;

b. differences in classroom organisation, routines and expectations;

c. changes in curriculum content; and

d. differing ideologies of educators in pre-statutory and statutory provision.

The role of parents

106. The one constant element in the child's experience of these transition processes is the parent, and not surprisingly it is the quality of involvement or partnership between parents and educators which is likely to determine the effectiveness of continuity. It is only by drawing on parents' detailed knowledge of their children that educators can begin to gain an understanding of the range of their previous experiences together with an indication of their social and intellectual skills and competencies. On this basis, educators can build continuity of experience for children, and ensure that the provision made reflects and values their cultural and language background.

107. The potential of this partnership will be fully realised when educators more clearly see the home itself as normally affording a rich natural context for all aspects of young children's development. Parents can significantly influence their children's learning: but this potential contribution needs to be fully recognised and acknowledged both by parents themselves and by teachers. Partnership implies a two-way process, with knowledge, information and insights flowing freely both ways.

Coordination between providers

108. Enhanced continuity can also be achieved by improving coordination between the different types of provision. Understanding of each others' priorities, purposes and practices can be forged by increased liaison including regular visits and attempts to plan common curriculum experiences as well as record-keeping systems. Increased access to LEA advisory services would be invaluable in enabling this to happen.

109. One of the key aims of the Education Reform Act for the whole curriculum is to address the issues of continuity and progression. It proposes to achieve this by securing that the curriculum offered in all maintained schools has sufficient in common to enable children to move from one area of the country to another with rninimum disruption to their education.

110. In A Framework for the Primary Curriculum (12) the National Curriculum Council stressed the need to plan for progression and continuity in order to enable children to transfer smoothly from pre-statutory to statutory provision and from one phase of education to the next. It points out that in primary schools where there are nursery classes continuity is eased where nursery class teachers are involved as full members of the primary school team. The NCC is establishing a Task Group which will, as part of its brief, build on the work of this Committee of Inquiry and examine continuity in the education of children from 3 to 7 years.

111. On current evidence we believe that continuity is likely to be better between nursery education and primary education than between other provision for the under fives and primary school. Similarly, continuity is likely to be easier where the child moves from a nursery class to the same school's reception class than when there is a move between nursery school and primary school.

112. The PPA has published guidelines for sessional and day care, and parent and toddler groups, and recommendations for good practice, including educational criteria (13). The PPA is currently working on a guide for parents to the playgroup curriculum and is formulating a voluntary accreditation scheme for its groups. These measures should help improve continuity between playgroups and school. The success of all these will be influenced by the availability of training and fieldwork support and resources to assist groups with premises and equipment.

113. Some concern has been expressed about day nurseries in this context. In her summary of research (2), Professor Clark concluded:

'It must be apparent that children who have been in all-day care in these settings may enter school with severe problems in communication, as a result of the stresses in the homes, any limitations in the day care unit and the children with whom they are in contact. The importance of ensuring that these children do have access to stimulating and varied experiences both pre-school and in reception class cannot be overstated, otherwise their own characteristics and their home circumstances are likely to lead to very early failure in the educational system.'

115. Combined nursery centres offer a setting in which day care and teaching staff can collaborate closely while contributing their own specialist skills. Besides education and day care, numbers of these institutions offer support for parents, drop-in facilities and health care. HM Inspectorate reported on a survey of centres in 1988 (14), noting how well continuity and other requirements were served where the centres as a whole were effective. There are difficulties in operating such centres where local authority services for the under fives as a whole are not coordinated, and the different conditions of service of the two groups of staff are a further constraint (15). We comment further on these two points at paragraphs 217 and 225-226. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the centres can offer children under five and their families an integrated, flexible and effective service. We recommend that local authorities consider the development of further centres.

116. Private day nurseries have not been the subject of any large scale research and we have little information about the experiences they offer children. They are subject to the same regulatory requirements as other types of day care including day nurseries run by voluntary organisations. We urge local authorities, in exercising their regulatory duty, to keep in mind educational considerations.

117. There is a particular problem over continuity between workplace nurseries and schools, as children are likely to disperse to a wide range of different schools. We recommend that where possible workplace nurseries are located within the community, and operated in conjunction with the local authority. The report that health visitors pass to school nurses summarising early development could help here: children with difficulties may thus be noted and the school health service alerted.

118. Currently there is no comprehensive agreement on what constitutes good practice in terms of coordination in day care. We welcome the work on a national code of practice (including curriculum) undertaken by the National Children's Bureau in association with local authorities (16). We hope that the guidance to be issued on the implementation of the Children Act 1989 will be fully informed by this work, the PPA guidelines, and our own recommendations.

119. Given such a varied pattern of provision, it is essential that pre-school educators are appraised of the progression required through the early levels of the National Curriculum; and equally that reception class teachers recognise that children may well already be performing at or beyond level 1 attainment targets on entry.

120. Educators also need to bear in mind that children progress at different rates from each other, and that a child will progress at a different rate in different curriculum areas. Progression should not be seen purely in terms of intellectual competence but in wider respects, including health, social and emotional development. We believe it to be of critical importance for healthy and productive living and learning that teachers do not lose sight of the child's all-round development in pursuit of detailed information exclusively about what children know and can do in the subjects of the curriculum.

121. One recurring source of concern, especially to parents, is the differences between institutions in their practice regarding admission; these differences are not solely between alternative forms of provision or between local authorities. So, for example, schools within the same authority may have different practices regarding the admission of 4-year-old children to reception classes. The aims of continuity and progression will be more fully served the more institutions collaborate to minimise such discrepancies and we recommend that they should carefully consider the possibilities with the responsible local authorities.

