Course Behavioral Economics Alessandro Innocenti Academic year 2013-2014
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8/4/2019 Innocenti Report Card 8 - The Child Care Transition: A league table of early childhood education and care in econo
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The child care
transitionA league table o early childhood education
and care in economically advanced countries
UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre
Report Card 8
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ThisInnocenti Report Card was written by Peter Adamson drawing on
research, data and background papers provided by John Bennett. The
project was coordinated by UNICEFs Innocenti Research Centre and
assisted by an international panel o advisors (see page 36). Research
orReport Card 8 was completed at the end o April 2008.
Full text and supporting documentation, including two background
papers to this report, can be downloaded rom the UNICEF Innocenti
Research Centre website: www.unice-irc.org
Any part o theInnocenti Report Card may be reely reproduced using
the ollowing reerence:
UNICEF, The child care transition, Innocenti Report Card 8, 2008
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence.
The United Nations Childrens Fund, 2008
The support o the German Committee or UNICEF in the development
oReport Card 8 is grateully acknowledged. Additional support was
provided by the United Kingdom Committee or UNICEF, and by the
Andorran National Committee or UNICEF.
TheInnocenti Report Card series is designed to monitor and compare
the perormance o the OECD countries in securing the rights o their
children.
The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy, was
established in 1988 to strengthen the research capability o the United
Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and to support its advocacy or
children worldwide.
The Centre (ormally known as the International Child Development
Centre) generates research into current and uture areas o UNICEFs
work. Its prime objectives are to improve international understanding
o issues relating to childrens rights and to help acilitate the ull
implementation o the United Nations Convention on the Rights o the
Child in both industrialized and developing countries.
The Centres publications are contributions to a global debate on child
rights issues and include a wide range o opinions. For that reason, the
Centre may produce publications that do not necessarily reect
UNICEF policies or approaches on some topics.
The views expressed are those o the authors and do not necessarily
reect the policy or views o UNICEF.
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
Piazza SS. Annunziata, 12
50122 Florence, Italy
Tel: (+39) 055 20 330
Fax: (+39) 055 2033 220
www.unice-irc.org
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UNICEF
Innocenti Research Centre
A great change is coming over childhood in the worlds
richest countries.
Todays rising generation is the frst in which a majority are
spending a large part o early childhood in some orm oout-o-home child care.
At the same time, neuroscientifc research is demonstrating
that loving, stable, secure, and stimulating relationships
with caregivers in the earliest months and years o lie are
critical or every aspect o a childs development.
Taken together, these two developments conront public
and policymakers in OECD countries with urgent questions.
Whether the child care transition will represent an advance
or a setback or todays children and tomorrows world
will depend on the response.
I N N O C E N T I R E P O R T C A R D 8 1
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Benchmark 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Num
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Near-un
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Sweden 10
Iceand 9
Denmark 8
Finand 8
France 8
Norway 8
Begium (Fanders) 6
Hungary 6
New Zeaand 6
Sovenia 6
Austria 5
Netherands 5
United Kingdom* 5
Germany 4
Itay 4
Japan 4
Portuga 4
Repubic o Korea 4
Mexico 3
Spain 3
Switzerand 3
United States 3
Austraia 2
Canada 1
Ireand 1
Tota benchmarks met 126 6 19 13 15 17 20 12 6 10 8
*Data or the United Kingdom reer to England only.
Fig. 1 Early childhood services a league table
ThisReport Card discusses the opportunities and risks invoved in the chid care transition, and proposes
internationay appicabe benchmarks or eary chidhood care and education a set o minimum standards or
protecting the rights o chidren in their most vunerabe and ormative years.
The tabe beow shows which countries are currenty meeting the suggested standards, and summarizes this frst
attempt to evauate and compare eary chidhood services in the 25 OECD countries in which data have been coected.
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T H E C H I l D C A R E T R A N S I T I O N
A great change is occurring in the way
in which children are being brought
up in the worlds economically
advanced countries. Ater centuries obeing a predominantly private, amily
aair, the care o very young children
is now becoming, in signicant degree,
an out-o-home activity in which
governments and pr ivate enterprise are
increasingly involved. Todays rising
generation in the countries o the
OECD* is the rst in which a majority
are spending a large part o their early
childhoods not in their own homes
with their own amilies but in some
orm o child care.
The change is ar rom complete and
its pattern varies rom country to
country. But there is no doubting the
overall scale and direction o the
transition. Approximately 80 per cent
o the rich worlds three-to-six year-
olds are now in some orm o early
childhood education and care. For
those under the age o three, the
proportion using child care is now
approximately 25 per cent or the
OECD as a whole and more than
50 per cent in individual countries
(Fig. 2). Across the industrialized
nations, out-o-home child care is a
act o lie or ever more children
at ever earlier ages and or ever
longer hours.
In the last decade many OECD
countries have also begun to see sharp
rises in the numbers o inants those
under the age o one year beingcared or outside the home. Statistics
or this age group are ew. But in the
United Kingdom,** or example, a
majority o mothers are now
returning to ull or part time work
within 12 months o giving birth.i
Similarly in the United States, more
than 50 per cent o under-ones are in
some orm o child care three
quarters o them rom the age o our
months or earlier and or an average
o 28 hours per week.ii In Flemish
Belgium, more than a third o inants
are entering some orm o child care
within the rst year o lie.
Fig. 2 provides the best available
nation-by-nation snapshot o the
current picture. For our-year-olds, 16
out o the 24 countries or which data
are available have passed the 75 per
cent mark or pre-school enrolment.
In Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain,
enrolment o our-year-olds is now
virtually 100 per cent. For children
under the age o three, Denmark and
Iceland have the highest rates o
enrolment (around 60 per cent).
These data should be interpreted with
care. The percentages given refect
neither the quality nor the availability
o the services oered. The gure or
the United Kingdom, or example,
reers to children using ree earlychildhood education centres or two
and a hal hours per day (available or
nine months o the year); the gure
or Sweden, by contrast, reers to ull
working-day services (available, should
parents wish, or 11 months o the
year). It should also be emphasized
that these data reeze what is in act a
rapidly changing picture.
Driving changeThe orces driving the child care
transition are as evident as the
change itsel.
First, more than two thirds o all
women o working age in the OECD
countries are today employed outside
the home. Many are postponing
childbearing by a decade or more
compared with mothers o previous
generations and many have well-
established careers to take into
consideration. In as much as this
refects progress towards equality o
opportunity or women, it is cause or
celebration. But in as much as it
represents mounting economic
pressures, it is cause or concern. Even
among the well-paid, two incomes are
oten necessary i housing and other
expenses are to be met. Among thelow-paid, a amily o two adults and
two children will usually need a
** Unless otherwise stated, data or the United Kingdom reer
to England only.
* The Organisation or Economic Co-operation and
Development, the international organization o the industrialized
market-economy countries.
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minimum o one ull-time and one
part-time job (at the minimum wage)
just to stay above national poverty
lines. Most single parents need a ull
time job plus benets. And the poorer
the amily, the greater the pressure to
return to work as soon as possible
ater a birth oten to unskilled, low-
paid jobs. For many millions o
mothers, thereore, rising employment
pressures refect not new opportunities
but new necessities.
Second, this great change in
childhood is being driven by
economic pressures on governments;
more women in the workorce boosts
GDP, increases income rom taxes, and
reduces welare costs.
