Nursery World - A Unique Child: Early Childhood Development

The Post-2015 Development Agenda offers a unique opportunity to
carve a positive future for children based on a holistic approach to
early childhood development - but early years practitioners need to make
sure their voices are heard. Dr Eunice Lumsden explains.

The past 17 years have seen Early Childhood Education and Care increasingly become the focus of policymakers and researchers nationally and internationally. In England, we have seen unprecedented investment in workforce reform and indisputable evidence that if a society invests in its youngest children the rewards are lifelong and intergenerational.

Indeed, as we enter 2014 there has never before been a time of such cross-party support for the importance of a holistic approach to early childhood development (ECD) and early intervention - see box for the petition launched by Tessa Jowell and Ivan Lewis and cross-party manifesto The 1001 Critical Days.

Yet there are still barriers for policymakers in actually articulating the knowledge we now have into integrated education, health and social care policy that is able to weather changes in political ideology.

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