8 Observing, assessing, reporting and recording
[pages 16 - 17]

122. Careful assessment and record-keeping underpin all good educational practice. They are essential elements in securing effective continuity and progression; as the ESAC report on Achievement in Primary Schools (17) made clear, the skills of diagnosing successes and difficulties are fundamental to educators' work and vital to children's progress. The report of the Task Group on Assessment and Testing (TGAT) (18) was also unambiguous in stressing the importance of assessment both in promoting children's learning and in assisting educators' planning. These considerations are no less applicable to the education of the under fives than to the statutory period of education.

Collecting information

123. Those who provide services for the under fives need to know how well what is offered meets the needs of the children and the families for whom it is intended. To assess this, they will gather and record useful information on children's development. Information gained in one setting may be valuable to those who work in another; but it is important that information about an individual child should be collected, recorded and passed to others only if it is essential to the welfare and development of that child. In compiling any such records there must be a clear understanding on the part of all concerned about the purposes for which the information is collated, who will have access to it and how it will be used.

124. Within this framework, there is scope for developing cooperative approaches to the collection of information, and there has been some encouraging progress in this direction in recent years. Health authorities increasingly involve parents in compiling and holding children's health records, and many nursery classes and schools compile their records of children's progress collaboratively with parents.

125. Those responsible for under fives in educational settings may need to take account of children's medical and health records. In addition, they are able in the course of their work to identify obstacles to children's progress which have their origins in physical conditions, such as hearing loss or speech difficulties, calling for early help from appropriate specialists; and may thus contribute to such records.

Observation and assessment

126. A good educational programme for under fives will offer ample opportunities to observe closely and to assess children's learning. The information gained from observing children's day to day activities may need to be supplemented by more focused observations of activities planned to show how well an individual or group of children is progressing.

127. For the educator of young children the observation and the assessment of children's learning have several important purposes; for example:

a. to inform the planning of work so that full account is taken of the child's existing knowledge, skills, understandings and behavioural characteristics;

b. to ensure that obstacles to learning, such as those stemming from physical conditions and social difficulties which may require medical or other specialist help are identified and responded to from an early stage;

c. to provide a rounded picture of the child's development for parents and those who will be responsible for the children at the next point in their education;

d. to contribute to the overall evaluation of the quality of the programme provided by the particular setting in which the child is being educated.

Recording and reporting children's performance

129. The primary purpose of assessment is to ensure that educational provision can be planned and evaluated appropriately to serve children's needs; the fact that it is undertaken in this setting should contribute to the accurate recording of their achievements. However, it is important that the recording and particularly the reporting of children's performance should be thorough and intelligible to all concerned. Parents will need to be assured that the information they receive about their child's progress is reliable. This is more likely if they are involved in the compilation of children's records and have clear information about what is expected of their children in terms of progression within the areas of learning and experience that constitute a broad and balanced curriculum appropriate for under fives.

130. What is done to record and report children's progress will, nevertheless, be subject to a large extent to the constraints of time and the circumstances under which education for the under fives is provided. Educators in different settings must resist the temptation to collect too much, or to set too many targets for reporting,

131. With this qualification we suggest the aim might be to record:

a. information and insights shared and produced by staff and parents and by children themselves;

b. progress in a child's development as an effective learner in a group setting, including social and emotional development;

c. progress in attainment in the skills and concepts for which the curriculum provides;

d. group curriculum provision: its planning, implementation and evaluation.

132. The current interest in developing effective ways to record and report upon children's progress may produce material which can be adapted or used to supplement existing good practice for aspects of the work with under fives. However, we believe there is a need for guidance for educators on the achievement of more consistent and coherent approaches to observing, assessing, recording and reporting children's progress in pre-school provision. We recommend that research be commissioned in order to develop such guidance to help both to inform and to improve what is offered to the under fives and the early stages of post-five provision.

9 Monitoring, evaluation and review of provision
[pages 17 - 19]

133. Whatever form it may take, those responsible for education for the under fives will wish to be assured that what is planned and practised is as good as the circumstances allow and results in teaching and learning of high quality.

134. We consider that regular monitoring and evaluation of the curriculum offered to young children is essential to the achievement of high standards.. It should take place at three levels:

a. within the individual class or group;

b. within the institution (school, unit, day nursery, playgroup etc); and

c. across all the services for under fives within a local authority.

136. Chapter 6 has outlined the need for continuous review not only of individual children's progress, but also of all aspects of effective implementation of the curriculum. We see this process of self-appraisal as the responsibility of every adult working with young children. The present chapter is concerned with broader, more formal reviews focusing on institutions.

The institutional review

137. Where under fives are in primary schools, either in reception or nursery classes, the provision made for them is likely to be monitored as part of a regular process of whole school evaluation and review. As long as the distinct needs of the under fives are fully taken into account, this can be a valuable arrangement. For example, issues of continuity and progression can be addressed more effectively where the nursery staff are able to contribute to the formulation of policy and practice for the school as a whole; and those who teach children over five are better placed to understand the purposes and practice of the earlier education the children have received.

138. Professional isolation may thus be less acute for the staff of nursery and reception classes in primary schools than for others. Much depends, however, upon the leadership of the school: staff working with the under fives must be accorded appropriate status, and must not be marginalised in the decision-making process.

