Nursery World - Confusion reigning over early years

Early years organisations have expressed growing frustration with the uncertainty about where the sector fits into the Labour Government's plans for its second term. Three weeks after the general election, it was still no clearer where responsibility for the early years lies in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DfWP), created from the former Department for Education and Employment and Department for Social Security.

Three weeks after the general election, it was still no clearer where responsibility for the early years lies in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DfWP), created from the former Department for Education and Employment and Department for Social Security.

This, combined with the Government's emphasis on secondary education and univer-sities, as underlined in last week's Queen's Speech, has worried early years organisations, along with the confusion over who is in charge of the sector and the length of time it took to announce the appointments.

On 18 June the DfES told Nursery World that Stephen Timms, school standards minister, would be in charge of the early years. The following day it announced that Baroness Ashton was in fact the minister in charge of early years. However, the DfWP had said Baroness Hollis, minister for children and the family, would be responsible for areas including childcare, and integrated child credit and child benefit.

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