APPENDIX 36
Memorandum from the Early Childhood Education
Forum, the Local Authority Early Years Coordinators Network and
the Early Childhood Unit at National Children's Bureau (EY53)
1. INTRODUCTION:
1.a/ This submission to the Select Committee
is on behalf of the three organisations mentioned above. Although
these organisations are very different, as shall be described,
they have all reached agreement on several issues which concern
the remit of the Committee. EACH ORGANISATION WISHES THE SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE CONVERGENCE IN THEIR RESPECTIVE UNDERSTANDING AND VALUES
TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED AND TAKEN AS SERIOUSLY AS POSSIBLE BY THE COMMITTEE,
PARTICULARLY CONSIDERING THE EXTENSIVE NATURE OF THE NETWORK'S
REPRESENTATION.
1.b/ Both the Early Childhood Education
Forum and the Local Authority Early Years Coordinators Network
wish to offer verbal evidence to the Committee. They have extensive
experience of organising this type of submission and each has
had recent meetings with the Minister for Education and Equalities,
Margaret Hodge and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development. Both bodies routinely meet with representatives
from central government departments and would welcome the opportunity
to meet together with Committee members at a suitable time. The
Early Childhood Unit is happy to arrange and convene such a meeting.
2. THE ORGANISATIONS:
2.a/ Early Childhood Education Forum
2.a.i/ The Early Childhood Education Forum is
a coalition of interest groups, professional associations, voluntary
organisations and local authority officers united in their concern
to develop the care and education of young children (see annex
for Membership Organisations). The Forum believes that childhood
is the most crucial stage of life and has immense potential for
growth or for harm. It is therefore essential to value all young
children and their families equally and essential to invest in
supporting them. The Forum originated in January 1993 and continues
to meet regularly on a national basis.
2.a.ii/ ECEF published Quality in Diversity
in Early Learning in 1998 which is a framework to enable early
childhood practitioners of whatever professional background to
consider, understand, support and extend the learning of young
children from birth to eight years. The conditions which best
support the continuing learning of the adults who engage with
the children are also set out as a critical component of success.
Quality in Diversity was produced after a national process of
participation and collaboration involving a huge variety of practitioners
from all sectors and setting types. Given this the document is
remarkable in having been signed up to by all members of the Forum
except one. Since publication in May 1998 Quality in Diversity
has sold 4,000 copies which is exceptional for a text of its type.
It continues to figure in practice across the country.
2.a.iii/ In preparation for a major consultation
meeting with the Secretary of State for Education and Employment
held in September 1998 the Forum spent a considerable time setting
out a Policy Agenda to which all of its members could subscribe.
Quality in Diversity and the Policy Agenda referred to here have
been submitted to the Select Committee as part of the Early Childhood
Education Forum evidence.
2.a.iv/ The Forum aims to:
— raise public awareness of the needs
and potential of all young children in particular addressing inequality
and the needs of those who are disadvantaged.
— influence public policy in the broad
field of early years care and education
— promote a national strategy and programmes
to support the development of children from birth to eight, to
equip them for their future as individuals and as citizens
— achieve the allocation of a larger
share of gross domestic product for the benefit of young children
and their families
— ensure high quality national standards
for all provision are put in place and to ensure that they are
met
— develop effective practices for working
with young children which can be accepted and used by all early
years practitioners
— ensure that appropriate training
for all those who work with young children is put in place
— work towards implementing all our
principles and agenda for action.
2b/ The Local Authority Early Years Co-ordinators
Network
2.b.i/ The Local Authority Early Years Co-ordinators
Network originated in 1995. It consists of local authority officers
drawn from Education and Social Services departments who have
pivotal roles in the development of early years education and
childcare. Many of them are servicing officers for the Early Years
Development and Childcare Partnerships and simultaneously play
a lead role in bringing the Early Years Development and Childcare
Plans to completion. These Partnerships and Plans are the central
planning mechanism with which DfEE is staging the expansion of
education places for three and four year olds and the expansion
of childcare within the National Childcare Strategy. Many of these
officers also have responsibilities for developmental and managerial
aspects of Sure Start and other funded initiatives.
2.b.ii/ It is also important to note that
the local authorities are required by the School Standards and
Framework Act 1998 to bring together the Partnerships, which must
have extensive local membership. These Partnerships have the right
to veto the contents of the Plan even if the local authority accepts
it. In such instances the Secretary of State for Education and
Employment must intervene. This stresses the importance of the
content of the Plans and the Partnerships. They must be comprehensive.
