The pre-school movement is staging a comeback with moves to empower parents and extend services. Catherine Gaunt reports on its new campaign
Throughout its 40-year history, the pre-school movement has prided itself on having close relationships with parents and addressing the wider needs of families. Many settings have played a major role in helping parents back into training and work (see box), and now the Pre-School Learning Alliance (PLA) hopes to build on this tradition.
In May, the PLA launched a new campaign called Changing Lives, Changing Life. Campaign packs were sent to all its members with a petition, in the form of a Charter for Parents and the Early Years.
The charter requests that the Government provide a childcare place for every child who needs one and, reflecting the PLA's philosophy that parental involvement is vital to the success of early years education, calls for the formation of parent boards.
The boards would give parents a say in the planning of local childcare provision, so that provision met family needs. It would encourage parents to become involved in the development and management of provision. The charter also argues that there should be drop-in and advice services for parents to provide life-long learning opportunities.
The aim, says PLA chief executive Margaret Lochrie, is to move towards a system tailored more towards practices in some European countries, where there is a legal requirement to involve parents. In Denmark every kindergarten has parent boards, and recent legislation in France gives parents rights in relation to the running of creches.
Ms Lochrie says, 'Now what we're hoping for is more direct investment in childcare centres across the country, so children can go at the times and frequencies that are right for them, in their own neighbourhood.'
She says the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review, which allotted a budget of 1.5bn a year for childcare and the creation of childcare centres in the 20 per cent most disadvantaged areas of England, has left her feeling 'pretty positive' about the future. 'The centres are very close to our own core business and values, and we support this wholeheartedly.'
She adds that the voluntary sector will have a role to play in this, but it remains to be seen what mechanisms the Government will put in place regarding childcare provision.
In the meantime, pre-schools are continuing to develop their services and achieve their wider aims independently or in tie-ups with Government early years initiatives.
According to a recent and major PLA membership analysis of 6,000 pre-schools, 27 per cent of them have expanded their services in some way in the past year, though the survey also shows that lack of finance, particularly for premises, is hindering their capacity and their desire to expand further.
The tie-ups have been largely with two of the Government's main early years initiatives, Sure Start and Neighbourhood Nurseries. Both are committed to tackling social exclusion in the most deprived areas of the country and both accord with the PLA's focus on helping parents regain their confidence so that they are able to retrain and rejoin the workforce.
The PLA is also the biggest voluntary provider for Sure Start. 'We're the biggest provider that they've got in terms of the number of projects we're involved in,' says Margaret Lochrie. 'And Neighbourhood Nurseries will be the concrete and practical roll-out of our charter. On the one hand this is what we say, and with Neighbourhood Nurseries this is what we do, and they match.'
The PLA hopes to have 20 nurseries opening across England by March next year. The focus will again be as much on parents' education as on children's.
Ms Lochrie says, 'Education, both for children and for adults, isn't just an intellectual process, it's about helping people sometimes to overcome emotional difficulties, and about general empowerment of those people.'
She cites the huge basic skills problem in the UK, and the fact that one of the most successful literacy programmes has been family focused.
She adds, 'We are trying to help this country move towards something which will be more workable, not just a whole load of initiatives which are simply parachuted into communities, but working with people to address issues in everyday life, and we're re- inforcing the parents' authority.'