Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2006, Page 103

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What­ else should be done in England t­o secure t­he commit­ment­
and p­rop­er funding of high qualit­y int­egrat­ed cent­res fit­ for t­he 21st­
cent­ury?
We feel we may be on the brink of losing the whole point of the last 10-year struggle,
just when we thought we were about to create a uniquely remarkable system of high
quality education and care with family support from birth, staffed by high qualified
teams of multi-professional staff with a sense of learning in its broadest but very
rigorous sense from birth. In the most recent announcements we can see a ‘failsafe’
approach creeping in which puts forward what we feel is a second class service for
the youngest section of our population, and this really upsets and disappoints us.
We need to fight tooth and nail to convince those in decision making positions that
backtracking on the quality of the new integrated services will ultimately result in a
poor deal for children, and a failure to ensure the outcomes we have all signed up to.
yes, much has been done, but we still have so much to fight for….
Professor Chris Pascal
and Professor Tony Bertram are
Directors of the Centre
for Research in Early Childhood,
University of Worcester at
St Thomas Children’s Centre,
Birmingham, UK
CHris­ Pas­Cal and tony­ Bertram­