Third, an increasingly competitive,
knowledge-based global economy is
helping to convince both governments
and parents that pre-school education
is an investment in uture academicsuccess and employment prospects
(Box 2).
Fourth, some OECD countries have
come to see child care services as a
prop to alling birth rates. I Europe is
to reverse its demographic decline, noted
the European Commission in 2005,
amilies must be urther encouraged by
public policies that allow men and women
to reconcile amily lie with work.
For all o these inter-related reasons,
the child care transition is everywhere
being acilitated by public policy. All
countries in the European Union, or
example, now guarantee at least two or
three years o pre-school. European
Union leaders have agreed that by
2010 they should be providing ree or
subsidized ull day-care or at least 33
per cent o children under the age o
three and or 90 per cent o those aged
three-to-six.* In the United States
there is at the moment no statutory
right to pre-school education beore
the age o ve, but in practice more
than 60 per cent o Americas 10
million pre-school children are in some
orm o early childhood programme.
Pre-school enrolments, says the US
National Research Council, are large,
growing, and here to stay.
These, in brie, are some o the orces
pressing both governments and amilies
in OECD countries towards radically
new patterns o child care. And despite
signicant dierences in policy and
practice, it is clear that the
industrialized nations as a whole are
moving not only towards out-o-home
care or a signicant percentage o
inants and toddlers but also towards
systems o universal education that
begin not with ormal schooling at the
age o ve or six but with early
childhood education beginning at the
age o three.
Given such pressures, there is a clear
danger that the child care transition
may ollow a course that is determinedby the needs and pressures o the
moment, uninfuenced by long term
Denmark
Mexico
Italy
Austria
Hungary
Germany
Ireland
Japan
Canada
Republic of Korea
Spain
Portugal
OECD Average
Slovenia
United Kingdom
France
Australia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Belgium
Finland
United States
Sweden
Norway
Iceland
0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Fig. 2a Enroment o 0-3 year-ods in chid care
Source: OECD Family database and OECD Education database (2004).
Fig. 2
The chid care transition, an overview
Figs. 2a, 2b, and 2c provide the best
current picture o the transition to chid
care in those OECD countries or which
data are avaiabe. Unortunatey, no
internationay comparabe data are
avaiabe or enroment under the age o
one year.
* Targets already met by Belgium (Flanders), Denmark, Finland,
Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
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vision or choice. This Report Card
thereore attempts a broad view o the
changes coming over child care in the
industrial world and highlights some o
the longer-term opportunities and risks
inherent in changing, on such a scale,
the way in which a majority o our
children are being cared or in their
most ormative years.
In particular, it looks at this great
change rom the one point o view that
is in danger o being neglected and that
is so clearly set out in article
3 o the Convention on the Rights o
the Child that in all actions
concerning children the best interests
o the child shall be a primaryconsideration.
A parallel revolution
At the same time as this great change
in childhood has been stealing across
the industrialized world, a parallel
revolution in understanding the
importance o early childhood has been
quietly unolding in the less public
arena o neuroscientic research.
Box 1 summarizes some o the key
concepts to emerge rom this research.
They include: the sequence o sensitive
periods in brain development; the
importance o serve and return
relationships with carers; the role o
love as a oundation or intellectual as
well as emotional development; the
ostering o the childs growing sense o
agency; the ways in which thearchitecture o the developing brain
can be disrupted by stress; and the
critical importance o early interactions
with amily members and carers in the
development o stress management
systems. New technologies and new
research tools are beginning to
illuminate these processes in more
detail, and have led to a widespread
conviction that what is now known to
the neuroscientic community should
be made more widely known to
politicians, press and public.
Fig. 2c Enroment o 3-6 year-ods in eary education
France
Switzerland
Finland
Republic of Korea
United States
Mexico
OECD Average
Ireland
Netherlands
Australia
Austria
Slovenia
Portugal
Germany
United Kingdom
Norway
Japan
Sweden
Hungary
Denmark
New Zealand
Iceland
Spain
Belgium
Italy
0 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%
Source: OECD Family database and OECD Education database (2004).
Italy
Switzerland
Ireland
Finland
*Australia
United States
*Republic of Korea
*Mexico
Netherlands
Slovenia
OECD Average
Austria
Portugal
Germany
Norway
Sweden
Hungary
United Kingdom
Denmark
Japan
*New Zealand
Iceland
Spain
Belgium
France
0 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%
Fig. 2b Enroment o 4 year-ods in eary education
Source: EUROSTAT (2005).
* Data rom OECD Family database (2004).
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For present purposes, the chie import
o such ndings is that it is the childs
early interactions with others, and
particularly with amily and caregivers,
that establishes the patterns o neural
connections and chemical balances
which prooundly infuence what we
will become, what we will be capable
o, and how we will respond to the
world around us. Working within the
potential o genetic inheritance, it is
early experience that is the architect
o the human brain, putting in place
both the oundations and scaolding
or uture development. All aspects o
adult human capital, rom workorce skills
to cooperative and lawul behavior, build on
capacities that are developed during
childhood, beginning at birth, concludes a
recent report by the US National
Scientic Council. iii
In other words, neuroscience is
beginning to conirm and explain the
inner workings o what social science
and common experience have long
maintained that loving, stable, secure,
stimulating and rewarding relationships
with amily and caregivers in the earliest
months and years o lie are critical or
almost all aspects o a childs
development.
In relation to the change currently
coming across childhood in the
economically developed world, the
signicance o these ndings can
hardly be overestimated. This report
will argue that it is the coming
together o these two dierent
developments the mass movement
towards out-o-home child care and
At the heart o recent research into the development o
the human brain is something that seems about as ar
away rom hard science as it is possible to get. The way
that most parents respond to babies the baby-talk, the
back-and-orth smiling and gurgling, the repeating o
sounds, words, gestures, the besotted rejoicing over every
small step in the inants progress all this does not lend
itsel easily to scientifc analysis. Yet it is exactly this kindo intimate, loving one-to-one interaction that, along with
adequate nutrition, constitutes the essential input to the
childs emotional, physical and cognitive development.
In an attempt to describe this process in more scientifc
terms, researchers have developed terms such as
maternal/paternal sensitivity/responsivity, mutuality and
reciprocity. They also requently employ analogies such
as the dance o mutual responsiveness or the serve and
return process. This last, or example, is described in The
Science o Early Childhood Developmentby the Center on
the Developing Child at Harvard University:
Serve and return happens when young children naturally
reach out or interaction through babbling, acial
expressions, words, gestures, and cries, and adults
respond by getting in sync and doing the same kind o
vocalising and gesturing back at them, and the process
continues back and orth. Another important aspect o the
serve and return notion o interaction is that it works best
when it is embedded in an ongoing relationship between
a child and an adult who is responsive to the childs own
unique individuality. Decades o research tell us that
mutually rewarding interactions are essential prerequisites
or the development o healthy brain circuits andincreasingly complex skills.1
Box 1 Neuroscience: serve and return
A second core concept is the identifcation o sensitive
periods in the sequential development o the human
brain. Each o these periods is associated with specifc
areas o neurological circuitry and with specifc human
abilities. And each builds on the circuits and skills laid
down in the previous period. It is this process that sets
the stage or all uture cognitive and emotional
development a stage that is either sturdy or shakydepending on the kind and quality o interactions with
primary caregivers in the earliest months and years o lie.
