Policy: Acevo launches taskforce on early years services
31 January 2011
ACEVO has set up a taskforce with the aim of articulating a new vision for Early Years services. Launched at a breakfast seminar with Children and Families Minister, Sarah Teather, this group will act as an important sounding board for the Department of Education as it formulates its strategic policy statement on the future provision of services aimed at children aged between - 9 months and 5.
Terms of Reference
The ACEVO Early Years Taskforce aims to articulate a clear direction of travel for Early Years services and explore the role of the voluntary and community sector within this. The work of the Taskforce will feed into the Department for Education’s Early Years policy statement (to be published in March/ April) and it will be formally recognised by the Department’s co-production group, which is advising on the statement.
In more detail, the Taskforce aims to:
1) Propose a set of outcomes that Early Years services should be looking to achieve and highlight effective ways of evidencing these
2) Review the barriers and challenges facing the voluntary and community sector in increasing their role in delivering Early Years services and explore the opportunities for overcoming these
3) Investigate the potential for payment by results funding models to drive up quality, while not challenging the sustainability of effective voluntary and community sector providers.
This Taskforce will run from February to May. We envisage there being three meetings with some online collaboration in between.
A number of briefing notes will be produced throughout the lifespan of the Taskforce and a report will be presented to the Department for Education’s co-production group in May.
Membership
Anne Longfield, 4Children (Chair)
June O’Sullivan, London Early Years Foundation
Kate Mulley, Action for Children
Bernadette Duffy, Coram Children’s Centre
Rashid Iqbal, The Children’s Society
Tim Jeffery, Spurgeons
Phil Willerton, Watford YMCA
Virginia Beardshaw, I CAN
Helen Dent, Family Action
Louise Bamfield, Barnardo’s
Sue Owen, NCB
Neil Leitch, Pre-School Learning Alliance
Pamela Park, Parenting UK
Jan Fishwick, Parents and Children Together
Anand Shukla, Daycare Trust
Sarah Gillinson, Innovation Unit
We would love to hear from you about how you think Early Years services can adapt and develop to meet the changing needs of families in the coming years. For more information or to get involved in the Taskforce, please contact Holly Hardisty.
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