The discovery was made by the Pre-school Learning Alliance after almosta quarter of respondents to a member survey made an unprompted referenceto the disappearance of local pre-school development workers.
Development workers were traditionally funded by local authorities andprovided by the alliance to go into settings and work as a link betweenproviders, local authorities, external funders and Ofsted. A spokesmanfor the alliance said: "One in four of our members have told us theyhave lost that day-to-day connection with their local authority and aremissing out on information about local initiatives and fundingopportunities."
Dwynwen Stepien, director of the National Children's Bureau's EarlyChildhood Unit, said: "Local authorities are redesigning their servicesand in particular their quality improvement processes. It is inevitablethat there are some changes in how their quality improvement teams areconfigured. However, it is important that local authorities are clearabout the important contribution that the voluntary sector makes toimproving outcomes for children."
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