139. Nursery schools, too, work within a climate of professional cohesion. There is a well-developed network for the discussion of professional matters which has resulted in the dissemination of much valuable guidance on educational policy and practice for the under fives. Liaison with receiving primary schools has long been an important consideration for nursery schools. As is increasingly recognised, they now need to be alert to primary schools' work in building processes for evaluation and review into their school development plans, and to consider how far similar work is possible and desirable within the nursery school.

140. It is perhaps in the voluntary sector that the processes of evaluation and review are most vulnerable to the problems of professional isolation and unevenness of provision. Recent work - for example, by the PPA - has produced valuable guidance for this sector. There remains, however, a need to develop and strengthen the links between the voluntary and the maintained sectors so that good practice in one including effective evaluation and review procedures might become more widely known in the other. In addition, in-service training could give greater emphasis to evaluation, and be made more widely available to those who work in voluntary organisations.

141. Both self-appraisal by individuals or groups of educators and external evaluation contribute to the school's development of short and long-term objectives. External appraisal by LEA advisers and HMI helps the institution and the educators within it to see their work in wider local and national contexts, and to assess it against what is achieved in similar circumstances elsewhere. Social services and voluntary and private nurseries do not currently have access to HMI or local education advisers both of whom could be a useful source of advice to them. We are well aware that for HMI and local education advisers to cope with any regular inflow of new requests would have resource implications, but we recommend both HMI and the local authorities to consider what additional access might be offered. Other safeguards for standards include the powers given to the Social Services Inspectorate of the Department of Health under the Children Act 1989 to inspect day nurseries and other institutions of childcare; many playgroups are supported by PPA area organisers and fieldworkers.

Local authority monitoring of under fives services

142. The Children Act 1989 requires social services departments to inspect private and voluntary day care annually, and every three years to undertake and publish a review of all provision, working with the local education authority and taking account of the views of health authorities and other interested bodies. Social services departments may also seek the help of the LEA in undertaking the registration and inspection responsibilities which the Act imposes. Within the scope of guidance to be issued by the Department of Health local authorities will need to establish detailed local guidelines for the standards for day care in their areas.

143 . We consider this to be an excellent opportunity for local education and social services departments to collaborate in establishing: a. quality criteria for all services for the under fives in their area, including social service, private and voluntary nurseries as well as LEA provision, drawing on our recommendations about the curriculum for young children;

b. arrangements for regular monitoring of the quality of all under fives' services, incorporating the reviews undertaken by staff teams in nurseries and those introduced by the Children Act. 144. In doing so, local authorities should consider:

a. which advisory and support staff to involve, from education, social services, health and the voluntary sector;

b. in what ways to involve parents;

c. what aspects of provision to monitor. Possibilities include:
  i. the curriculum;
  ii. staffing patterns and group size;
  iii. staff development;
  iv. parent and community links;
  v. health and safety issues;
  vi. the effectiveness of administration arrangements;
  vii. availability and use of equipment and materials;
  viii. the physical environment; and
  ix. equal opportunities policies, including special educational needs.

We recognise, however, that such developments cannot be achieved without cost, and - while acknowledging current constraints upon public expenditure - recommend that those responsible should make every effort to ensure that the necessary resources can be made available for these purposes.

10 Education, training and support for adults working with under fives
[pages 19 - 27]

Context

146. Working with young children is a demanding and complex task. Those engaged upon it need a range of attributes to assure a high quality of experience. We set these out in detail in Chapter 16.

147. The context in which young children are educated is marked by diversity and change. As was illustrated in Chapter 2, there are three broad spheres of activity: care (sessional and day); health; and education. There are three separate sectors of provision: public; private; and voluntary. A great variety of staffing groups - including teachers, nursery nurses, playgroup workers and childminders - are responsible for the delivery of the services. Each service has its distinct ethos and aims which are necessarily reflected in patterns of training. Yet a good measure of interaction between them is essential both for quality and for the effective use of the available resources.

148. Recent developments should do much to bring the separate strands closer together. The Children Act 1989 makes new provisions for the registration and review of private and voluntary day care and for consultation between different local authority departments. The requirements of the National Curriculum have prompted increased attention to the contents of the under fives curriculum and to the implications for training for a variety of staff working in pre-school settings. The introduction of a system of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in 1991 will bring nationally agreed standards across professions including childcare. We believe this is a pressing need: at present there are some 40 different qualifications of widely differing levels of rigour, gained by modes of study ranging from courses of short duration requiring two evenings' attendance a week to 4-year degree courses.

149. There are thus powerful influences for change; but continuity in the content and patterns of training of workers with young children is no less important and the work of the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE) is an important influence for this. The criteria established by the Secretary of State and promulgated by CATE will continue to determine the setting and scope of initial teacher training courses, including those with an early years specialism. Similarly the training of other adults working with young children will need to build on its traditional strengths.

150. We also wish to draw attention to a further specific feature. The status afforded to any group or profession has an important influence on the recognition and support it secures for itself. Yet adults working with the under fives have traditionally enjoyed less esteem than those working with children of statutory school age, outside and even within the ranks of the professions themselves. This is reflected, in substantial measure, in levels of pay.

151. Moreover, differences of relative status between groups concerned with the under fives go beyond those inherent in, or flowing of necessity from, their different levels of training. Besides coming within different sets of arrangements for pay and conditions of service, the groups differ markedly in their opportunities for in-service training - though all alike suffer limitations in their career prospects.