Related to this is the fnding that care and education are
not separate processes. The close emotional interaction
between parent and child is as essential or intellectual as
or emotional development. Purely didactic eorts aimed
at developing a childs cognitive abilities are likely to
undermine what they seek to promote i emotional needs
are neglected. The studyEager to Learn,2 or example,
concludes that Care and education cannot be thought
o as separate entities in dealing with young children.
Neither loving children nor teaching them is, in and
o itsel, sucient or optimal development.
Research has also drawn attention to the importance o
stress levels in the early months and years o lie.
According to Proessor Jack Shonko, Director o Harvard
Universitys Center on the Developing Child, excessive
levels o stress hormones literally disrupt brain
architecture.
Too much or too prolonged stress at this time and the
lack o a amiliar, trusted adult to provide the prompt,
intimate reassurance that helps bring stress hormonesback to baseline levels can result in a mis-setting o the
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todays greater understanding o
what is happening to the human
brain in the early months and years
o lie that now present public and
policymakers with large and urgent
questions. Whether the child care
transition will represent an advance
or a setback both or todays
children and tomorrows world
will depend on the wisdom o the
response. That response must begin
with increased concern or, and
closer monitoring o, this great
change as it gathers momentum
and begins to spread to other parts o
the world.*
Benchmarks
As a contribution to this process, this
Report Cardadvances the idea o an
internationally applicable set o
minimum standards by which the
rights o young children might be
protected as the transition to child
care gathers momentum.
The 10 benchmarks suggested, drawn
up in consultation with government
ocials and academic experts rom
OECD countries in Asia, Europe,
and North America, with additional
input rom both UNICEF and the
World Bank,** represent a rst
attempt towards evaluating and
comparing early childhood services
* It should be noted that the ormer centrally-planned
economies o Eastern and Central Europe invested heavily in
child care acilities in the decades beore 1990.
** The cooperation o governments in this initiative is much
appreciated. It is recognized that governments can accept no
responsibility or the interpretation o the inormation supplied
or or the selection o the benchmarks themselves. The
inormation provided by governments is complemented by
ofcial data supplied to the OECD, and by urther discussions
with academic experts at national level.
Core conceptsFour core concepts important to devising sound
social policy toward early childhood have emerged
rom decades o independent research in economics,
neuroscience, and developmental psychology. First,
the architecture o the brain and the process o skill
ormation are infuenced by an interaction between
genetics and individual experience. Second, the
mastery o skills that are essential or economic
success and the development o their underlying
neural pathways ollow hierarchical rules. Later
attainments build on oundations that are laid down
earlier. Third, cognitive, linguistic, social, and
brains stress levels. In particular, the persistent elevation
o the stress hormone cortisol is known to be damaging to
the delicate architecture o the developing brain, and is
related to stress-related illness in later lie. Mental health
requires stress management systems that boost the level
o the stress hormones in response to perceived threats
and reduce them again when the challenge has passed.
Beginning even beore birth, it is in early childhood that
these chemical balances are set.
Finally, research has also drawn attention to the childs
emerging sense o agency the eeling o being able to
inuence events and situations. I this is encouraged by
adult responses, then motivation, confdence and
competence will tend to ourish. I it is not reinorced, or
i it is actively discouraged by negative reaction or
punishment, then these essential aspects o psychological
development are likely to be compromised.
For all o these reasons, the relationship between inants
and parents or primary caregivers is critical to the childs
emotional, psychological and cognitive development.Developmental and behavioural problems oten
1 National Scientifc Council on the Developing Child, The Science o
Early Childhood Development: Closing the gap between what we
know and what we do, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard
University, Cambridge MA, 2007, p. 6.
2 National Research Council,Eager to Learn: Educating our pre-
schoolers, Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy, Bowman, B. T.,
M. S. Donovan and M. S. Burns (eds.); Commission on Behavioral and
Social Sciences and Education, National Academy Press, Washington,
D. C., 2001, p. 2.
3 National Research Council and Institute o Medicine,From Neurons
to Neighborhoods: The science o early childhood development,
Committee on Integrating the Science o Early Childhood Development,
Shonko, J. P. and D. A. Phillips (eds.), Board on Children, Youth and
Families, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences andEducation, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 28.
continuing into later lie most commonly arise rom
disturbances in that relationship.3
All o this has clear implications or the care and
upbringing o very young children. And in the transition
towards early childhood education and care, it is essential
that fndings such as those described here should become
part o political and public awareness.
emotional competencies are interdependent; all are
shaped powerully by the experiences o the
developing child; and all contribute to success in the
society at large. Fourth, although adaptation continues
throughout lie, human abilities are ormed in a
predictable sequence o sensitive periods, during which
the development o specic neural circuits and the
behaviors they mediate are most plastic and thereore
optimally receptive to environmental infuences.
Heckman J. J, Skill Formation and the Economics o Investing
in Disadvantaged Children,Science, vol. 312. no. 5782,
pp. 1900-1902, 30 June 2006.
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in the 25 countries in which data have
been collected. The resulting
benchmarks table (Fig. 1) shows which
o those countries are currently
meeting the suggested standards and
which are not.
Overall, Sweden tops the table by
meeting all 10 benchmarks, ollowed
closely by Iceland which meets 9, and
by Denmark, Finland, France, and
Norway which meet 8. Only three
countries Australia, Canada, and
Ireland meet ewer than 3.
At this stage, there is an inevitable
crudeness about such a table, born o
the act that the selection o indicatorsand the evaluation o country
perormance are circumscribed by the
availability o data. A number o
important caveats are thereore
necessary:
The benchmarks represent basic
minimum standards rather than a
guarantee o high quality early
childhood services.
They relate, or the most part, to
out-o-home, centre-based child
care rather than to inormal, home-
based or neighbourhood day-care
centres.
They take no account o other
signicant services such as social
welare programmes, home visiting
programmes designed to reach out
to children at risk, or programmes
aimed at supporting goodparenting.
They oer no measure o parental
involvement in early childhood
services.
They are directed towards what
governments can do to ensure that
the child care transition is managed
in the best interests o both
children and their societies utures.
This last point is particularly
important. It is parents who carry the
main responsibility or the education
and care o their children, and in the
OECD countries today parents are
making use o a wide variety o
inormal and oten unrecorded child
care arrangements (Box 3). Those
arrangements are largely beyond the
scope o this report except to note
that that new knowledge about the
importance o the early childhood
period applies to all orms o early
childhood education and care; today,
care without education is not care.
Common standards
Despite these limitations, the
proposed benchmarks represent an
initial step towards an OECD-widemonitoring o what is happening to
children in the child care transition. I
this process can be continued, and
rened through better denition and
data collection, then there is much to
be gained.
First, the benchmarks begin the
process o establishing a common
core o minimum standards or early
childhood services. In elds such as
health care, employment law, and the
education o older children, common
standards have stimulated and
supported sustained progress. Backed
by good data, cross national
monitoring can: highlight the
strengths and weaknesses o individual
countries; illustrate what can and
should be expected rom advanced
economies; show what leadingcountries have been able to achieve in
practice; and direct attention towards
the importance o managing the child
care transition rather than allowing its
course to be determined only by
short-term pressures.
Second, the establishing o
benchmarks is a step towards
monitoring the Convention on the
Rights o the Child as it applies to
very young children (Box 6). Child
rights do not begin at the age o ve;
yet the rights o very young children
have oten been overlooked and
accountability is not possible without
a clear set o minimum standards or
early childhood services.
