The rush to keep pace with the Government's plans to expand early years care and education and so combat child poverty by getting parents into work is relentless and Steve Alexander, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA), committed the organisation's members to an ambitious programme of further growth in a speech to their national conference in June.
'The Pre-school Learning Alliance can help to deliver the Government's agenda,' he said. 'We have created nearly 30,000 new childcare places in the last three years. We are involved in more Sure Start projects than any other organisation. But, as the largest voluntary sector provider of early years care, we cannot afford to stand still.
'Over the next three years, the Alliance plans to manage daycare provision in 100 children's centres; become actively involved in the Extended Schools Initiative; create parent forums in all of our settings; ensure all our provision has been through our quality accreditation process and meets the Investors in Children standard; encourage half a million parents to participate in family learning; and increase qualifications among all our early years staff. This is an ambitious programme which demonstrates our intention to be a major part of the future of early years and childcare.'
However, Mr Alexander also voiced the concerns of many in the voluntary sector about the impact of the Government's ten-year strategy. In particular, the fear is that the Government has still fully to recognise the importance of the relationship between the different sectors. 'For diversity and choice to flourish, all local authorities need to work as effectively in partnership with the voluntary and private sectors as the best do now,' Mr Alexander said. 'The need for true partnership needs to be written into the forthcoming Childcare Bill.'
Although the strategy document is entitled Choice for Parents, the Best Start for Children, the choice it outlines focuses on full daycare, extended schools, wrap-around care - with little or no mention of sessional care. As Jonathan Rallings, of the PLA expansion team, adds, this remains a concern because, 'sessional care does not appear to have the backing in the same way that other types of provision do. For some parents, sessional care is what they are most interested in.'
Staff and premises
Two key problems facing pre-schools trying to play a part in this vision are, 'the premises simply are not there and the workforce is not there', says Mr Rallings.
Pre-schools, like all other early years providers, face problems of recruiting and retaining staff. 'Recruitment and retention of staff is a very real issue in a competitive market,' says Rita Sutton, PLA director of regional operations. 'With children's centres coming on board and the huge influx of staff who are going into them, this is a worry.'
However, pre-schools' community base gives them an edge in tackling staffing: traditionally they grow their own (see page 20).
Multi-use premises such as church halls and community centres are often the only option for pre-schools, particularly in rural areas where the village hall might be the sole building available, says Ms Sutton, but this limits the scope for groups to extend their opening hours.
'Unless we can move pre-schools on to school sites we will be in danger of losing them, but pre-schools on school sites need to retain their independence and avoid being swallowed up by the school,' she says.
Pre-schools have charitable status and it is not possible to transfer assets from a charitable group to a statutory provision under charity law.
On the other hand, many school governors are nervous about allowing people over whom they have no control to operate on their premises.
'We are not trying to be difficult or put obstacles in the way,' says Ms Sutton. 'We are keen to work with schools and local authorities to solve problems and make arrangements so that pre-schools can move across and have a genuine partnership with their local schools. It benefits the staff to be able to share knowledge and skills and provides continuity for the families and children.'
Ambitious strategy
'We hope working with children's centres and extended schools will herald a new era and give our groups access to more permanent lodgings,' says Mr Rallings. 'It is an ambitious strategy.'
The PLA hopes that the changes will also provide the opportunity to improve the pay and conditions of those working in pre-schools. 'One of the major issues for us,' says Mr Rallings, 'is to ensure that pre-school staff receive fair recompense for the important work that they do and to bring them into line with the other professions at these centres.'
At the same time, the PLA is determined to safeguard the strong community links that have been pre-schools' traditional strength. While the ten-year strategy talks about building on community action, 'There is the worry that when groups move onto school sites, given the lack of guidance on governance about how the system should operate, that this special relationship with parents might get lost in the school environment.'
Rallings is pleased that the DfES does recognise the importance of parental participation. 'They know full well that the greater the involvement that parents have with their child's education then the more the child is going to achieve at school.'
Pre-schools, because they are run for parents, by parents, with parents, have the ability to draw people in and involve them in their child's development and learning, as well as equipping the parents with skills, confidence and even qualifications in a way that other providers can't.
Nonetheless, there are fears that this parental involvement could be lost in the race to expand provision and extend hours.
'The pre-school movement has always been about parents being involved,'
says Peter Forbes, chair of St George's pre-school, Catford, south-east London. 'But the more you expand your sessions, the more you attract people who are wanting to go out to work.
Inevitably, these parents have different priorities. 'Whereas before we would put up a list for people to sign to say they would come in and help on certain days, nowadays we put up the list and nobody signs it. They are all too busy doing other things,' says Forbes.
'The more you move towards providing wrap-around childcare the further you move away from the pre-school ethos that parents should be very much involved.'
Sustainability
Funding remains a major obstacle to future expansion. Recruiting extra staff to cover extended hours and moving premises involve costs that somehow have to be recouped if pre-schools are to remain viable.
A study of the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative published by the Sure Start Unit in January found that the 'transition from low fees to a market system has proved problematic for some nurseries'.
The report, by a team from the Department of Educational Studies at Oxford University, says, 'Evidence from the study suggests that nurseries serving areas with a low-wage economy, low demand for childcare and no tradition of employment for parents with young children might be more at risk in the future.'
According to Mr Rallings, 'The large amounts of funding that supported expansion, particularly in non-deprived areas, has evaporated. New Opportunities Funding, which was the key to much of the expansion, is not necessarily going to be there. There are not as many chances of getting large amounts of capital funding for expansion projects as there were two or three years ago.'
Yet, despite the difficulties, pre-schools are rising to the challenge.
Over the next five pages, we tell some of their stories.