The Partnership is required to establish schemes to expand all
places, as required by the DfEE, and to design a comprehensive
strategy for the provision of all professional training and the
maintenance of quality. Each Plan has nine annexes, covering these
aspects, and are usually developed to include other aspects such
as the provision of places for children with special educational
needs. These Plans must interact with other planning mechanisms,
and their significance cannot be underestimated.
2.b.iii/ The Network's aim is to develop
and disseminate good practice through routine consultation, information
exchange and evidence collection. It sees the achievement of the
principles of affordability, accessibility, diversity and quality
as fundamental to improving the life chances of children in Britain.
Members believe they are uniquely placed to assist government
in the definition of those policies/processes which are likely
to secure an implementation of their agenda.
2.b.iv/ The Network, due to the growth in
the central government agenda, now meets nationally six times
a year. Each session is well attended and all policy developments
are discussed routinely. There is significant dissemination of
good practice as well as constructive debate about topical dilemmas
and difficulties. Key players from HM Treasury, the DfEE, the
Home Office and OFSTED are amongst the most recent and regular
external contributors to the Network over the past year.
2.b.v/ Sample topics for the Network's national
agenda:
— DfEE policy on the regulation of
early years education and childcare, including the development
of the new national standards
— Training, recruitment and retention
of early years practitioners
— The impact of the Working Family
Tax Credit on Early Years Education and Childcare
— Discussion with Government Ministers
(Margaret Hodge)
2.b.vi/ Network activity has extended to
include quarterly meetings in each of the nine government office
regions. Here the national agenda is translated into a local process
of informal benchmarking and mutual simulation as well as facilitating
general information exchange. The LAEYCN is the most comprehensive
network for leading officers in the Partnerships in the country
and almost all local authority areas participate regionally and
nationally.
2.c/ Early Childhood Unit
2.c.i/ The Early Childhood Unit, as part
of the National Children's Bureau, aims to promote good practice
and innovation in services which affect young children. Its work
is based on the premise that what is good for young children is
also good for society and that action to raise standards so that
all children will have an equal chance in life is the single most
important issue facing the United Kingdom.
2.c.ii/ The Unit does this by:
— opening up dialogue between the professions,
sectors, interest groups, central and local government, parents
and children who are key stakeholders;
— helping to implement and influence
policy at all levels of administration and service delivery; and
— by putting time and effort into servicing
and chairing national groups such as the Early Childhood Education
Forum and the Local Authority Early Years Coordinators Network.
2.c.iii/ Distinct from issue-based voluntary
organisations, the Early Childhood Unit is at the centre of a
living framework of and debate which can nourish and change those
who are part of it.
Our starting points are:
— that all children should have an
equal chance in life
— that action to improve the quality
of life [to raise standards] for young children is the most important
issue facing the United Kingdom;
— that dialogue between all stakeholders
is essential if services are to progress;
— that community enterprise offers
the most efficient milieu from which to develop universal services
which support young children and their parents.
2.c.iv/ Project Work
Integration in Practice: national DfEE funded
project to audit all learning support materials to identify common
quality areas and exemplars of good practice.
Working in Partnership: national development
programme funded by individual early years development and childcare
partnerships and education authorities.
Playing with Words: national development project
to establish a method of working for early years practitioners
which will increase the likelihood of pre-school children with
speech and language difficulties receiving support before entering
reception class.
Funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation
2.b.v/ The specialist Early Childhood Unit
Library is a unique resource, holding over 7000 items and training
materials on many aspects of child welfare, child development
and early childhood services.
3. THE SHARED
RESPONSE TO
THE EDUCATION
AND EMPLOYMENT
COMMITTEE EARLY
YEARS EDUCATION
INQUIRY
3.a/ The Early Childhood Education Forum,
the Local Authority Early Years Co-ordinators Network and the
Early Childhood Unit wish to begin by restating their commitment
to the development of a new model of fully integrated education
and care which allows these distinct and honoured professions
to work hand in hand. Their view is that such a model should not
simply be organisational but rather be a holistic pedagogical
approach to support the growth and the "bringing-up"
of children and their potential to flourish in their respective
home environments. All three organisations see Quality in Diversity
as an exemplar of a cross-sectoral, cross-professional framework
to support such a pedagogical approach and would like to see it
used appropriately in all early years settings.
3.b/ Specific Responses to the Areas of Inquiry
3.b.i/ The appropriate content of early
years education, taking into account the recently published QCA
Early Learning Goals:
All three organisations are committed to a "from
birth continuum" model of learning which includes all children
and adults. This approach puts the activity of learning and the
methods of supporting learning at the heart of all parts of education.
