It's all in the terminology - The difference between 'Early Education' and Childcare for Parents who Work, neither of which are free....

With everyone, even the DfE, coining the phrase 'Free Childcare' coupled with an already complicated system that parents and the public frequently misunderstand, I feel that it is dangerous to clump together 'Early Education places' and 'Childcare for parents who work'. In my opinion, there is difference.  Not in the physical teaching and care given but in the motivations behind it.  The reasoning behind the government's commitment to extend funded places for 3 and 4 year olds to 30 hours confuses me as a practitioner let alone anyone else. 

1. Early Education

This is provided in order to prepare children for school and life and ensure that they being given appropriate opportunities to support their development. With the support and teaching from skillful 'Early years practitioners' these children will be developing in line with expectations.  If they are not then this will be identified early and an intervention to narrow the gap will be put in place.

This was identified in the 'The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education [EPPE] Project A Longitudinal Study funded by the DfES (1997 – 2003)'.  Following the study, it was decided that all 3 and 4 year olds would be entitled to 15 hours of funded Early Education.

More recently, disadvantaged' 2 year olds have also become eligible for 15 hours of Early Education which has, in my experience (I am not aware of research and statistics to prove this but I am sure there will be some in time) has worked really well in narrowing the gap in development for those who are likely to developing at a rate which is below that expected for their age.

So for the other 60% of 2 year olds...... well some will be accessing some form of Early Education either because their parents have made the conscious decision to do so at their own cost, some will be accessing it because they go out to work and so they have to, some will stay at home with well-educated, child-led parents who are providing an appropriately supportive environment for learning and development and then there's the rest..... It's these 2 years olds I feel for most - not deprived enough to be entitled to a funded place and yet perhaps not getting the support at home to be learning and developing to their full potential.

2. Childcare for Parents who work - as I have already said parents who are accessing either an Early Years place or wrap around school care because they are at work still deserve and benefit from exactly the same teaching and care but their motivation is care for their child during the hours that they work.  I am certainly pro helping out parents who work as much as possible by subsidising their childcare costs but that is exactly what it should be a subsidy to their total childcare cost and not an add on to a funded place.

An across the board subsidy, probably a % paid by the state for all working parents who pay a registered provider for childcare (a bit like the current tax credits system but simpler and fairer to middle earners) for children of any age would work better in my opinion.  If the intention is to get more people to take up jobs then why not just offer a higher % of childcare costs paid than the current 70%?

Some parents are fortunate enough that their child's Early Education place does coincide with their working pattern and therefore benefits them and their child at the same time but let's remember that isn't the intention of an Early Education place although if it helps then great.

15 hours of Early Education for every 2, 3 and 4 year old
Now back to Early Education, yes I do believe that it should be extended to all 2 year olds and not just those who meet the criteria for being a 'disadvantaged' child.  Let's be fair about it and offer every child at age two, three and four, as a bare minimum 15 hours of learning opportunities that will set them up to be good learners, school ready and eventually good contributors to the United Kingdom.

Whatever the motivations behind Early Years and Childcare places and whether funded places are rolled out to all 2, 3 and 4 years olds the next questions are:

How do we ensure that all places are of the highest quality?

then 

How do we ensure that those providers who do offer places are able to run sustainable businesses?

They are other posts......