A recent survey from Durham University looked at the competence of 35,000 children starting primary school. It concluded that the Labour Government's policy on early years, from Sure Start to free nursery education, has made no difference.
This is the latest blow to the Government after a series of poor evaluation results of its early years initiatives. Why is this? Does it mean that investing in the early years is wasted?
There is no putting the clock back. All developed countries now provide some kind of early education, and to cancel that expectation would make us a laughing stock on the international scene. The provision of childcare is essential to support mothers working. But everything depends on implementation. And that has been the disaster. As one of my colleagues said to me,'How can the Government have got it so wrong?' They have dithered, replaced one initiative with another, and relied on short-term funding that leaves everyone in the air.
Despite all the rhetoric about partnership and integration, nursery education is still a part-time service, free at the point of use, delivered mostly by teachers in schools, and governed by one set of rules and expectations. We let stressed children get bundled into school at a ridiculously early age, instead of thinking through what good nursery education might offer.
Childcare is full-time, but is paid for by parents. It is delivered mostly by nursery nurses and sometimes unqualified staff in privately-run establishments and governed by another set of rules and expectations. And children continue to be shuttled between the two. The complex, makeshift arrangements that most parents still have to make are misleadingly described as giving them 'choice'.
If Ofsted rates 43 per cent of daycare as barely satisfactory, something is seriously wrong. Why are so many poor premises tolerated? Why are training requirements set so low? Why are staff who are well-trained not rewarded? Why are Government subsidies given indiscriminately to private nurseries instead of being ring-fenced for those with properly qualified staff? Even in the United States, some states only give subsidies to non-profit nurseries, because they see a conflict of interest between making a profit and putting children's - and staff's - interests first.
The Durham results were announced on the same day as the news that chief executives of leading private companies earned £14 billion extra last year. There are many reasons why there is so little to show for the Government's investments in early years. The surprise is that it is not worse!
- Helen Penn is professor of early childhood studies at the University of East London.