Based on extensive research, the authors offer a comparative, cross-national perspective on how services in Sweden, England and Scotland have evolved since responsibility for early childhood, childcare and compulsory schooling were combined in central education departments. This, however, is where the similarities end.
The authors find that in Sweden, "the dualistic discussion and provision of 'childcare' and 'education' has been superseded by a more unified discourse of 'education in its broadest sense',". Genuine integration of previously separate services is producing a different approach to meeting children's needs.
By contrast, the reform process in England is characterised as driven by pragmatic and technocratic imperatives with "little interest in more conceptual issues and critical analysis". It's suggested that no serious consideration has been given to moulding a new meeting place between childcare and education or re-casting the underlying purpose and meaning of services and professionals.
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