With the national daycare standards about to come into force from September, the Government might have been hoping that the furore over qualifications and training for early years workers had died...
Margaret Hodge's appointment as minister for children continued to attract a barrage of criticism last week from the press and opposition MPs (see News, page 4). One unfortunate consequence of the...
After many years of lobbying by childcare organisations, the Government's proposals to extend tax breaks for employer-supported childcare look set to make significant advances (see News, page 4). Tax...
The Equal Opportunities Commission is carrying out a major study into gender segregation in five employment sectors where there are skills shortages - construction, plumbing, engineering, ICT and...
The Government has been very keen to stress how important it is to listen to parents' views about smacking, and the results of various polls of the public are used to justify maintaining physical...
It seems that getting the language of early years education and childcare right is a struggle for Government speech writers. Take education secretary Ruth Kelly's words to the IPPR last week (see...
The Scottish Independent Nurseries Association (SINA) has received approval to provide training for the new Level 4 Scottish Vocational Qualification in early years and education. The qualification is...
Next month, the Government begins a double advertising and marketing drive about early years education and childcare. On the one hand, it is renewing its efforts to persuade more people, particularly...
As soon as any kind of assessment is formalised into a league table, it will be seized upon and interpreted in a misguided manner. Just look at what has happened with SATs. So it is with the 2005...
Unease is growing over some of the proposals in the Childcare Bill, with early years and childcare professionals raising their voices at several recent events (see News, page 4). There has been such a...