As a General Election approaches, I find myself recalling an article that I wrote soon after Labour's election victory. In it, I argued that every nursery school in the country should be developed into an Early Excellence Centre.
Services could then be developed in partnership with these well-established community nursery schools, so enabling the Government to deliver its vision of an integrated care and education service in a cost-effective and efficient way, while guaranteeing quality.
Now I find myself feeling four things. First, that I was right to believe that nursery schools have a huge contribution to make to the Government's vision of an integrated education and care service.
Ofsted reports and the EPPE research commissioned by the DfEE have confirmed that nursery schools give the best value for money and engage in high-quality work with children, their families and communities compared with other kinds of provision.
Second, I feel that the Government now realises the value of nursery schools, albeit it at the eleventh hour, but it will need to act assertively and speedily to safeguard what is now a severely depleted group.
Third, I feel upset because many nursery schools are trying to do exactly what the Government wants: to deliver high-quality care and education in an updated form by linking with Sure Start schemes, Neighbourhood Nurseries and Centres of Early Excellence. But they are frustrated at every turn due to the lack of joined-up thinking.
Fourth, I feel determined. I want to strive to keep all nursery schools open and work for greater progress towards joined-up thinking between LEAs, EYDCPs, Sure Start schemes and so on.
Surely a Government striving for integrated care and education cannot allow such an invaluable resource to wither away.
