The Coalition Government's recent policy statement, 'More Great Childcare', sets out what the Government spends each year on a range of early childhood services. It then goes on to claim a leading place in the international early childhood spending league: 'As a share of GDP, the Government spends around 40 per cent more than the OECD average on childcare ... lower than the Nordic nations, comparable with France and higher than Germany' (page 16).
Now there can be no doubt that government investment in early childhood education and care has increased substantially since 1997. Nursery education entitlements, subsidies to parents for childcare use, children's centres - all have boosted public spending on the early years. But starting from so far back, have we now become a front runner when it comes to expenditure on early childhood services? If not, where are we now in comparison to other rich countries?
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