The Social Benefits of Early Childhood Education and Care

1. The Social Benefits of Early Childhood Education and Care Analytical Review prepared on behalf of NESSE by Helen Penn Cass School of Education, University of East London, UK

2. Social benefits?

3. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) - A complex issue • Overlapping and even contradictory rationales for ECEC, drawing on different sources of evidence, and arriving at different policy conclusions.

4. Work Life Balance • Parents face shortage of childcare services, says EU report • Childcare services in EU countries are failing to respond to the needs of parents, despite some progress, according to a report today by the European Commission. The report finds that most countries have missed the targets for childcare provision – for 90% of children between three and school age and 33% of children under three – that EU leaders set themselves at Barcelona in 2002. The 'Barcelona targets' are an integral part of the EU's strategy for growth and jobs and aim to help young parents – and in particular women – into work.

5. Overlapping Rationales and contradictory evidence • ECEC inextricably linked with other measures to reconcile family and work life, and with wider social conditions

6. Overlapping rationales and contradictory evidence • Early education and care is a good investment only if it is of high quality. Poor quality services may do more harm than good for the most vulnerable children

7. Overlapping rationales and contradictory evidence • Child poverty impacts severely on children’s educational performance, their sense of self-worth and their subsequent societal contribution

8. Overlapping rationales and contradictory evidence • Early education benefits all young children and socializes them for starting school, especially children from poor or migrant families • But targeting raises problems of boundary maintenance and stigmatization “a service for the poor is a poor service”

9. Overlapping rationales and contradictory evidence • Private for profit care raises particular problems about quality – in all countries studied private for profit care increases social stratification and offers more variable and less good quality

10. Overlapping rationales and contradictory evidence • UNCRC children as rights bearers; all young children have the right to protection, provision and participation in ECEC services • UNCRC requires rethinking of nature of ECEC services and how children experience them

11. Policy Implications • Outcomes for young children multi-causal – no simple solutions • Quality issues need redefining across education and care services – EU Quality targets should be revived • New areas for consideration include inequality, social inclusion, diversity and child perpsepctives