Third, the proposed benchmarks may
increasingly become useul to non-
OECD nations in which the child
care transition is already underway. The
indicators proposed are likely to be
relevant or most countries, although
the particular values attached to such
indicators might need to be
recalibrated in order to refect dierent
economic levels and dierent stages in
the development o early childhood
services.
The positive potential
Despite the concerns that will be
raised in this report, it should be said
rom the beginning that the move
towards early childhood education and
care brings with it an enormous
potential or good. Box 2 briefy
summarizes several o the studies that
demonstrate this potential.
For the children themselves, child care
can mean enjoying and beneting
rom interaction with other children
and with child care proessionals.
Cognitive, linguistic, emotional, and
social development can be enhanced,
and the eects appear to be long-
lasting. For immigrant and second
language children, good quality child
care can help with integration andlanguage skills and reduce disadvantage
on entry into the ormal education
system (Box 5). For many millions o
women, child care can erode one o
the last great obstacles to equality o
opportunity. For many millions o
parents, child care can help reconcile
the competing demands and pleasures
o income-earning and amily lie. For
national economies, the availability o
child care that allows parents to return
to work can increase GDP and public
revenues, cut poverty rates, reduce
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welare budgets, and boost returns on
public investments in education.
Most important o all, early childhood
education and care also oers an
opportunity or societies to attempt a
urther signicant reduction in poverty,
inequality, and disadvantage.
As previous reports in this series have
shown, educational disadvantage is
strongly associated with home
background and becomes measurable
even beore ormal schooling begins.
Three-year-old children o more
educated parents, or example, oten
have double the vocabulary o children
rom poorer, less educated homes andare signicantly more likely to achieve
higher qualications by the age o 15.iv
Potentially, the transition to early
childhood education and care could
help to break this cycle; it could help
to give all children, not just the
winners in the lottery o birth, a
strong start in lie. And in so doing, it
could help to reduce the educational,
developmental and behavioural
problems that are so oten aced by
disadvantaged children and their
societies.
Common sense and a signicant
body o research supports the idea
that extending the benets o good
quality early education and care to all
children tends to reduce disadvantage.
In a detailed review o the costs andbenets in OECD countries, or
example, Canadian researchers
Cleveland and Krashinsky ound that:
Although early childhood education and
care benets all children, much o the
evidence suggests that the largest benets
fow to children rom the most
disadvantaged amiliesgood childcare
can compensate, at least partially, or a
disadvantaged home lie. v
Similarly, a report by the US National
Research Council concludes that child
care can protect children rom amily-
based risk and rom the detrimental
eects o both poverty and maternal
depression as well as domestic confict.
Careully designed interventions, says
the report, have been shown to
infuence the developmental trajectories o
children whose lie course is threatened
by socioeconomic disadvantage, amily
disruption, and diagnosed disabilities. vi
The same conclusion has been reached
by the 2006 review o early childhood
services by the OECD: Research rom
a wide range o countries shows that
early intervention contributes signicantly
to putting children rom low income
amilies on the path to development andsuccess in school. vii
Disadvantaged children can be
identied by the accumulation o well-
established warning signs. Individual at
risk signals include: a home in which
there is persistent poverty and
unemployment; or in which parents
have little education; or in which there
is a history o substance abuse, mental
illness or depression; or in which
amilies are struggling to be integrated
into the prevailing language and
culture. Identication o the at-risk
child is thereore not the primary
problem. And i the child care
transition is to narrow rather than
widen inequalities o opportunity, then
it is at-risk children who must be
given priority in the planning o early
childhood services. As a recent (2007)report rom the Center on the
Developing Child at Harvard
University puts the case: The need to
address signicant inequalities in
opportunity, beginning in the earliest
years o lie, is both a undamental moral
responsibility and a critical investment in
our nations social and economic
uture.viii
The practical diculties o realising
this potential are ormidable. Home
background is and will continue to be
the single most powerul infuence on a
childs development, and even high
quality early childhood education and
care cannot be expected to compensate
ully or poverty or poor parenting. But
i disadvantaged children are given rst
call on early childhood services, i those
services are o suciently high quality,
and i services also reach out to
communities with parenting support,
then countries undergoing the child
care transition have a rare opportunity
to mitigate the eects o poverty and
disadvantage on the utures o many
millions o children.
In practice this will be a long and
dicult road. But no challenge makes amore legitimate claim on societies
ingenuities and resources than the task
o using what is now known about early
childhood development to ensure that
all children have the best possible start
and the best possible chance to become
all that they are capable o.
Nor can it be convincingly argued that
it cannot be aorded. Cost-benet
analyses o early childhood interventions
have shown, in dierent settings, that
the returns on early childhood
education and care can be as high as $8
or every $1 invested. The conclusions
rom such studies are perhaps best
summed up by James Heckman in a
landmark article in Science(2006):
Investing in disadvantaged young
children is a rare public policy initiativethat promotes airness and social justice
and at the same time promotes productivity
in the economy and in society at large.
Early interventions targeted toward
disadvantaged children have much higher
returns than later interventions such as
reduced pupil-teacher ratios, public job
training, convict rehabilitation programs,
tuition subsidies, or expenditure on police.
At current levels o resources, society over
invests in remedial skill investments at
later ages and under invests in the early
years. ix
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Evidence or the advantages o high quality early
childhood education and care is accumulating as long-
term evaluations become available. Some examples:
Sweden
One o the frst long-term studies o the eects o early
childhood services was conducted in Sweden in the early1990s. Based on an assessment o children in 128 low and
middle income amilies in two o Swedens largest cities,
the study concluded that early childhood education and
care was associated with an improvement in academic
perormance at the age o 13. Study director Bengt-Erik
Andersson concluded: early entrance into day-care tends to
predict a creative, socially condent, popular, open and
independent adolescent.
France
A study o more than 20,000 pre-school children ound that
the longer the child attended pre-school, the more positivethe results in all grades o elementary education. Positive
eects were lasting being greater in fth grade than in
frst and the benefts were greatest or children rom
disadvantaged homes.
United States
A 2005 study o the eectiveness o theEarly Head Start
(EHS) programme in the United States, based on a random
sample o over 3,000 amilies in 17 EHS programmes, has
shown that participating children have better cognitive and
language development, are more capable o sustained
attention, and behave less aggressively towards others.
Surveying all o these and other long-term studies, Canadian
researchers Cleveland and Krashinsky conclude:
Overwhelmingly, these studies have ound that good child
care can have very positive eects on these children and
that these advantages can be long-lasting. In particular, good
child care can compensate, at least partially, or a
disadvantaged home lie.
North Carolina, United States
A generation ago, the North CarolinaAbecedarian Project
enrolled 112 disadvantaged children in a fve year, ull day,
fve days a week programme o child care beginning, insome cases, when the children were only three months old.
Box 2 Benefts: the evidence
Those selected or the programme were judged to be at
high risk o developmental problems.
Researchers have since ollowed their progress through
school and into adult lie. Compared to similar children who
did not have the beneft o the programme, the
Abecedarians showed higher levels o intelligence andschool achievement, higher earnings (an additional $13,000
when projected over a working lietime), better health, and
less dependence on welare.
With sta-to-children ratios o 1:3 or inants, 2:7 or
toddlers, and 1:6 or our and fve year-olds, the costs o the
project were high ($1,000 per child in 2002 dollars higher
than the equivalent costs or secondary education).
