Flexible hours may damage quality
Simon Vevers
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Letting the parents of three-and four-year-olds take their hours of free nursery education at times to suit themselves may prevent children developing consistent relationships with staff and other children, early years consultants have warned. In its five-year education plan the Government this month unveiled the concept of 'educare', integrating nursery education and childcare. It said 12 and a half hours of free 'educare' could be taken flexibly across the week for a minimum of 33 weeks a year, 'according to children's and families' needs'.
In its five-year education plan the Government this month unveiled the concept of 'educare', integrating nursery education and childcare. It said 12 and a half hours of free 'educare' could be taken flexibly across the week for a minimum of 33 weeks a year, 'according to children's and families' needs'.
But early years experts said the proposal is more geared to the needs of parents and their employment, rather than children.
Early years specialist Wendy Scott said, 'It might help meet parents'
needs, and indeed the Treasury's desire to get women in particular into work, but it will be at the cost of high-quality experiences for the children.'
She warned that allowing parents to choose when to bring their children to a nursery would disrupt consistency of care and make staffing ratios difficult to implement.
Nurseries could turn into 'a type of creche, with children dropping in at odd times', she said, making it difficult to plan and build continuity and progression. 'There would be no sense of belonging to a group or learning to relate to each other, which is vital because social learning underpins everything else.'
Early years consultant and trainer Marion Whitehead echoed concerns about flexibility. 'I don't think it puts the children first,' she said. 'The problem is that so much early years work gets muddled up in the worst way with women's issues and employment issues.'
She added that the proposals could create even more confusion for heads of the new integrated centres who already face 'a very complex organisation'.
Lin Ashby, regional executive officer and team leader of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, said although it was difficult to predict at this stage, the Alliance did not believe giving parents such flexibility would have a significant impact on pre-schools or make them unsustainable.
Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, 'We hope the promotion of educare is the beginning of a shift towards one single stream of funding for childcare and education. While there is an obvious need to move away from two-and-a-half hour ring-fenced provision, we need to ensure quality and continuity of care is not compromised.'
* See 'In My View', p34