Furthermore this approach asserts that as children grow their
capacity for learning changes. Whilst there is nevertheless an
identifiable continuum of learning, this does not mean that the
mechanisms which children have available to them to activate their
own learning are the same as adults or older children. Paradoxically,
whilst the youngest children are at the height of their capacity
to learn (and to learn HOW to learn) they also need most individual
attention. Adults, on the other hand, are relatively much slower
learners and less able to "learn how to learn", but
often benefit most from shared learning and group-led programmes
as well as distance learning. There are many such differences
within the continuum of learning.
3.b.iii/ All three organisations assert
that the optimal time to nurture and extend children's individual
disposition for learning is in the early years and that this period
generally corresponds with the age from birth to five or six for
most children. The partnership between national education's goals
and structures, parents and all early years practitioners over
this period should therefore be to engage with every child to
ensure that they are able to use their own unique combination
of skills and natural attributes to access the curriculum on offer
in each sector of education from primary onwards. All three organisations
believe that this approach will benefit all children and that
it has precise implications for the content of early years education
and childcare alike.
3.b.iv/ Present government led developments
represent significant improvements to the nature and pattern of
provision which is available to young children and their parents,
and have children's needs at the centre. The new partnerships
and plans described above are steps in the right direction as
is the current activity spearheaded by the Care Standards Bill
to unify the system of regulation in early years education and
childcare and the complementary initiatives in Sure Start.
3.b.v/ All three organisations therefore
have the view that the appropriate content of early years education
will take full account of a from birth continuum model of learning
and that prior to statutory school age interaction between practitioners
and children will be constructed in order to enable the child
to take control of her or his own instinct for learning which
needs to be continued in all phases. Within such a system content
(curriculum), whilst important, is subsumed by the children's
needs to develop their capacity to think and learn. The form of
practitioner input which this approach demands is exceptionally
rigorous but derives from reflective practice which can be shared
across all professional backgrounds. The organisations would therefore
argue that early years education content can be expressed as it
is in Quality In Diversity in any setting. This would involve
each setting, all of whom must have qualified teacher input within
the terms of the DfEE funding regimes for early years education,
having an agreed description as in "What Practitioners Do"
and the "Practitioners Wheel" on pages 47 and 48 of
QiD and access to their own observations of the type set out extensively
throughout QiD.
3.b.vi/ The way in which it should be taught:
All three organisations assert that appropriate
content and the way in which it should be taught cannot be separated.
As stated above, they argue that content derives from the method
of working of the practitioners and this should be defined and
monitored within a framework (of which Quality in Diversity is
an exemplar). They believe that all children are nurtured and
supported as active self-determining learners and above all the
method of teaching should mirror and be directed by an understanding
of how young children learn through play, exploration, experimentation
and talk.
3.b.vii/ The kind of staff needed to teach
it and the qualifications they should have:
New kinds of Early Years and Childcare qualifications
which match the model of practice advocated above, but which allow
for a diversity of philosophical approach, are needed. These should
be developed from existing qualifications which emphasize reflective
practice and ways of supporting it. Teams of practitioners with
diverse skills should be present in all settings and their work
be co-ordinated and led within a planning framework (QiD). All
practitioners should be part of a continuing process of shared
professional development.
3.b.vii/ The way quality of teaching and
learning in the early years is assessed:
Assessing quality demands complex systems of
evaluation and related development which should include:
— external inspection which is entirely
independent but which is informed by self-assessment at the point
of inspection
— ongoing and meaningful partnership
with parents and children
— qualitative methodologies which vigorously
document every child's progress and helps parents and teachers
to support children better: possibly in the style of the Learning
Stories model being developed as a national system in New Zealand
at present.
3.b.viii/ The age formal schooling should
start:
All three organisations agree that the important
issue about fixing the age at which statutory school begins is
that all children are as well prepared as possible to be able
to take the best advantage of their education career. There are
many studies in this area which highlight the problems that emerge
later in life when children have experienced too much formality
in their education at an early age. Recent studies about the performance
of boys later in life is particularly important here. They would
argue that the huge diversity of skills and disabilities which
children have need to be taken into account. They are confident
that all children will benefit from a longer sojourn within the
first stage than being moved as early as possible into statutory
education. This will also establish the inclusion of children
with special education needs or children for whom English is a
second language. In practice, this would mean that the present
reception year is firmly placed outside of statutory schooling
and into the early years stage; the consequence of this being
that children always enter primary school after their fifth birthday—which
is not the case at the moment.
The Early Childhood Education Forum, the Local
Authority Early Years Coordinators Network and the Early Childhood
Unit at National Children's Bureau
January 2000
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