Childcare in the pre-school years

Explaining gaps by parental education in children’s early language and social outcomes at age 3–4 years: evidence from harmonised data from three countries

“…The children from the MCS cohort were affected by these initiatives. In particular, when the children of the MCS cohort attended centre-based care at the age of 3 and 4 years, integration of early education and care was already well-advanced (Roberts et al, 2010). However, only a small minority were born early enough and in the right places to reap the full benefit of SS from birth (Roberts et al, 2010).…”

“…In particular, when the children of the MCS cohort attended centre-based care at the age of 3 and 4 years, integration of early education and care was already well-advanced (Roberts et al, 2010). However, only a small minority were born early enough and in the right places to reap the full benefit of SS from birth (Roberts et al, 2010). Aiming to measure the impact of SS, in their study, Melhuish et al (2008) compared a sample of children and their families who used SS Local Programmes (SSLP) with a group of children and their families from similarly deprived areas in England who participated in the MCS.…”

How Can Education Better Support the Mental Health & Wellbeing of Young People? Contributions From Developmental Psychopathology & Educational Effectiveness Research

“…Two broad dimensions of quality have been identified that facilitate children's development and learning: structural quality (Early et al, 2007)-which includes adult-child ratios, staff qualifications, group size, and the characteristics of the physical space-and process quality (Slot et al, 2015)-which includes the quality of the curriculum, pedagogical practices and the quality of children's experiences that support development. Frequently there are relationships between structural characteristics and process quality; for example the Effective Provision of Preschool Education (EPPE) study found that process quality was associated with the qualification level of ECEC staff (Sylva et al, 1999a;Melhuish et al, 2006) and the quality of early years provision has also been shown to be associated with managers' qualification level (Mathers et al, 2007;Roberts et al, 2010;Karemaker et al, 2011). In light of these findings, there has been support to improve the qualification level of ECEC staff in England, and there is evidence that it has indeed risen (Brind et al, 2014;Simon et al, 2016).…”

“…This increase in qualifications may be related to improvements in quality ratings of preschool provision over time (Ofsted, 2015). Another structural characteristic that has been associated with better quality provision is higher staff to child ratios (Mathers et al, 2007;Roberts et al, 2010). For example, higher staff to child ratios have been associated with a higher quality of staff/child interactions in preschool settings (Karemaker et al, 2011).…”

“…For example, higher staff to child ratios have been associated with a higher quality of staff/child interactions in preschool settings (Karemaker et al, 2011). There is also evidence that type of setting may be associated with the quality of provision, for example two UK studies (Sylva et al, 1999b;Roberts et al, 2010) found higher quality in statemaintained settings.…”