Electorate wise to false early years and childcare pledges

It is addressed to Private Watts, who was billeted in North Norfolk, recalling him to his unit, the East Sussex Regiment. Private Watts subsequently lost his life in the war.

These past few weeks have been a time to reflect on events a long time ago and what lessons should have been learnt, which brings me to current events. It's nearly time for the party conference season when the main political parties set out their manifestos for the general election in May 2015. Education and early years will be key policy areas for all parties chasing votes.

In July, the Tory ministerial reshuffle saw Nicky Morgan replace Michael Gove as Education Secretary and Sam Gyimah replace Liz Truss as the minister responsible for childcare. Both Gove and Truss had been heavily criticised for running with their own agendas and failing to listen to the views of education and early years professionals. They were divisive and ostracised.

One of Truss's ill-thought-out ideas was the creation of childminder agencies. Warnings from those that knew better were ignored and the pilots were set up. Yet it has now been announced that half of the organisations involved in the childminder agency pilots will not be setting up an agency from September and a further four of the pilot organisations are undecided.

What a waste of time, effort and, most importantly, money.

But will the ministerial replacements be able to heal the rift? Surely the damage has been done.

The government has promised to reform the Dedicated Schools Grant during the next parliament should it remain in power. But it has stopped short of committing to making changes to early years and high needs funding when school funding reforms will be implemented in 2015/16 because it claims it does not know enough about the general cost of high needs or early years provision.

This is beyond belief. Lots of research has been done and the need to reform and simplify funding has been highlighted for many years.

So the Tories will need to come up with some pretty good new education policies at their party conference to appease the many in the profession who feel that local authority schools are under constant threat from academies and free schools, and to placate the early years sector.

The Liberal Democrats will be keen to divorce themselves from the coalition government at their party conference and reveal their vision for education and early years. Many won't forget Nick Clegg's promise prior to the last general election on tuition fees. Given the opportunity of sharing power, the Lib Dems soon reneged on their manifesto pledges and voted with the Tories to increase fees. So any new promises will need to be believed with caution after such a betrayal.

What will UKIP's manifesto contain on education and early years? So far, very little. Its entire education policy thus far: improve access to quality local education and create more grammar schools and technical colleges; encourage vocational apprenticeships; give parents the right to choose where their children go to school; protect rural schools and support home schooling. No reference whatsoever to early years and childcare.

Labour has already floated its vision for early years and childcare, but I'm sure more detail will be announced in September. Unfortunately, Labour appears to be adopting a number of the current government's unfavourable childcare policies. The party should learn from the criticism hurled at Gove and Truss to listen and consult with the profession. Labour plans to increase the number of school nurseries, yet this is a regressive step.

Assumptions seem to have been made that school-based provision is the answer to ensuring quality early years and childcare provision. Yet there is a highly qualified early years workforce working in the private and voluntary sector. Labour's policy should be to support the sector to grow quality provision.

Labour also appears to favour baseline assessments in reception classes, another plan opposed by many early years professionals. It has some good initiatives, such as the promise to increase the free childcare entitlement from 15 to 25 hours, but this policy will be flawed without adequate funding.

The coalition government does not seem interested in children's centres. Since the 2010 election, children's centres have seen significant change with a new "core purpose" alongside the removal of ringfenced Sure Start funding. And during that time, more than 600 children's centres have closed, according to Labour. Will Labour want to reverse the cull of centres and reinvigorate what was a key plank of its flagship 10-year childcare strategy launched in 2004?

All parties have the opportunity to make early years and childcare a priority in their manifestos, but they should all heed the warning not to make pledges they cannot deliver. Again, lessons should be learned: the electorate has wised up to false promises.

Denise Burke is director of United for All Ages and Good Care Guide