Nonetheless, the experiment is estimated to have yielded a
return o $ to every $1 o public money invested.
Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States
ThePerry Pre-school Projectran rom 1962 to 1967 and
brought pre-school education to Arican-American three and
our year-olds rom poor backgrounds. Most o the children,
who were judged to be at high risk o school ailure,
participated in the project or one year, attending each
weekday morning or two and a hal hours. Aternoon visits
by teachers to the homes o participating children were also
a regular part o the programme.
Comparing 6 children who participated in the project with
6 similar children who did not, a long-term evaluation ound
that thePerry Projectchildren had higher IQs, averaged
almost a year extra in education, had a per cent higher
chance o graduating rom high school, and spent an
average o 1.3 ewer years in special education services.
Followed up at age 27, they were ound to have had a 50
per cent lower rate o teenage pregnancy and were almost
50 per cent less likely to have spent time in jail (with a one
third lower arrest rate or violent crime).
Monitored again at age 0, they were ound to have a
median income that was 0 per cent higher than the
control group. They were also more likely to own their
own homes and 26 per cent less likely to have receivedwelare payments.
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Summing up
In a presentation to the United States Congress in
2003, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Proessor o Child
Development at Columbia University, New York,
summarized the benefts o early childhood education
as ollows:
High quality centre-based programmes enhance
the school-related achievement and behaviour o
young children.
These eects are strongest or poor children and
or children whose parents have little education.
Positive benefts continue into late elementary
school and high school years, although eects are
smaller than they were at the beginning o
elementary school.
Programmes that are continued into primary
school, and that oer intensive early intervention,
have the most sustained long-term eects.
I properly linked to other services, early childhood
services can be expected to deliver additional
outcomes, such as enhanced maternal
employment, less amily poverty, better parenting
skills and greater amily and community cohesion.
ThePerry Pre-school Projectwas intensively managed
and well-resourced. Sta-to-children ratios averaged 1:6,
with all sta educated to degree level and trained as
public school teachers. Sta also made regular once-a-
week home visits to support mothers and to invite their
involvement in reinorcing the pre-school curriculum at
home. Overall, the cost was approximately $11,300 perchild per year (in 2007 dollars). A 1995 evaluation
suggested that the returns mainly in the orm o
reduced welare and reduced costs or coping with crime
amounted to approximately $7 or every $1 invested in
the project. A urther evaluation published in 2006
calculated the beneft-cost ratio (the ratio o the
aggregate project benefts over the lie o the child to the
input costs) at more than $8 or every $1 invested.
Caliornia, United States
The 2005 report The Economics o Investing in Universal
Preschool Education in Caliornia ound that children whoattended pre-schools were more likely to graduate rom
high school, earned higher salaries as adults, and were
less likely to become involved in crime. The authors
claim that even i only 25 per cent o Caliornias children
benefted rom universal pre-school education, the state
could still expect a return o $2 or every $1 invested.
New Zealand
The latest (200) survey o the Competent Children
Projectin New Zealand shows that 12 year-olds who
participated in high quality early childhood education
perormed better in reading and math. The dierences
remained even ater amily income and parental
education were taken into account.
United Kingdom
TheEective Provision o Pre-school Education (EPPE)
is a long-term study o young childrens development.
Based on a random sample o the UKs child population,
the 2003EPPEreport concludes that pre-school
enhances childrens cognitive and social development
and that the eects are greatest or disadvantaged
children especially i pre-schools bring together
children o mixed backgrounds. Benefts are positively
correlated with measures o programme quality andsta qualifcations.
These and other studies on the eectiveness o early childhood
education and care are summarized and reerenced in chapter III o the
background paper to this report Early Childhood Services in the OECDCountries, Innocenti Working Paper 2008-01 (www.unice-irc.org).
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The potential or harm
Alongside the potential or good, it
will be equally evident that the
transition to child care also brings
with it the potential or harm.
Box 1 shows that, or babies andinants, a lack o close interaction and
care with parents can result in the
mis-setting o the bodys stress
management systems in ways that can
make it more dicult or the child to
regulate his or her responses to the
world. In some instances, and or some
children, the long-term eects may
include depression, withdrawal,
inability to concentrate, and other
orms o mental ill health. In a larger
number o less obvious cases, the
result is likely to be less than optimal
cognitive and linguistic development
and underachievement in school.
Concern has also been expressed
about whether child care may weaken
the attachment between parent and
child, and whether it may not be
putting at risk the childs developingsense o security and trust in others.
Doubts have also been raised about
possible long-term eects on
psychological and social development,
and about whether the rise o child
care may be associated with a rise in
behavioural problems in school-age
children.
Today, a number o long-term studies
are beginning to clariy these issues.The earliest o these initiated in
1991 by the US National Institute o
Child Health and Human
Development (NICHD) has
monitored the child care experiences
and later outcomes o over 1,300
children in the United States. Overall,
the study ound that child care was
associated with relatively small
dierences, negative or positive, on
either abilities or behaviours. However,
it noted among its conclusions:
The more time children spent in child
care rom birth to age our-and-a-hal,
the more adults tended to rate themas
less likely to get along with others, as
more assertive, as disobedient and as
aggressive.x
This negative association appears to be
related to the length o time spent in
child care and holds good whatever
the quality o the care experienced;
but it is worth repeating that the
eects recorded were not large and
that the quality o parenting was ound
to be a ar more signicant infuence
than time spent in child care (indeed
negative eects were not ound at all
in children who beneted rom goodparenting).
Some have argued that the eects
noted in the NICHD study are too
small to be signicant. Others have
countered that even a small but
widespread rise in aggressive and
disruptive behaviours could have
signicant eects on classroom ethos,
on the diculties aced by teachers,
and on the learning environment or
all children.
Europes rst major long-term study
was launched in 1997 in the United
Kingdom with the aim o tracking the
progress o over 3,000 children rom
age 3 to age 7. In its nal report
Eective Provision o Pre-school
Education the study ound that pre-
school education or three and ouryear-olds improved both cognitive and
social skills, but noted that high levels
o group care beore the age o three
(and particularly beore the age o two)
were associated with higher levels o anti-
social behaviour at age 3. xi
The degree to which such ndings are
relevant to countries other than the
United Kingdom and the United
States is debated. But as yet, ew other
countries have conducted long-term
studies on the eects o child care.
Penelope Leach, child care specialist
or more than our decades and co-
director o another large-scale UK
study Families, Children and Child
Care oers the ollowing overview
o the evidence to date:
It is airly clear rom data rom dierent
parts o the world that the less time
children spend in group care beore three
years, the better. Inants spending as little
as 12 hours a week in day nurseries
showed slightly lower levels o social
development and emotional regulation
(less enthusiastic cooperation,
concentration, social engagement and
initiative) as toddlers. Somewhere ater
two years, as the children begin to relatemore to each other than to the adult,
then high-quality, group-based care
becomes an unequivocal benet. xii
At present, thereore, the most
important generalization to be made is
that the younger the child and the
longer the hours spent in child care
the greater the risk. In particular, long
hours o child care or those under the
age o one year is widely regarded as
inappropriate. Inadequate care at this
most critical o all stages may result in
weak oundations and shaky
scaolding or uture learning; and
what is true o cognitive and linguistic
skills is also true o psychological and
emotional development.
Overall, there is a broad consensus that
child care that is too early and or toolong can be damaging.
