The Department for Education (DfE) programme of funded places for two-year-olds is giving a largely new wave of families access to early education and childcare. According to DfE figures, 55,000 children were already taking up places in April, with the number now mounting steadily as the September target of 130,000 approaches. But who are these families? And how can practitioners work with them to ensure their children can truly benefit from the scheme?
As with any kind of early years provision, getting to know the families will be essential, say early years experts. 'Settings need to take a holistic view of the child, and we can't know the child without knowing the parents because the child is at the centre of the family's network of relationships,' says Ann Langston, director of consultancy Early Years Matters. 'If we work with children, we work with families by definition. And as pioneering American psychiatrist Dr Karl Menninger said, "How parents are with children is how children will be with the rest of the world."'
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