The recruitment and retention of staff

152. There is a clear and growing need to increase recruitment to the various services for under fives; there are indications of serious shortages of appropriately trained staff. For example, a number of new nursery units and classes planned by local education authorities have had to be abandoned; other nursery classes have been reconstituted as 'pre-school groups' run by nursery nurses, a change often intended to be temporary but constituting a change in the character of the school within the terms of section 12(d) of the Education Act 1980. Many teachers currently working with this age group are trained for an older one. The high turnover of staff in playgroups gives cause for concern, as does the problem of retaining nursery teachers and nursery nurses in various settings given the lack of a clear promotion ladder.

153. Recent increases in the numbers recruited to initial teacher training courses with an early years specialism and the grants now available for in-service training, to which we make further reference at paragraph 189, should go some way towards improving the supply and retention of teachers. The scale and timing of the effect of these developments upon teacher supply cannot however be predicted with certainty. Moreover, demographic changes will bring a need for more working adults: this will result in a simultaneous increase in demand for provision for the under fives, and diminution in the availability of staff to run such services.

154. We believe that what is now needed is a determined effort to bring greater clarity and coherence across the field of courses and qualifications for workers with under fives. In short, we think it is time to end what has been termed 'the continuing under fives muddle' (19), taking the opportunity presented by NVQs to develop a new structure that will offer those working with under fives a training more suited to the needs of children today, and reasonable opportunities for career advancement.

155. The Commission for Racial Equality have pointed out the need - which we would underline - to ensure that arrangements for training, recruitment and selection of those working with the under fives are free of discrimination and positively encourage applicants from ethnic minorities.

156. We also see a need to address the question of status. We have already drawn attention to limited career prospects as an aspect of this. As a specific instance, nursery teachers rarely achieve headships of infant or primary schools; and as they often teach in a unit separate from the main school they have particular difficulty in securing enhanced responsibility. We support the suggestion of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities in response to ESAC (20) that nursery teachers might be enabled to earn promotion by taking responsibilities for areas across a wider age range in the same way as infant and junior teachers are able to do. Such a possibility is implicit in the requirement that the training of prospective teachers of under fives should have as its specialism the early years as a whole. While this could add slightly to pressures on teacher supply in the short term, it should enhance the career opportunities - and thus aid the recruitment - of nursery teachers in the longer term.

157. Some measures are also possible on pay. Nursery teachers, like their colleagues, may be considered for incentive allowances on the grounds of possessing skills in short supply and of their performance in the classroom. We commend the initiative of those local education authorities and governing bodies which have afforded such recognition to nursery staff.

Types of training provision

15 8. The types of training offered to different groups of staff who work with the under fives fall, as noted above, into several distinct types. These are outlined below. At the time of writing, changes in training for people working with young children are in the offing as a result of the work of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications.

The training of nursery nurses

159. The main qualifications for nursery nursing are the certificate of the National Nursery Examination Board (NNEB), the BTEC National Diploma in Caring Services (nursery nursing), and the Certificate in Post-Qualifying Studies (CPQS). These are compared in Table A below. The NNEB is perhaps the best-known as well as the longest-established child care qualification, and is still a requirement for numbers of posts. It aims to equip the student with knowledge, skills and competence to work in a variety of settings.

Table A Main training routes for nursery nursing

160. While the NNEB specifies the course content it does not prescribe the teaching approach. Such flexibility ensures that local resources, both within the college and in the practical placements, are used as effectively as possible. On the other hand, it could also lead to insufficient attention to consistency and standardisation.

161. The chief concern regarding the certificate is that it has had no accepted academic currency and little professional standing outside under fives circles. It is not accepted as a valid entry requirement for higher education or for higher professional training in teaching, nursing or social work. Yet there are few opportunities for career progression for the holder of the NNEB without further education or training.

162. The BTEC diploma offers a route to a range of nursery nursing posts while enabling a student to progress directly to more advanced education or training if she wishes to do so. Increasingly, the BTEC National Diplomas are accepted as a valid alternative to GCE A Level entry requirements for vocationally-oriented degree courses.

163. As a qualification available to qualified care workers aged over 21 with two or more years professional experience the CPQS offers an opportunity for worthwhile further study for holders of the NNEB, and it can be an effective means of improving quality in the service provided for young children. However, access is affected by variations in financial support for students according to their geographical area and occupational sector.

164. Oversight of the education and training requirements for social work, in which there are some opportunities to specialise in matters relating to children, rests with the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW). At present there are two entry qualifications below graduate level: the Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW) and the Certificate in Social Service (CSS). The minimum educational standards for students under the age of 21 are five GCSEs, including at least two at A Level or an equivalent National Vocational Qualification. The courses require two years' full-time study and the minimum age at which a student can receive an award is 22. However, a new qualification, the Diploma in Social Work, will replace both over the next few years.

The training of playgroup workers and parents

165. The great majority of registered playgroups are members of the Pre-school Playgroups Association, whose functions include developing and providing courses for play leaders and parents. Table B (below) provides a summary of the courses that are available.

166. Many playgroup workers have a background in childcare or teaching; all are encouraged to undertake PPA training courses and in some places this is a requirement for registration of the group. The Foundation Course, which is supported and monitored by the PPA through its regional training network, enjoys national recognition beyond the playgroup movement.

