Policy Hub
On 11 December 2008, UNICEF published a report (The child care transition: a league table on early childhood education and care) which warns that the potential benefits of out-of-home child care could be lost and social inequalities widened if governments in the world’s richest nations do not guarantee high quality early years care and education for all, especially the most disadvantaged.
The report proposes ten ‘benchmarks’ as a first step towards establishing a set of minimum standards by which progress in early childhood education and care might be monitored and compared across the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). England meets five of the ten benchmarks and ranks joint 11th out of 25.
At present, only Sweden meets all ten of the suggested benchmarks, followed closely by Iceland which meets nine, and by Denmark, Finland, France and Norway which meet eight. These are the same six countries that top the table of government expenditure on early childhood services.
Many other OECD countries will need to at least double current levels of expenditure on early childhood services if minimum acceptable standards are to be met. The report acknowledges that expenditure in England on pre-school education has quadrupled in the last ten years and welcomes the commitment to establish a children’s centre in every community.
However, it contends that the UK still has three million children living in poverty plus higher rates of infant death and low birth weight than many comparable countries. High quality childcare is not yet available to all and parental leave provisions remain inadequate. The report concludes that the UK should spend what is necessary both to eliminate child poverty and meet the benchmarks in full.
The child care transition: a league table on early childhood education and care (PDF)