An equal start?: providing quality early education and care for disadvantaged children

In this original, topical book, leading experts from eight countries examine how early education and care is organised, funded and regulated in their countries. Bringing together recent statistical evidence, the book gives an up-to-date picture of access to services by different groups, providing rich insights on how policies play out in practice, and the extent to which they help or hinder disadvantaged children to receive high quality provision.

In this original, topical book, leading experts from eight countries examine how early education and care is organised, funded and regulated in their countries. Bringing together recent statistical evidence, the book gives an up-to-date picture of access to services by different groups, providing rich insights on how policies play out in practice, and the extent to which they help or hinder disadvantaged children to receive high quality provision

1.Introduction --Why does it matter? What we know about early education and care and children's outcomes --The purpose and scope of this book --The countries --Overview of the country chapters --Policy implications --2.Equal access to early childhood education and care? The case of the UK --Introduction --Mixed provision, varied quality --Policy framework --Funding --Quality: qualifications, curriculum and inspection --Who goes where? Differences in patterns of usage of ECEC in the UK --Conclusions --3.Towards universal quality early childhood education and care: The Norwegian model --Introduction --Children enrolled in childcare services --Socioeconomic variation in enrolment rates --Childcare as a social right -- principle and practice --Financing of services --Equity in funding of publicly and privately owned institutions --Regulations and quality of services --Staff --Policies on quality development --Organisation, size and quality --The Norwegian model: characteristics and challenges --4.Equal access to quality care: Lessons from France on providing high-quality and affordable early childhood education and care --Introduction --An extensive and segmented system of public provision: day-care and écoles maternelles --Setting the scene for the institutions in charge of formal childcare provisions --A complex combination of subsidised centre- and home-based arrangements and a system based on the principle of universality --Centre-based provision: crèches and multi-accueil --Registered childminders: a major contribution to the supply of childcare services --Nursery schools: écoles maternelles --Funding structures: the state, the CAFs and local authorities --Quality of provision and the current regulatory framework --Policy priorities, goals and requirements affecting childcare provision --Staff qualifications and training programmes --Tensions and inconsistencies --Tensions between quality of care and a shortfall of crèche places --Tensions between quality and affordability --Tensions between quality and the objective of meeting the needs of parents confronted with atypical working schedules --Recent decisions made at the expense of quality in childcare provision --Conclusions --5.Equal access to high-quality childcare in the Netherlands --Introduction --Childcare in the Netherlands: availability, costs and quality --Prices --Quality --Comparing day-care services and playgroups with the Pre-COOL database --Differences in the use of formal childcare: descriptives --Differences in the use and quality of formal childcare: multivariate analysis --Quality of childcare --Conclusions --6.Access and quality issues in early childhood education and care: The case of Germany --Introduction --Setting the scene: population patterns in a regional perspective --Key features of the ECEC system --Multi-level governance --Variations in provision profiles --Diversity of providers --East-West disparities in patterns of usage of ECEC services --Equal access? Patterns of usage of ECEC services according to family background --Funding disparities: Federal, regional and local-level procedures and issues --Three quality-enhancing dimensions of ECEC --Quality programmes: early childhood curricular frameworks and language/literacy enhancement initiatives --Quality staffing: qualifications and structural issues --Quality of family inclusion: ECEC centres as family centres --Research on quality in the German context --Conclusions --7.New Zealand: A narrative of shifting policy directions for early childhood education and care --Introduction --Cusp of change --ECEC in New Zealand --Funding ECEC --Quality directions --Market-led ECEC --Targeted participation in ECEC --ECE Taskforce --The narrative --8.Early education and care in Australia: Equity in a mixed market-based system? --Introduction --Participation in Australian ECEC: a blurred snapshot --Policy context --Privatisation and the growth of corporate childcare --Funding and subsidies --ECEC quality agenda --Integrated services --Conclusions --9.Delivering high-quality early childhood education and care to low-income children: How well is the US doing? --Introduction --The challenge --The policy framework --Access, quality and affordability for low-income families --Access --Quality --Affordability --Efforts to improve access, quality and affordability: federal level --Efforts to improve access, quality and affordability: state level --Conclusions --10.Common challenges, lessons for policy --10.1.How can disadvantaged children be encouraged to access formal ECEC? --Free services --Fees and charges --10.2.How can disadvantaged children be assured high-quality provision? --Overall quality of provision --Equal access to quality --10.3.The trade-off between expanding access and improving quality --10.4.Delivery: what matters? --Ministerial responsibility --Decentralisation --The 'mixed economy' and the role of the private sector --Workforce issues --10.5.Spending more or spending smarter?

In this original, topical book, leading experts from eight countries examine how early education and care is organised, funded and regulated in their countries. Bringing together recent statistical evidence, the book gives an up-to-date picture of access to services by different groups, providing rich insights on how policies play out in practice , and the extent to which they help or hinder disadvantaged children to receive high quality provision