Children at the centre

March 2008 - Posts

• Cameron, friend of SureStart? Don't make me laugh.

  At the weekend David Cameron made speech undermining Sure Start, promising to cut Outreach Workers from Children's Centres and replacing them with more Health Visitors. As far as I can see this is simply another attempt by Cameron to portray the Labour Government as profiligate and wasteful with resources.  In addition he may be trying to reach out to overstretched NHS workers by saying that he values their tried and trusted professionalism over new-fangled approaches. Whilst I have absolutely no problem with Health Visitors whatsoever, Cameron's proposal is actually a backward step.  In reality his proposed increase will only get the current Health Visitor workforce up to strength, and lets face it if they had done such a good job histotically we wouldn't have needed SureStart in the first place.  Whilst it is changing many Health Visitors are still charged with visiting every mother with a new born rather then targeting those most in need. Cameron dare not say that he will get rid of Sure Start as he's making every effort to portray himself as family guy in charge of a family friendly Tory party.  However, he doesn't really believe of the aims of the policy: to target the poorest and most vulnerable children.  Face it the Tories have never been sympathetic to single parents or the children of immigrants for example.  Read the Daily Mail if you are in any doubt.  When Cameron goes on the TV and says he likes SureStart 'my children have used it' he just confirms that hes missed the point - its not meant to be for the children of millionaires. What could be really damaging is that Cameron's comments could set professionals working in early years against each other, undoing many years of effort to develop integrated services.  It could also undermine some parent's confidence in Surestart services which won't help anybody. The latest NESS report shows that SureStart is at last beginning to have a real impact.  Those of us there at the beginning will remember that we all said that SureStart would take a generation to make a real change.  Keep the faith, stuff Cameron, what does he know? Posted Mar 18 2008, 08:43 PM by The Leveller with no comments

• Scaremongering about daycare

  The Whistleblower programme has clearly raised old concerns about the quality of education and care provided in formal childcare settings. The Leveller shares these concerns, but we need to be realistic there are rogues in each and every business.  In my opinion the standards of care provided in nurseries and other settings have rocketed in recent years. Since the introduction of government initiatives in early years the the beginning of the decade there has been great investment in early years and corresponding increases in standards.  The Effective Pre-School Practice (EPPE) Research has shown that with quality and consistent care children in nursery settings do well.  Furthermore the government has changed policy to incorporate key findings from the research such as the efforts increase the level of qualifiactions within settings and the ongoing extension of free nursery entitlement. Children within daycare settings are safer now than ever before, protections are offered by Ofsted, CRB checks, monitoring and support by the local authority and, in the current context I would also argue the market also offers protection.   Parents are becoming more discerning consumers and with overprovision in many areas parents are able to pick and choose a nursery of their choice.  Put more simply bad providers will go bust. Of course there are problems, low pay and status being high among them.  We still allow our children to be predominantly cared for by an army of poorly educated, often young women.  However, in truth, has this ever been any different?  There is a solution, but the economics of daycare are problematic, and I do believe that unless the government accelerates towards a more Scandanavian funding arrangement day care will continue to be a struggle, and as a direct result scandal-seekers will find what they will.  Posted Mar 11 2008, 09:15 PM by The Leveller with no comments