EARLY YEARS POLICIES



Early Years Policies

Early Years Policies

Introduction

According to the policy of early years, Baldock et al (2013, p.24) which reads out as, 'Once the Coalition government was established, work began on chipping away at the changes the Labour Party had introduced.' In this particular regard, this essay will primarily put emphasis over the notion of policies, which have been introduced by labour party. These, as a matter of fact, have either ameliorated or worsened the establishment of the coalition government. In that particular regard, this essay will inculcate the policies along with initiation like National Childcare Strategy, Every Child Matters, Ten Year Childcare Strategy, Childcare Act, Early Years Foundation Stage and More Great Childcare. Subsequent to this, this essay will also include the notion of core issues such as those of child poverty and social exclusion which were main drivers for the introduction of the highlighted policies. The essay will also emphasise the impact of the coalition government on Labour's early year's policies.

Range of Early Years Policy Initiatives by Previous Governments

In contrast to the government that has been elected in the year 2010, the prime focus of the previous labour government hovered around the notion of education, it was the first time that the light has been lamented over the education of children in their initial year (Glass, 1999, pp. 257-264). It would be unfair to suggest that the previous governments did not do anything for the education of children in the early years especially as concepts such as; the foundation stage, DCSF and funding for childcare were initialized by the previous conservative government. However, Labour government took several policy measures to enhance the benefits of children to levels that had not been reached before and they were effective. (Fawcett, Featherstone & Goddard, 2004).

National Childcare Strategy

The launch of the National Childcare Strategy can be traced back to the New Labour Government in the year 1998, subsequent to the election campaign of 1997. It was the step of the Secretary of State of Education that eliminated the scheme related to nursery education, and aimed to set up new and improved policy. As a matter of fact, it was the local educational authorities that paved the way for this particular policy in order to prepare developmental plans. The National Childcare Strategy is a peculiar step for the expansion as well as development of the early age child services in the Britain. However, children between the ages of 0-14 are the targets of this approach in order to develop as well as to provide high quality childcare (Fawcett et al, 2004).

At the outset, the plan pertaining to this policy has been formulated and implemented at the local level by a particular partnership, i.e. EYDCP. The National Childcare strategy gave rise to various partnerships and policies that ensured the childcare throughout the United Kingdom. According to Miller, the National Childcare strategy encouraged the whole nation to focus over the quality child care initiatives (Miller, ...