167. We would draw attention to two aspects of training within the playgroup movement. First, there is a problem of academic currency. Certification is by attendance rather than by assessment. Consequently, the standing of these courses is relatively low, and progression to higher education or to training or job opportunities at a professional level is severely restricted. The PPA is currently seeking to be recognised as an accrediting body under the NCVQ. Work is in hand to develop units of competence and create the necessary structures for assessment and moderation. The purpose of this process is to strengthen training standards and provide a transferable qualification for students.

168. Secondly, there is a problem of course availability. Local variation in the levels of provision is inevitable given the wide range of organisations funding courses - LEA provision for further or adult education, Social Services, the Workers Educational Association, and PPA fund-raising at branch and county level. There is also a shortage of staff. Some strengthening of the PPA's regional structure would help here. At present there are a little over 20 nationally employed fieldworkers and a very small number of paid local fieldworkers.

169. The mixture of financial and administrative arrangements for courses has led to a third problem. In some areas access to the courses that are available may be limited by relatively high fees.

The training of childminders

170. The National Childminding Association (NCMA) does not itself run courses for childminders, but offers guidance to local groups on the planning of courses. The recent decision of the Department of Health to provide funding for a Training Officer post with the Association will enable this role to be extended. A collaborative project between the NCMA and the Open University, funded by the Department of Health, has resulted in the publication of a pack of resource materials for training called Childminding: Materials for Learning and Discussion. These may be used by individual childminders working alone; ideally, however, individual study should be combined with group discussion. The pack includes materials to help interested individuals organise self-help groups or courses.

171. These are clearly helpful steps forward but a substantial problem remains to be addressed. Overall there is a shortage of training for childminders and marked variations in what is available locally.

Home visiting and parent support schemes

172. Informal basic training and continuing support are offered by the best volunteer home visiting and parent support schemes such as Homestart and SCOPE. Learning is mainly through the sharing of personal experiences of living with children, supplemented by discussion with professional staff. The volunteers benefit by gaining access to expert knowledge and acquiring the confidence to be effective intermediaries between families and the services available to them.

Table B PPA training

173. These courses require no written work and are not assessed in any formal sense, though they do allow the coordinators of the support scheme to learn something of the sensitivity and potential of individual volunteers and hence to make informed decisions about suitable placements.

Summing up

174. From this brief survey we can point up certain common problems over the field of training for the care of the under fives. Chief among them are variations in the availability and affordability of courses, which combine to limit access; the considerable variation in patterns of course provision, and the absence of a basis for relating a variety of the awards offered in these fields to the recognised hierarchies of academic and professional qualifications.

Accreditation of training in childcare

175. At present many courses in aspects of care for the under fives are not accredited, an example - as noted at paragraph 167 - being those organised by the PPA. However, a new system of National Accreditation is to be introduced in 1991, in an attempt to link various elements of the existing system.

176. We welcome the work of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) towards establishing agreed standards for childcare workers, including those in educational settings. We believe that, given adequate resourcing, it could bring about a significant rationalisation in the patterns of training. It should also improve the status of early years workers through recognition of the complex range and high levels of the skills involved, and by opening up prospects for further training and career progression.

177. 'Units of competence' for these workers, against which existing and new courses can be accredited, are being developed by the 'Working with Under Sevens' project under the aegis of the Care Sector Consortium. All those courses outlined in the foregoing paragraphs will - if the responsible parties so wish - be accredited as part of the same framework. This covers Levels I to IV in the NCVQ framework, the latter being broadly equivalent to HNC/HND.

178. A set of questions will need to be addressed. We would instance specifically:

a. assessment methodology: a range of different methods are in prospect, some of them not widely in use. Much assessment is likely to be based in the workplace, posing particular problems for the many under fives workers who work on their own;

b. selection and qualification of assessors: who would act as assessors, and how, and by whom, they would become qualified. They will need to be qualified both in childcare and in new assessment methods; yet at present the majority of childcare workers have no formal qualifications;

c. counselling and guidance: who is to offer guidance on the building of portfolios of evidence for the accreditation of previous learning; or to undertake development work to establish what constitutes evidence of experiential learning in childcare and education;

d. training: how existing courses may be given modular structures and be flexible enough to suit requirements for individual competence;

e. training body: the lack of a statutory body to coordinate training of those who work with the under sevens as, for example, CCETSW will for social work qualifications in the care sector.

Teacher education

Initial training

180. Of the 89 universities, polytechnics and colleges providing initial teacher training (ITT) in England and Wales, 65 provide training for primary teachers; 44 of these train teachers of the under fives. Table C (below) shows the types of course on offer, including articled teacher courses starting in September 1990. The Secretary of State approves all courses of ITT. To advise him in carrying out this responsibility, the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE) was established in 1984 (21). Their task was to scrutinise all courses of initial teacher training against criteria specified by the Secretary of State. Recently, CATE was reconstituted and changes were made in the way it operates, giving more responsibility to local committees. We believe strongly that the requirements of the under fives should be reflected in all committee appointments.

181. We recognise that courses for early years teachers should be no less rigorous or demanding than those designed for teachers of other phases. We acknowledge too the legitimate concern of early years trainers that there would be increasing demands on them to meet the criteria, which stressed the time to be spent on subject studies, and to ensure adequate coverage of a range of issues which were largely specific to their particular phase. DES Circular 24/89 (22) recognises that time has to be found for both these elements within the training course. Some training institutions offer a broad area of curriculum study as a main or special subject for early years students, as permitted by paragraph 4.4 of the criteria set out in the Circular; more might be encouraged to do so. Arrangements between LEAs and training institutions to offer mutual support might be encouraged. The involvement of teachers in selecting students, planning and contributing to courses, and supporting students in schools and other early years settings should continue to be an important criterion against which courses are judged.