Responses o governments
In sum, the two-way potential o the
large-scale movement to out-o-home
child care poses a challenge to all
parents and to all countries currently
going through the child care transition.
Most OECD governments have
responded by ormulating policy and
investing public resources in the
provision o early childhood education
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4. A minimum level o access
or our-year-olds
The minimum proposed is that at
least 80 per cent o our-year-olds
participate in publicly subsidized
and accredited early education
services or a minimum o 15hours per week.
5. A minimum level o training
or all sta
The minimum proposed is that at
least 80 per cent o sta having
signifcant contact with young
children, including neighbourhood
and home-based child carers,
should have relevant training. As a
minimum, all sta shouldcomplete an induction course. A
move towards pay and working
conditions in line with the wider
teaching or social care proessions
should also be envisaged.
6. A minimum proportion o
sta with higher level
education and training
The minimum proposed is that at
least 50 per cent o sta in earlyeducation centres supported and
accredited by governmental
agencies should have a minimum
o three years tertiary education
with a recognized qualifcation in
early childhood studies or a
related feld.
7. A minimum sta-to-
children ratio
The minimum proposed is that
the ratio o pre-school children
(our-to-fve year-olds) to trained
sta (educators and assistants)
should not be greater than 15
to 1, and that group size should
not exceed 24.
8. A minimum level o public
unding
The suggested minimum is that
the level o public spending on
early childhood education and care
(or children aged 0 to 6 years)
should not be less than 1 per cent
o GDP.
These eight proposed benchmarks are
supplemented by two urther
indicators designed to acknowledge
and refect wider social and economic
actors critical to the ecacy o early
childhood services.
9. A low level o child poverty
Specifcally, a child poverty rate o
less than 10 per cent. The
defnition o child poverty is that
used by the OECD the
percentage o children growing up
in amilies in which income,
adjusted or amily size, is less
than 50 per cent o median
income.
10. Universal outreach
To reinorce one o the central
tenets o this report that early
childhood services should also be
available to the children o
disadvantaged amilies this last
benchmark attempts to measure
and compare demonstrated
national commitment to that ideal.
As no direct measure is currently
possible, the suggested proxy
measure is the extent to which
basic child health services have
been made available to the most
marginalized and difcult-to-reach
amilies.
Specifcally, the benchmark o
universal outreach is considered
to have been met i a country has
ulflled at least two o the
ollowing three requirements: a)
the rate o inant mortality is less
than 4 per 1,000 live births b) the
proportion o babies born with low
birthweight (below 2,500 grams) is
less than 6 per cent and c) the
immunization rate or 12 to 23
month-olds (averaged over
measles, polio and DPT3vaccination) is higher than
95 per cent.
Critical issues
The 10 benchmarks have been
drawn up with a core o critical
questions in mind:
At what age can out-o-home
education and care begin to
benet children?
I todays knowledge suggests that
children under the age o one are
best cared or by parents, what
policies can best support todays
parents in that task?
What should be the underlying
aims and priorities o early
childhood services?
How is quality in early childhoodeducation and care to be dened
and monitored?
What systems can make available
high quality services to all and
ensure that disadvantaged and
at-risk children are included?
Is the wider social and economic
context supportive? Or are early
childhood services being asked to
row upstream against powerulcurrents o child poverty, persistent
disadvantage, and amily-unriendly
policies in the economy and
workplace?
Parental leave
The question o the appropriate age at
which early childhood education and
care can be o benet to children is
one o the most controversial issues in
the child care debate. Many see
nothing wrong with out-o-home
child care beginning at three months
providing that the care is o an
acceptable quality. Others consider
that the cr itical developmental needs
o the rst year o lie demand
nothing less than the constant, loving,
one-to-one interaction o parental
care. And or millions o working
parents in OECD countries, this is aquestion that must be answered under
pressure o career demands and
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household budgets. It is thereore a
question that is almost inseparable rom
the issue o parental leave entitlement
(Benchmark 1 and Box 3).
All but two OECD countries
Australia* and the United States
currently provide an entitlement to
some orm opaidleave to employed
parents ollowing the birth o a child.
The average duration o that
entitlement in OECD countries, at
varying levels o pay, is now
approaching one year (including pre-
natal and maternity leave).
But within individual countries,
dierent views on the age questionhave been one actor contributing to
very dierent policies and practices.
In the United Kingdom and the
United States, or example, a majority
o children under the age o one year
are now in some orm o child care or
a substantial portion o each working
day. Australia also appears to be moving
in the same direction. By contrast, in
Finland, Norway, and Sweden, out-o-
home care is now a rarity during the
rst year o a childs lie.
Where parents themselves have the
choice and the support to make that
choice real (Box 3) they have tended
to vote with their eet. In the Sweden
o 20 years ago, or example, inant
care was heavily subsidized and widely
used. But with the introduction o 12months parental leave at 80 per cent o
salary,** the use o nurseries declined
steeply and child care is today rare or
Swedish children under the age o 18
months (athers and mothers are each
entitled to 60 days parental leave with
a urther 360 days available to either
parent.)
Box 1 summarizes recent
neuroscientic support or extended
and well remunerated parental leave
entitlements. In brie, such
entitlements, in addition to supporting
breasteeding, help to create the
conditions or the constant, intimate,
reliable, reassuring, one-to-one
interaction with parents that all inants
need. It may be argued that it is not
only parents who are able to meet
such needs; but even i this point were
to be conceded in principle, there are
clearly enormous practical andnancial diculties in recruiting,
training, remunerating, retaining, and
supervising the large numbers o
skilled sta that would be needed to
guarantee adequate care and
stimulation or the under-ones. And in
countries where out-o-home inant
care is becoming the norm, it is
impossible not to question whether
todays knowledge o the critical
developmental needs o the very young
child is being ully taken into account.
In the light o both neuroscientic
advances and recent experience, it
would thereore seem that the interests
o the very young are best served by
policies that make it easier or at least
one parent to care or the child during
the rst 12 months o lie. Accordingly,
the value o the rst benchmark parental leave entitlement has been
set at a level o one years leave at
50 per cent o earnings (subject to a
foor or low-income parents and a
ceiling or the more afuent).
In line with the Convention on the
Rights o the Child, which states that
governments shall use their best eorts
to ensure recognition o the principle that
both parents have common responsibilities
or the upbringing and development o
the child, several OECD countries
have brought in an additional athers
only entitlement to parental leave.
Usually short and paid at 100 per cent
o salary, such leave is available on a use
it or lose it basis. In support o this,
benchmark 1 is not considered to be
met unless at least two weeks o
paternal leave is also specically
provided or.
As Fig. 1 shows, the parental leave
benchmark is currently met by 6 o
the 25 countries or which data are
available. Iceland is the only Nordic
country to all short o the required
standard.
Box 3 oers a more detailed picture byattempting to compare eectiveparental
leave entitlements in OECD countries
(weighting the length o leave by the
proportion o salary paid).
Unortunately, even generous parental
leave entitlement may ail to benet
many o the OECDs most vulnerable
children. New parents on low incomes
are usually under severe economic
pressure to return to work. And those
whose employment is inormal and
unregulated are o course ineligible or
parental leave entitlement. In part, this
deciency is compensated or by
benchmark 9, which refects eorts to
support low-income amilies.
