What's on the early years agenda for the Government's second term? Mary Evans rounds up the plans and the policies
New Labour may have won a mandate to continue its programme of welfare and educational reforms, but will Tony Blair's second administration prove more radical and more pro-active than the first?
Tax credits
The Tax Credit Bill, outlined in the Queen's Speech, aims to remove one million children from poverty and to create a culture where work is seen to pay. It should enable Chancellor Gordon Brown to achieve his goal of producing one single tax credit worth the same for families in or out of work by 2003.
Working Families Tax Credit, Children's Tax Credit and the Disabled Person's Tax Credit will be abolished and replaced with a new generation of tax credits.
The Employment Tax Credit is for working adults on low pay whether or not they have children, and the Integrated Child Credit will cover families with children whether in work or on benefit.
Ministers have not decided whether the childcare tax credit, the element of WFTC which parents access to pay for their childcare costs, will be included in the ETC or the ICC. Final details of the Bill will not be determined until the autumn, after a consultation exercise.
The amounts allocated in tax credits rose last month as a result of the spring Budget, but some social commentators argue that far more money needs to be spent on childcare facilities, such as neighbourhood nurseries in the most deprived areas, as well as giving parents more help with childcare costs.
Childcarers from all sectors also report a range of criticisms of the childcare tax credit, from fraud to low take-up and over-rigidity of the rules. A Treasury spokesman said ministers would look again at the issues of fraud and how the credit has operated. A consultation document is being issued this month and people will have about three months to respond.
Gill Haynes, chief executive of the National Childminding Association, says, 'We will be lobbying hard during the consultation exercise as there is still clear evidence that the current system is seriously disadvantaging providers in many parts of the country. It ranges from blatant fraud where childminders are being asked to sign the form and take a cut of the money, to cases where parents are in debt and using the tax credit to meet the deficit.
'We have sent at least 50 documented case studies to the Government, but there is no significant change in how they plan to address it. The outcome is that in some parts of the country and in some parts of London, childminders won't take anybody on WFTC.'
Under-threes provision
The main pledge for under-threes in the Government's green paper on the future of early years is to 'create, and encourage others to create, up to 100,000 new full-time nursery education places where childcare is available to cover a normal or extended day. Many of these places will also provide for children aged under three.'
Provision will be increased by extending pilot low-cost family learning programmes and by developing a framework of best practice for supporting the nought to three-year-olds.
Three and four-year-olds
By September 2004 every three-year-old whose parents want a free place will have one. That year, 390m will be spent on providing universal pre-school education for three- and four-year-olds.
Integrated care
Ministers want to see more provision taking children through the Foundation Stage in one place. Early Excellence Centres are the flagship of integrated childcare and early education. The initial pilot programme of 29 EECs will increase to 100 centres by 2004.
A further 250 nursery schools will be supported to develop a wider range of services such as wraparound care.
Sure Start
Sure Start is the cornerstone of New Labour's drive to tackle child poverty. In its first term, the Government pledged to halve child poverty in ten years and eradicate it in 20. It will expand Sure Start to 500 programmes by 2004 supporting 400,000 children aged under four - a third of all children under four living in poverty.
Sure Start has been closely monitored under a collaborative evaluation study. The Government pledged spending of 500m a year by 2003/04 and in return set a series of objectives and targets. However, some commentators query whether such rigid goals should be set for community development programmes whose ethos is for each community to determine the way they want to go forward.
Professor Helen Penn, professor of early childhood at the University of East London, says, 'I think the Government is putting too much on Sure Start. It is being touted as the main initiative to combat child poverty, but it cannot cure poverty. The only way to cure poverty is through re-distribution of wealth and equality.'
Neighbourhood Nurseries
Neighbourhood Nurseries are to be developed in deprived areas with a target of 45,000 new places in up to 900 centres by 2004.
Early years partnerships
Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships are the vehicle for realising the government's National Childcare Strategy throughout the country. Their workload and budget have increased dramatically since their inception and will increase again in the coming years. Currently partnerships have 29 targets on which to deliver. The DfES partnership unit has established a team of advisers to identify and share good practice initiatives across the country.
Special needs
Early years partnerships have by 2004 to ensure all providers of early education have access to a trained early years SEN co-ordinator - the target is one SENCO per 20 providers.
Investors in Children
Investors in Children, the national quality star-rating scheme for all childcare providers, will be launched in September 2002. It will be a practical guide on the facilities, quality of care and early education available to help parents choose a provider for their children. Each accredited provider will be able to display its rating and this will include the excellence of the staff, the facilities on offer and their track record of delivering a high-quality service to children.
The ratings will be based on existing accreditation schemes. Officials have consulted widely on the scheme and a shortlist of potential blueprints was forwarded this month for a final decision to Lady Ashton, the junior minister at the new DfES for early years and school standards.
Recruitment and training
On Government figures, employment levels in the sector grew more in absolute terms between spring 1997 and spring 2000 than in any other.
Ministers estimate at least 150,000 new recruits are needed by March 2004. They have earmarked extra cash and set the new Learning and Skills Council a target to award 230,000 people new or higher childcare qualifications by March 2004. They want closer integration of early years and childcare qualifications, with all candidates training in key common areas. All early years practitioners working with Foundation Stage children will have at least four days' training a year.
New career paths into teaching and other senior positions will be created so that by 2004 up to 1,000 people a year will be gaining senior early years practitioner or teacher status through the new framework of qualifications.
Yes, Minister...
Despite the prime minister's overhaul of the Whitehall departments, the fundamental division in early years issues between childcare and education persists. There is a fear that until this is tackled it will be difficult to deliver a fully integrated childcare strategy.
The former Departments for Education and Employment and Social Security have been re-jigged to become the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). At the DfES, Lady Ashton, the junior minister for early years and school standards, is responsible for early years, including education and childcare and daycare services, and she takes charge of the departmental interest in Sure Start. Stephen Timms, the minister of state for school standards, will take early years and childcare questions in the House of Commons. Margaret Hodge, minister of state for lifelong learning and higher education, has responsibility for the Learning and Skills Council. At the DWP, Lady Hollis, the junior minister for children and the family, is responsible for Integrated Child Credit, child benefit, poverty and social exclusion, and childcare.