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There's no evidence for childcare ratios change

    Opinion
  • Monday, March 27, 2023
  • | CYP Now
A decade on from its initial failed attempt, the Conservative government has finally decided to push ahead with plans to increase the number of two-year-olds a childcare practitioner can look after.

Sure Start is worth shouting about

    Opinion
  • Monday, February 8, 2010
  • | CYP Now
The post-war Labour government bequeathed us the NHS. Under New Labour, the creation of Sure Start children's centres is the one public service programme to stand any resemblance to that achievement.

Editorial: Childcare proposals have political importance

    Opinion
  • Tuesday, April 22, 2008
  • | CYP Now
The think-tank Policy Exchange has proposed a bold alternative to childcare funding for under-threes this week, signalling a clear challenge to the present system. As revealed by CYP Now last week, and followed up in this edition (p13), the Little Britons report calls for the creation of a universal Parental Care Allowance (PCA) of 50 to 60 a week per child. It would be financed through the abolitions of the childcare element of the working tax credit, electronic vouchers for childcare payments and the Sure Start Maternity Grant.

Help small charities prove their worth

    Opinion
  • Monday, November 29, 2010
  • | CYP Now
The Teens and Toddlers programme featured this week has managed to build up a solid evidence base of its effectiveness in helping young people, giving it the opportunity to expand across the UK.

Gove gives joint working a rude jolt

    Opinion
  • Tuesday, April 6, 2010
  • | CYP Now
Michael Gove's revelation to CYP Now that a Conservative government will remove obligations on local authorities to have children's trusts in place will come as a thunderbolt for children's services, particularly in their efforts to safeguard children and enable them to thrive.

How childcare can survive recession

    Opinion
  • Tuesday, June 23, 2009
  • | CYP Now
The huge expansion in childcare over the past decade is one of this government's most visible achievements. Latest estimates suggest that 2.8 million families use childcare. We are now a childcare nation.

Sector must influence the coalition

    Opinion
  • Monday, May 17, 2010
  • | CYP Now
They say that a week is a long time in politics. Quite. As predicted in these pages for many months, the new Tory Secretary of State Michael Gove has renamed the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) as the Department for Education.

It's good logic to halve child poverty

    Opinion
  • Tuesday, April 14, 2009
  • | CYP Now
The fiscal stimulus, be it tax cuts or increases in government spending, has been all the rage on both sides of the Atlantic, as the boldest way to ride the recession.

Election result prolongs uncertainty

    Opinion
  • Monday, May 10, 2010
  • | CYP Now
At the time of writing -- on the historically uncertain afternoon of Friday 7 May -- the Conservatives were about to enter into negotiations with the Liberal Democrats about helping them to form a government.

Every Child Matters faces biggest test

    Opinion
  • Monday, April 19, 2010
  • | CYP Now
The Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) pledged, in its annual report last week, to assess and build on the progress of Every Child Matters (ECM) for the next five years, as a policy priority for the coming 12 months. It is a good priority to hold, particularly given the uncertainty ahead.

Work together to hit poverty target

    Opinion
  • Monday, January 11, 2010
  • | CYP Now
We are now in 2010 and the long-held target to halve child poverty by this very year seems light-years away. Nevertheless, the Child Poverty Bill will soon come into law, committing government to eradicate child poverty by 2020.

Cuts could enhance joint working

    Opinion
  • Tuesday, October 6, 2009
  • | CYP Now
The party conference season is over and national politics is destined for a surreal few months in the run-up to the general election. Expect plenty more short-term children's policy announcements - some even eye- catching - as the main parties try to outmanoeuvre each other to strike a popular chord. Politics in Westminster will become increasingly sensationalised and polarised.

Never mind the inspectorate, recruit the right inspectors

    Opinion
  • Monday, April 18, 2011
  • | CYP Now
On the face of it, the education select committee's call to split Ofsted into two separate inspectorates for education and children's care would represent a further step away from services centred on the needs of the whole child. It is a trend played out in several areas through the disappearance of children's trust arrangements and local authority children's services departments.

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