Finally, generous parental leave
entitlements and return to work
guarantees need to go hand-in-handwith support or employers, and
especially or small businesses, which
may otherwise be reluctant to employ
or promote women o childbearing age.
Defning aims
Most experts and most long-term
studies agree that the eects o early
childhood education and care, or most
children, become unequivocally
positive at some point between the
ages o two and three providing that
the hours are not too long and that the
* Under Australias Workplace Relations Act (1996), permanent
employees who have 12 months continuous service with an
employer have a minimum entitlement to 52 weeks o shared
unpaid parental leave ollowing the birth or adoption o a child.
In practice, many employed parents in both Australia and the
United States have the right to paid parental leave under the
terms o their employment. In addition, all new parents in
Australia are entitled to a one-o birth payment which iscurrently the most generous in the OECD.
** The period o parental leave entitlement in Sweden qualifes
as employment in the calculation o retirement and pension
rights.
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Box 3 Eective parental leave: a league table
The table (right) presents a more detailed comparative
picture o parental leave entitlements or those in ormal
employment. Its measure is the level o eective
parental leave calculated by weighting the duration o
leave by the percentage o salary oered.
The resulting league table reveals striking dierences
between countries, with the index running rom a high
o 116 in Norway to a low o 0 in Australia and the
United States. Overall, the level o eective parentalleave entitlement in Norway and France, or example, is
more than fve times higher than in Australia, Ireland,
Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, the Republic o
Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.
The weighting in the table takes into account that
countries adopt dierent approaches. New mothers in
the United Kingdom, or example, are entitled to a years
maternity leave at tapering rates o pay: the frst six
weeks are paid at 90 per cent o salary (ater which a
urther 33 weeks are available at a at rate o c133
($202)*
per week ollowed by an entitlement to 13weeks o unpaid leave. In Iceland, by contrast, parental
leave entitlement is shorter (39 weeks)** but divided
equally between maternity leave, paternity leave and
parental leave (available to either parent); each o these
13 week entitlement periods is paid at 80 per cent o
earnings up to a ceiling o c6,000 ($9,112) per month
with a minimum o c630 ($957) per month (which is also
paid to women taking leave rom part-time work).
Other countries oer even longer entitlements to
parental leave at lower levels o pay. Finland, France,
Germany (paid or one year only), Hungary, Norway, and
Spain (unpaid), or example, oer leave entitlements
until the childs third birthday i parents choose not to
use early childhood services (these leave entitlements
are included in the above table).
In sum, remuneration as well as duration is critical to
the impact o parental leave entitlements on the
childbearing and child caring decisions o parents.
Although in some ways a means and measure o
continued progress towards the goal o equality o
opportunity or women, leave that is too long and too
maternal can undermine progress towards gender
equality, as extended leave may make the return to workmore difcult or both mothers and employers.
* Based on the c/$ exchange rate as at March 2008.
** The extension o parental leave to one year is currentlyunder discussion in Iceland.
Entitlement to paid maternity leave (weeks)
Length of other leave (weeks)
Effective parental leave
(duration of leave multiplied by per cent of salary paid)
United Kingdom
Denmark
Sweden
Finland
Slovenia
Hungary
Mexico
Norway
Belgium
Canada
Austria
Portugal
Iceland
Spain
France
Germany
Netherlands
Italy
New Zealand
Japan
United States
Australia
Ireland
Switzerland
Republic of Korea
31
18
18
16
8
7
58
0
29
29
19
32
23
38
0
12
27
20
95
65
116
103
48
57
53
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Source: Bennett (2008), updated rom Moss & Wall (2007).
Eective parental leave = duration o leave multiplied by per cent o salary paid.
For example, 40 weeks replaced by 100 per cent o earnings has a coecient o 40;at 50 per cent o earnings, a coecient o 20.
Please note that the calculations are approximate as parental leave in some countries
can run concurrently with maternity leave. In addition, some countries oer a
percentage o salary while others oer only a percentage o average or minimum wage.
These fgures must be interpreted with caution. In Canada and the European Union, or
example, the fgures reect statutory rights to parental leave; in Australia and the
United States (excepting Caliornia), on the other hand, there is no legal entitlement to
paid parental leave and the ratings given are a reection o what usually happens in
practice. In the case o the Republic o Korea, the fgure reects entitlements which, in
practice, are not taken up by the majority o mothers.
Eective parental leave
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quality o care can be assured. But
beore looking at the critical issues o
access and quality, important
dierences in the underlying aims o
early childhood education and care
should be made explicit.
In most OECD countries it is now
widely accepted that the earliest years
o lie are a time o extraordinary
opportunity, a time when skill builds
on skill and the oundations are laid or
uture cognitive and social development
(Box 1). The older and narrower
concept o child care as a means o
liberating parents or employment is
thereore giving way to a more child-
centred approach and an emphasis onthe quality o care available.
Nonetheless, quality is being
interpreted in dierent ways.
In France, the United Kingdom, and
the United States, or example, early
childhood education and care tends to
be seen primarily as preparation or
success in school. In countries such as
Denmark, Finland, Norway, and
Sweden, more ambitious aims are
being embraced. The prevailing view
in the Nordic countries is that the
earliest years o lie are a critical
opportunity not only or the
development o cognitive and linguistic
skills but also or the social skills o
sel-regulation and a developing
awareness o the emotions, needs, and
rights o others. The planning o earlychildhood services, including the
training o sta and the development
o curricula, refects these concerns.
Early childhood education and care is
thereore conceived as an investment
not only in success at school but in
society and citizenship.
No clear correlation can yet be
established between dierent systems o
early childhood education and later
outcomes. But it is worth noting that a
broader approach to early childhood
education does not appear to
disadvantage the Nordic countries
when it comes to later academic
achievement. Finland and Sweden, or
example, despite rejecting the
schoolication o the early years and
delaying the beginning o primary
school education until the age o
seven,* regularly top international
league tables or academic
achievement at age 15. Finnish 15
year-olds outperorm the students o
every other industrialized country in
average levels o prociency in maths
and science and are outperormed in
literacy only by pupils in the Republic
o Korea. It is also worth noting that
educational disadvantage whethermeasured by the proportion o
students who ail to reach a certain
minimum standard or by the gap
between the lowest achievers and the
average is lower in Finland than in
any other OECD country.xiii
These dierences in undamental
approach to early childhood education
and care do not easily lend themselves
to measurement. Benchmark 2
thereore adopts a less ambitious
approach. It asks whether countries
have researched and published a
national plan or early childhood
services, and whether that plan
includes a strategy or ensuring that
the benets o early childhood
education and care are available to
disadvantaged children. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, 19 o 25 OECDcountries are able to answer yes to
this question, though not Australia,
Canada, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, or
the United States.
Targeted services
Beyond these undamental
considerations, OECD governments
are also aced with a wide choice o
strategies and systems or nancing
and delivering early childhood services
that are accessible to all at an aordable
cost. Should services be targeted or
universally available? Free to all, or
subsidized according to amily income?
Delivered by government agencies or
private providers? Financed directly by
unding providers or via vouchers or
cash benets to enable parents to
purchase child care in the market
place?
To promote equity while containing
costs, many OECD countries have
decided that public spending on early
childhood education and care should
be concentrated, at least initially, on the
poorest amilies. Otherwise, it isargued, resources will be spread too
thinly and the benets, instead o
promoting equity, will accrue largely to
the better o. For these reasons, large
scale programmes such as Head Startin
the United States and Sure Startin the
United Kingdom are targeted towards
disadvantaged groups (and include
both centre-based care and parental
support programmes).
