How to fix a major problem facing early childhood services around the world is the subject of a new report from UNESCO, called Caring and Learning Together - A cross-national report on integrating early childhood care and education in education. The problem is the split in services between a 'childcare' sector located in the welfare system and an 'early education' sector located in education.
The split, a legacy of how early childhood services were first developed in the 19th century, has produced a long list of differences between the two sectors, with bad results for children, parents and workers. It includes inequalities (in education and pay between teachers and childcare workers; in what parents pay for services; in gaining access to provision); divisiveness (some services for children of working parents, some for 'children in need', others providing education for over-threes); and discontinuities, as children have to switch between sectors.
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