182. Circular 24/89 requires primary courses normally to cover the age ranges 3 or 5 - 12 with an emphasis either on the age range 3 or 5 - 8 or 7 - 11 or 12. Because of the shortage of under fives specialists too few 3 - 8 courses have adequately covered the 3 - 5 age group. There is encouraging evidence that, because of the recent focus on this age group, more early years lecturers with under fives experience are being appointed. Many more still need to be appointed. It is, nevertheless, important that in filling posts, institutions observe the Secretary of State's criterion that staff concerned with pedagogy have recent experience of teaching the age range to which their courses are directed.

183. Reflecting the increasing amount of group day care and the work of nursery schools and combined centres, numbers of teachers are now working with children under the age of 3. We recommend that consideration be given to extending the options within initial training so as to provide for a theoretical foundation allied to practical experience of this work.

184. As others note (23) it is important that training should cover the early years as a whole while affording specific focus upon the 2 or 3 - 5 range. The latter should not become detached. Provision for the under fives is integrally related to that for 5 - 7s: although statutory programmes of study are introduced at 5, many of the experiences offered the younger children meet - or go beyond - some of the requirements of Key Stage One. To ensure that work is suitably planned and focused we recommend that all institutions offering training for early years teachers have an early years specialist in a key position with a team of tutors experienced in teaching this age range.

Table C Early years primary ITT courses

185. An important feature of the current scene is that about 250,000 4 year olds are receiving education in reception classes of primary schools, a number likely to continue to rise. It is important that all future teachers of these children should, as far as possible, receive appropriate specialised provision within their initial training. To provide also for the needs of nursery classes and combined centres and allow for an increased deployment of teachers over time in day nurseries, initial training should include experience of work with under fives in a variety of settings.

186. We believe it would be helpful for all students training to teach in primary schools to spend some time with children under 5 and suggest that institutions should consider experiences for them reflecting their understanding of the needs of young children.

187. We see a need for those making use of new arrangements to overcome the problem of teacher shortage to exercise care where teachers of the under fives are concerned. The 'articled teacher' scheme is a new form of initial teacher training leading to a PGCE, and is therefore subject to CATE accreditation in the same way as any other such course. The scheme offers opportunities for specialisation in the early years: we believe that all those who become under fives' teachers in this way should have undertaken such a specialisation. The arrangements for 'licensed teachers', which are outside the remit of CATE, are more flexible: the intending teacher is attached to a school, not necessarily a training institution; and the type and length of training are determined by the school and the local education authority. We attach great importance to improving recruitment of early years teachers. We recognise that the arrangements for operating the licensed teacher scheme are sufficiently flexible to allow the quality of teachers working with the under fives to be maintained; and we call upon those implementing the scheme to make full use of this flexibility.

In-service training

188. Sound standards of teaching for the under fives will not be developed or sustained without extensive and varied provision for in-service training. This will need coordination and support at the level of the local authority - the education authority collaborating with health and social services - and is a task properly falling to early childhood education advisers. It appears that the numbers of these advisers have declined recently. In our view their contribution, both as sources of expertise and in reminding Education and Social Services Committees of their responsibilities in this area, is of growing importance. We recommend that every local education authority should have an adviser with specific responsibility for the early years.

189. An important spur to further training in the last two years was the designation as a National Priority Area within the Local Education Authority Training Grants Scheme of training for teachers with responsibility for younger 4 year olds in primary classes. We recommend that this should remain an important claim on training grants for some years.

190. We recommend that provision should be made for retraining teachers transferring to early years work with an under fives component, and for refresher courses for all teachers of the under fives. We would also encourage head teachers of primary schools which cater for the under fives to review their own training needs, and to undertake in-service training relating to the under fives where possible.

191. There are signs of a reduction in support for the longer courses which lead to awards such as Master's Degrees. We recognise the difficulties which local education authorities may experience in finding or funding appropriate supply cover - difficulties which may be more apparent under schemes of local management. Nonetheless, opportunities for staff to enhance their qualifications are essential to the status and quality of under fives provision. We have observed the shift to a modular approach for some of this training and welcome the possibilities this presents.

192. Great benefit may be derived from multidisciplinary courses, such as those offered by the Roehampton Institute of Higher Education and the Derbyshire College of Higher Education, which bring together staff from the education, health and social services and from the voluntary sector, to learn together and share different ways of working. However, there are constraints to the development of this provision. It is all the more difficult for staff to get release for, and be supported on, courses run by an agency other than their own. Providers also have to judge topical needs and concerns which link widely differing groups of workers in this field. We believe there are a number, and would particularly instance

a. working with parents;

b. working with other professionals;

c. working in a multicultural society; and

d. the needs of today's children.

Drawing the elements together

194. In this report we seek to identify practices beneficial to 3 and 4 year olds across a variety of institutional settings. The content and form of what is offered will differ in detailed ways between those settings, as will the roles and skills required of the workers. It is important that roles should be clearly differentiated and specialised knowledge and expertise fostered. Indeed it will be vital to the enhancement of educational value across the different forms of provision.

195. However, an equally pressing concern must be to reinforce the complementary aspect of those roles. Teamwork is at the root of good practice in this field. Skills in leadership and management are needed by those in charge of different settings, including nursery teachers; time must be made available for this in training courses.

