tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6170843747241811034.post7732584741540711120..comments2024-03-27T16:07:27.865+00:00Comments on Inside the secret garden: EYFS Review - Open EYE and Parliament's Children, Schools and Families CommitteeJulian Grenierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12848393412066522760noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6170843747241811034.post-3573648866036991772008-05-28T18:51:00.000+01:002008-05-28T18:51:00.000+01:00Hi Janet - I think the other dimension of this dis...Hi Janet - I think the other dimension of this discussion is economics. I am no economist so the following section is probably quite simplistic. When childcare is a market there is a driver towards lowest cost per unit. In nursery childcare this means charging the lowest fees by hiring the cheapest staff you can get hold of, in the cheapest premises, etc. There is considerable scope for this in the US and other lightly regulated childcare systems. There is little scope for it in countries like Demark or New Zealand which have highly regulated sectors. The UK is somewhere in the middle. I think that with less regulation the UK would probably go the American way. <BR/><BR/>One angle on this is that regulation should be a matter of individual and local choice. However I think that for economic reasons there may always be a demand for very cheap childcare, no matter that it isn't good for the children.<BR/><BR/>Another angle would be to argue for early childhood services to be seen as an important part of the fabric of local government, as they are in, say, Denmark, parts of Italy, New Zealand, etc. So local people are not so much consumers of childcare services, but participants in a local enterprise, with a say in how the centre is run, etc. This is argued for in the book <I> Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care: Languages of Evaluation </I> by Dahlberg et al. However the context here is that there is significant regulation at a state level, in law, as I understand it.Julian Grenierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12848393412066522760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6170843747241811034.post-41467327699460451702008-05-25T19:54:00.000+01:002008-05-25T19:54:00.000+01:00Hi Julian, thanks for your reply. You are of cours...Hi Julian, thanks for your reply. <BR/><BR/>You are of course well steeped in your field, and I'm sure there's a lot of background that informs your opinion that I know nothing whatsoever about. I hope you can tolerate my ignorance a bit more as I think there is something really interesting going on here which would be good to try to make clearer. <BR/><BR/>Let me persist with this question about the level of regulation in the US and the standard of child care. Perhaps the quick way would be to pose the question in terms of centralism vs local action. The underlying point is to ask what is it that causes the worst experience of being in a nursery? And what counts as the worst experience? <BR/><BR/>I suppose what I am struggling to understand is where the local picture has gone. Is it that the adults involved are no longer able to make their own regulations or to make them work? If this is true, it must mean that something quite radical has happened, which would be important to know something about. <BR/><BR/>Thanks again for your blog - you can see that I find it both important and interesting.<BR/><BR/>Yours, JanetJanet Haneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262151203909905985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6170843747241811034.post-17444919734685860112008-05-24T16:34:00.000+01:002008-05-24T16:34:00.000+01:00Hi Janet - Thanks for your comment. Well, I do the...Hi Janet - <BR/><BR/>Thanks for your comment. Well, I do there think is role for govt regulation in nursery education and childcare - e.g. that staff should be police checked; minimum levels of qualification; space per child; ratio of staff to children etc. Countries like the US where there are very low levels of regulation are the countries where the children get the worst experiences of being in a nursery. Similarly there is a role for regulation in, say, building standards; the operation of trains; etc.<BR/><BR/>I guess the key issue is should there be more regulation? There is a lot to be said against the EYFS, no doubt about it; but my take on it is that it does not regulate early childhood education and care any further than the previous legislative guidelines. I also do not think that the EYFS is taking away liberties - for example it does not affect the standing of alternative systems like Steiner, etc. <BR/><BR/>Best wishes - <BR/><BR/>JulianJulian Grenierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12848393412066522760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6170843747241811034.post-9260145204533939962008-05-24T10:06:00.000+01:002008-05-24T10:06:00.000+01:00Dear Julian, I was surprised to read that governme...Dear Julian, I was surprised to read that government regulation is what is needed to teach people how to be good child carers. I thought that you held the more interesting idea that if government regulation is the answer then what was the question? You say "My understanding of international research is that weak regulation goes hand in hand with poor quality early childhood services, the USA being perhaps the most notable example". I would like to encourage you to expand on this a bit. My understanding is that our current government, at least under Mr Blair, passed more laws in its term than any government before it, ever (source: Chris Atkins, Taking Liberties, 2007). If we are now in a position which needs even more government regulation, then we should know much more about how we got into this mess. I look forward to reading more about how you have arrived at this position, and also to thank you for your interesting blog. With best wishes, JanetJanet Haneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262151203909905985noreply@blogger.com