There are, however, arguments against
basing early childhood services only on
targeting particular groups o children.
First, universal early childhood services
have many o the same advantages as
universally available education or older
pupils; in particular, universal services
tend to bring together children rom
dierent backgrounds rather thanreinorcing concentrations o
disadvantage. This is widely recognized
as being o signicant benet to all
children, and is regarded by many
governments as a means o preventing
social exclusion.
Second, universally available services
usually command broader and more
sustainable public support and
engender greater public concern or
quality. Too oten, services or the poor
have meant poor services.
* At age six, Finnish and Swedish children begin a transition or
preparatory school-readiness year. Until then, early education
ocuses primarily on social and emotional development and
play-based learning.
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Third, universal systems can still give
priority to disadvantaged children by
channelling additional unds to child
care centres that serve low income
children or children with special
educational needs. Incentives can also
be provided to help steer the most
capable teachers to the most
disadvantaged children.
Fourth, children at risk o developing
behavioural or learning problems are
to be ound in all socio-economic
groups rather than being conned to
certain geographical areas. Programmes
targeted only on the basis o income
or geography may ail to reach the
smaller proportion but oten largerabsolute number o vulnerable
children who all outside the target
area. It has been estimated, or
example, that the Head Startand Sure
Startprogrammes in the US and the
UK are currently reaching only about
a third to a hal o their intended
target groups (though this is in part a
result o inadequate unding rather
than targeting strategiesper se).
These arguments suggest that where
possible the way orward lies down the
road adopted by countries such as the
Netherlands universal services, but
with fexible nancing systems that
can give priority to the disadvantaged
by increasing per capita expenditures
where need is greatest.
Private provision
Basic dierences in approach are also
evident in the strategies by which
dierent OECD governments und
and deliver early childhood services,
whether targeted or universal.
A mix o private and public child care
services is available in most countries.
But some governments lean towards
ree or subsidized services run directly
by government or government-unded
providers, while others avour private
provision o child care services
subsidized either directly by
government or indirectly by vouchers
or tax breaks to enable parents to
purchase child care rom pr ivate
providers. In many OECD countries,
the not-or-prot sector is also a major
provider o early childhood services
and in many cases has led the way in
promoting community involvement
and investment. It is clearly important
that such services meet the quality
standards laid down by governments;
but given that proviso, the not-or-
prot sector will continue to be
critical in increasing availability,
aordability, choice, and quality in the
provision o early childhood services.
There are also strong arguments or
partnership with private enterprise in
the provision o early childhood
services: it can inject competition,
encourage innovation, reduce
bureaucracy, widen parental choice,
attract investment, and reduce the cost
to the taxpayer. Private providers also
tend to be quicker to launch services
and to respond to parents wishes. In
principle, private services can be made
aordable to all via vouchers or other
orms o subsidy. Licensed private
providers o child care services can
then be monitored to ensure
compliance with standards o access,
quality, training, and sta-to-children
ratios (or example requiring private
child care centres to accept all children
rom a given geographical area,
including those with special needs).Finally, it can also be argued that
parents are more likely to be able to
decide what is best or their children
than governments.
For all o these reasons, the culture o
public-private partnership has become
established in many OECD countries,
and many private providers o child
care oer high quality services.
There are also arguments against the
private provision o early childhood
services. Consistent monitoring and
enorcement o standards can be both
expensive and allible. Some private
providers are tempted to reduce less
visible costs such as training, pay, and
conditions o work. And sta turnover
in or-prot services tends to be
higher (a actor which, rom the
childs point o view, translates into
instability o care).
Furthermore, what is oered by
private providers o child care is not a
consumer product but a childs once-
in-a-lietime opportunity to pass
successully through critical stages o
cognitive, emotional, and social
development. As UNICEF has arguedor many decades and in many
contexts, the childs name is today.
This gives rise to two particular
problems, both o which have to do
with the inormation available to the
consumer. First, the quality o early
childhood education and care being
provided may not always be evident to
parents either because they have
insucient knowledge o what
constitutes quality or because
providers ail to communicate
adequately the quality o the services
they oer. This problem o imperect
inormation, it may be argued, applies
to all transactions in the marketplace,
it being the responsibility o
consumers to keep themselves
inormed and make correct decisions.
But here a second danger arises; poorquality early childhood education and
care is not a product that can be
returned, repaired, exchanged, or
reunded. It may take years or the
lack o quality to show its eects; the
cause may never become apparent;
and the consequences are likely to all
not only on the child but on society
as a whole.
No one delivery strategy can be
signposted as the ideal way orward.
The one clear and common
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Concerns about the child care transition have been
voiced by child psychologists and child rights activists in
many countries.
One o the most inuential critics is Australian
psychologist Steve Biddulph, whose books on parenting
have sold more than million copies worldwide.
Arguing that child care is inappropriate or under-threes,
Biddulph centres his attack on the gap between the
theory and practice o child care in the many dierent
day-care centres and nurseries he has visited:
The best nurseries struggled to meet the needs o very
young children in a group setting. The worst were
negligent, rightening and bleak: a nightmare o
bewildered loneliness that was heartbreaking to watch.Children at this age under three will want one thing
only: the individual care o their own special person.
It is a matter o balance, o getting the timing right. The
rst three years o lie are those when children are too
vulnerable, too much in need o intimate care and all it
can oer, to be let to group care by strangers.1
Oxord psychotherapist Susan Gerhardt, co-ounder o
the Oxord Parent Inant Project, has also spoken out
against child care or the very young.
What seems to be most crucial or the baby is the
extent to which the parent or caregiver is emotionally
available and present or him, to notice his signals and to
regulate his states .
The babys mother is primed to do these things or her
baby by her own hormones, and is more likely to have
the intense identication with the babys eelings that is
needed, provided she has the inner resources to do so.
Babies come into the world with the need or social
interaction to help develop and organise their brains. I
they dont get enough empathetic, attuned attention in
other words, i they dont have a parent who is interested
and reacting positively to them then important parts otheir brain simply will not develop as well.
Box 4 The critics: concerns about child care
1 Biddulph, S.,Raising Babies: Should under 3s go to
nursery?, HarperThorsons, London, 2006.
2 Gerhardt, S., Why Love Matters: How aection shapes a
babys brain, Brunner-Routledge, Scarborough (Canada) and
New York, 200.3 Biddulph, S., op. cit., pp. 32-3.
Gerhardt also comments:
It is not popular these days to spell out how great the
responsibilities o parenthood are, since women havestruggled desperately to establish themselves as mens
equals in the workplace and do not want to eel guilty
about keeping their careers or pay cheques going
while someone else takes care o their babies.2
The same point has been supported by other
commentators, including the Australian human rights
lawyer Cathleen Sherry:
No one has an absolute right to a career men or
women. I you choose to have children, your major
responsibility is to care or them properly, and i that
aects your career, it aects your career. But no onewants to acknowledge this reality.
Child care allows men to avoid responsibility or their
children. Women have to pay others to look ater the
children because men arent willing to cut back on
their work hours to do their share o the parenting. I
women go back to work, it should be men, not
children, who alter their lives accordingly.
In maternity hospitals, it is no longer the done thing to
have newborn babies lined up in a nursery with a
couple o nurses looking ater them. That is seen as
terrible. Mothers are stro