196. Although adults working with the under fives fulfil a variety of roles, we believe there are elements which - in greater or lesser degree - should be common to all training. An outline, distilling our thinking and distinguishing knowledge, attitudes and skills, is given in Chapter 16. We recommend that all providers of courses for those working with under fives should consider its implications for their own practices.

197. We see as essential needs: a closer linkage between the three strands of health, care and education in initial and in-service training; a pattern of vocational training and qualifications for childcare workers which will bridge the gap between vocational and academic qualifications; safeguarding both the rigour and relevance of initial training for teachers of the under fives; and affording improved opportunities of in-service training for child care workers in educational settings.

11 Organisation and coordination of services
[pages 27 - 30]

198. A child's experience of curriculum in the early years will vary depending upon the facilities he or she has had access to before starting full-time school. Section 2 described the different types of provision which currently exist, and outlined their various aims and purposes. By the age of five, children may have experienced one or more different types of group, or they may have been cared for by a childminder or at home.

199. In this section we consider briefly some of the advantages of a coordinated approach to the provision of services for young children, and the difficulties posed by attempts to achieve this. We consider issues of access, as well as possible developments in the organisation and delivery of services.

Access

200. Because services for children under 5 are largely discretionary, there are wide differences in what is available between one part of the country and another. Much provision is available on a part-time, rather than a full-time, basis but perhaps one child in nine is reaching statutory school age with no experience of institutional provision at all; within this group are likely to be some of the most needy children.

201. Local education authorities are increasing by a few thousand a year the numbers of children admitted full-time to reception classes of primary schools when they are 4. This meets one particular concern of parents by assuring children of three years of infant schooling. But it is important to acknowledge that unless the particular needs of the youngest children are met, their experience in this setting may often differ substantially from that offered by a nursery school or class. As we have noted elsewhere, to provide properly for these children, such classes should enjoy a more generous ratio of staff, who should have received early years training, and should offer an appropriate range of activities and a curriculum which is capable of being adapted to meet the needs of all children in the class. Unless these conditions are fulfilled, we believe that there is a risk that young children in reception classes will receive limited benefit from their early educational experiences.

202. Access to services still owes much to factors such as where a child lives, when his or her birthday is, whether the parents have access to information about services and whether they can afford fees where there is no public provision. The government's policy is 'to encourage local flexibility and diversity and maximum consumer choice' (24); but available statistics indicate that while diversity does exist, parents in many areas may have little choice.

203. Different services appear to be used by different client groups. Local authority day nurseries and nursery schools and classes are attended by relatively high percentages of socially disadvantaged children and those living in poor neighbourhoods. Independent and voluntary provision is more likely to be used by socially advantaged children and those living in rural areas (25), though these forms of provision are not absent from cities and rural provision is quite often patchy.

204. The services provided for young children do not necessarily meet their needs. Children in local authority day nurseries and family centres may be among the most disadvantaged but nevertheless not have access to a quality curriculum. Four year olds in reception classes may not be provided with educational experiences which are sufficiently differentiated from what is provided for children of compulsory school age. That problem does not arise with provision in nursery classes, but nursery classes - and playgroups - are commonly part-time. They cannot cater for all the requirements of children whose parents work full-time.

205. The requirements of children with special educational needs demand particular attention. The Committee welcomes the gradual move towards integration of such children into mainstream nursery education following the 1981 Act; but recognises the problems this can create for educators. In areas where only private or voluntary provision is available, staff have difficulty integrating children with special needs into their groups without additional resources or support. Unless these are provided - both in statutory and non-statutory nursery provision - the implementation of the Education Act 1981 in respect of such children may be prejudiced.

Coordination of services

206. Facilities for the under fives in an area may be provided by a range of local authority departments education, health, social services, recreational services and by voluntary and private groups and individuals. Effective coordination is often lacking; and a joint approach to planning, management or delivery is rare. As well as varying purposes, aims and approaches, different facilities have different admission criteria, hours of opening and charges; they employ different kinds of staff with different training and qualifications and different conditions of service.

207. Lack of coordination can mean a wasteful use of resources, through gaps or overlaps between services and lack of continuity between them. It can create confusion for families who want to make use of the system. The need of parents for facilities for childcare can come into conflict with the need of children for continuity. If, as often happens, children switch from one type of provision to another, or have to use two or more different facilities each day because their parents work, the achievement of desirable educational continuity and progression may be threatened.

208. Many 3 and 4 year olds in this country experience a greater range of provision than their European counterparts: some will spend only one or two terms in one setting before moving on to another. While we believe that diversity of provision can be healthy, the corollary is that if services for the under fives are to be as effective as they are in other European countries, collaboration at various levels is essential.

Structures for coordination

209. In recognition of these difficulties, several local authorities have moved during the last few years towards a more coordinated approach to the planning and delivery of services.

210. Local authorities cannot legally establish a free-standing department for the under fives; but the responsibilities of different departments can be delegated to a single specified unit within one of them. Strathclyde has established a single pre-fives section within the education department, responsible for all services including the registration of playgroups, childminders and private nurseries. Some other authorities have transferred responsibility for the majority of their under fives services to their education department.

211. Elsewhere, a less radical approach has been to retain responsibility for services within the separate departments but to establish an under fives committee, either as a joint subcommittee of education and social services, or reporting direct to the authority's main policy committee.

212. In addition, many authorities have established under fives advisory committees (with members from education, the health authority, the social services and the voluntary and private sectors); jointly-funded education/social services posts to support collaboration; and area or local coordinating groups. Such groups are able to feed back to the central policy committee, and may also coordinate local admissions policies; some also involve parents.

