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It was a Jesuit who said: "Give me the boy until he is seven, and I will give you the man." In this year's comprehensive spending review, the government, too, has placed great emphasis on early years development and services, and put its money where its mouth is with investment that will more than double the child care budget by 2006.

The jewel in the crown was the announcement of an integrated budget for child care, early years learning and Sure Start worth £1.5bn by 2005-6. This will be managed by a new inter-departmental unit straddling the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Work and Pensions responsible to newly-appointed minister Cathy Ashton.

It will oversee the creation of at least 250,000 child care places by 2006, and will fund an expansion of Sure Start to cover more than 500 programmes that will reach 400,000 young children, including around one-third of all children under four living in poverty. It will also fund 50 programmes in rural areas and small pockets of deprivation that will provide integrated services for 7,500 children.

In addition, the cash will be used to set up children's centres bringing child care, family support and health services together under one roof. It is likely that the children's centres will work in much the same way as the early excellence centres already up and running in 58 sites (see 0-19, July, page 8). The government's aim is that an additional 300,000 children and their parents will have access to these services through local children's centres by March 2006. Its longer-term aim is to establish a children's centre in every one of the 20 per cent most disadvantaged wards in Britain.

The reforms have been widely welcomed by organisations concerned with the welfare of children and families. Martin Barnes, director of the Child Poverty Action Group, describes them as "an imaginative package, which helps build the foundations for a world-beating system of child care".

The Daycare Trust, which has run a high profile campaign for children's centres, welcomes their introduction saying they would "help create a more family-friendly Britain and support the government's drive to improve education and end child poverty". Its senior policy officer Megan Pacey says the trust applauds the government's decision to bring services together under one roof. "The key to the centres is that they will offer parents an integrated service where they can go for one-stop help and advice," she says.

However, there is disappointment in some circles that the government has not taken the opportunity to change the widely condemned social fund. Nor has it given any assurances about the future of Quality Protects beyond 2004.

Mary MacLeod is chief executive of the National Family and Parenting Institute, which called the investment "good news for parents".

She urges the government, however, to make sure that services are organised and delivered in a way that makes them accessible and not too prescriptive.

"A real problem for parents is finding out what services are available locally and how to access them. There is a reluctance among parents to be told what to do by experts and government and that has to be mediated in some way. A drop-in centre where people could get easy non-judgemental access to information would go a long way to supporting parents without alienating them," she says. In its report The Future for Family Services in England and Wales, published in July, the NFPI calls for "one-stop" information shops in local communities where parents could access help.

Others have questioned whether there is an over-emphasis on getting mothers into work as a way of tackling child poverty. Ian Vallender, director of policy and information at the National Council for Voluntary Child Care Organisations, was pleased with the announcements, but wonders whether "the devil may be in the detail". He asks: "What will it actually mean in practice, where is the interface between existing projects and the new provision, and how much is new money?" He continues: "While we recognise that getting parents into work is crucial if we are to eradicate child poverty, we must remember that there will always be some parents who are unable to work for a variety of reasons. If the new centres don't offer family support to these people they will be marginalised even further."


His view is echoed by Hilary Land, professor of family policy and child welfare at the school for policy studies, Bristol University, who sees more than one problem with the government's strategy. "Is the main priority getting mothers to take up paid employment or is it the welfare of the child?" she asks, citing the employment status of parents as the determining factor in whether they receive financial help with child care as a good example of muddled thinking on the government's behalf. "How does it help a family when, if a parent loses their job unexpectedly, they immediately lose the money to pay for child care, and the child loses its child care place?"

She is also critical of the fact that parents can only claim help under the working families tax credit with the cost of formal child care, saying that levels of child care provision are very different across the country and many parents use informal care simply because there is no alternative in their area.

One major obstacle to the government's plans to boost the number of child care places is the lack of child care workers. Land warns: "Unless it tackles the question of staffing it is not going to be able to deliver the promised number of day care places. Day care is the poor relation in the career stakes - workers need a career structure similar to that in parts of Europe with good rates of pay and training and transferable skills across care, health and education. If the government did that and addressed the issue of qualifications and pay, it could become a very attractive career option," she says.

Key announcements

• £1.5bn budget by 2005-6 for early years learning, Sure Start and child care to be managed by new inter-departmental unit.
• Children's centres to be established in disadvantaged areas to offer early years, education, family support and health services.
• Free nursery school place by 2004 for all three and four year olds.
• An extra 250,000 child care places.
• Expansion of Sure Start to reach 400,000 children.
• Total spending on education to rise to £58bn by 2006 from £45bn in 2002.
• Children's Fund increased to £200m a year with an extra £25m over three years for parental support and training.