It's proving hard to find positive news stories at the moment, and hard to avoid using words such as 'cuts', 'hit', 'axed' and 'scrapped' in the headlines. Consequently, it is difficult to dispel feelings of gloom and pessimism about some aspects of the future of the early years sector.
In our news section this week, there are several stories about funding cutbacks which seem likely to produce results that are the direct opposite of the Government's stated aims and priorities.
The freezing of grants for the Playbuilder scheme to provide new playgrounds across the country (page 3) is one example. Playbuilder is a perfect demonstration of David Cameron's much-vaunted 'Big Society', in that local communities have worked together to come up with plans and win funding, and children themselves have been very involved in the designs in many cases. Not only that, but playgrounds are a key way of promoting health from an early age.
Then there are the cuts to free and subsidised childcare places for disadvantaged children in Westminster, which providers say could destroy early intervention work in the borough (page 4), and which will inevitably be mirrored across the UK.
Government rhetoric has been all about 'closing the gap' and targeting money at the vulnerable and disadvantaged. The Social Justice Cabinet Committee under Iain Duncan Smith has launched a review into early intervention to find out how to break the cycle of disadvantage for young children (News, 12 August).
We know that money spent well on early intervention has a great return, but it needs sustained investment. At this rate, there will be few best practice examples left for the review to highlight.