213. Whether or not changes in committee structures have been instigated, many authorities have reviewed their services in recent months. The Children Act 1989 recognised the importance of regular joint reviews by education and social services authorities in association with health authorities and the voluntary sector by making them mandatory at three year intervals. These reviews afford valuable opportunities to monitor the quality as well as the scope of services, and to devise joint plans.

A common approach?

214. Evidence from local authorities around the country suggests that various solutions are possible, each responding to local needs. Despite some progress over the last decade, movement is slow, due in part to continuing constraints upon public expenditure. Nonetheless, certain common themes can be distinguished (26):

a. the value of a clear policy agreed by all the main providers of services within a local authority;

b. the importance of a committee/departmental structure which can support an integrated approach to the planning of services;

c. where there is an under fives committee, it functions best where it has delegated authority for policy development and resource deployment and is not merely a forum for discussion;

d. the need for clear support from elected members and chief officers;

e clarity about roles and management responsibility, and clear lines of communication both vertically and horizon tally;

f. clarity about the need for, and means of, involving health authorities and voluntary and private sector services.

Integrated and coordinated provision

216. The organisational changes outlined above have been reflected in attempts to provide a more integrated and flexible neighbourhood service to families. One approach has been the development of combined nursery centres or children's centres. So far some 50 centres exist; no two are alike, but most are jointly funded by education and social services departments, sometimes in collaboration with a voluntary agency or the local health authority; most offer both day care and nursery education, and often other support and drop-in facilities for parents as well.

217. The survey by HMI (14) suggested that the effectiveness of these centres is enhanced where:

a. the centre is part of the authority's general policy for the under fives;

b. the lines of accountability are clear;

c. careful recruitment policies take full account of the dissimilar conditions of service and pay levels of teachers and other staff;

d. the centre adopts a single system for recording children's progress.

218. There are other ways in which existing provision can be made more flexible and responsive to local need. Examples include:

a. appointing early years coordinators/liaison workers - perhaps with joint funding - to provide support and training across all agencies;

b. developing unified admissions policies to all facilities within a single area, perhaps through a local liaison group;

c. employing teachers in day nurseries, or linking day nurseries more closely to schools;

d. extending the hours of nursery classes beyond the school day and into the holidays (possibly with the assistance of local employers);

e. providing drop-in facilities for parents and childminders in nurseries and family centres;

f. linking childminders to day nurseries, schools and playgroups;

g. holding weekly child health clinics in the school, playgroup or parent and toddler group;

h. using schools and centres as information and resource centres for parents;

i. particularly in rural areas, using mobile facilities such as play buses and vans.

219. We believe that better coordination overall of services for the under fives can bring about an improvement in the quality of the various types of provision, make services more responsive to the needs of young children and their families, and lead to a more effective use of resources. We welcome the provisions of the Children Act 1989 for close links between local authority departments over the registration and review of day care facilities.

220. Better coordination does not necessarily require unified services: the purpose may be served by a network of facilities linked through common admissions policies or close working relationships. What is important - and what the provisions of the Act should help to secure - is that the pattern of coordination should take full account of local needs and opportunities, and should be supported by local policies and management structures.

221. In addition to the considerations outlined above, we would stress the importance in such arrangements of

a. a commitment at all levels of management to effective collaboration;

b. ensuring that where development officers and advisers are appointed, their posts are at a sufficiently senior level to ensure full involvement in decision-making;

c. devoting time to the development of trust and respect between different groups of staff;

d. providing appropriate, and satisfactorily supported, multi-disciplinary in-service training for all early years workers in the wider range of skills that these arrangements may require.

12 Issues to be addressed
[pages 30 - 32]

222. In this report, we have discussed in general terms the constituents of educational quality for the under fives. We have made recommendations where we consider that specific barriers to the achievement of quality need to be overcome. But if the standard of services for the under fives is to be raised across the board, we believe that all those concerned with their provision need to address, and keep under review, certain key aspects of their work.

223. In this chapter, we identify the most important of these for each of the three main groups involved: policy makers, providers and practitioners. They are grouped below under the headings Coordination; Quality control; Curriculum; Staffing; and Training.

Coordination

224. The Children Act 1989 has made a start on embodying in legislation the principles of collaboration. This work needs to be built upon at all levels.

225. For policy makers at national level, the focus must be on:

a. ensuring that the development of future policy in this area takes as a starting point the need for coherence across the services provided for young children and their families;

b. securing greater interaction and coordination between the education and care sectors, in order to encourage and facilitate an increased educational component of childcare services which reflects and complements education provision for the under fives;

c. removing unnecessary barriers to coordination, such as incompatible terms and conditions of service for different groups of staff.

a. there are clear and well-understood local policies and arrangements for interaction and collaboration between education, health, care and voluntary provision;

b. there is scope for greater integration of services for the under fives;

c. the authority's management structure is such as to foster, rather than discourage, closer collaboration;

d. there is a need for local authority guidelines to practitioners on issues such as curriculum, staffing, admissions and equal opportunities;

e. there is scope for collaboration between sectors in the provision of in-service training.

a. how to establish or improve links between the practitioner's own organisation and other local services for the under fives;

b. whether there is scope for coordinating with other services aspects such as admissions policies, liaison with families, assessment and record-keeping arrangements etc;

c. suggesting new approaches to those responsible for existing arrangements which impede collaboration.

228.