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Interchange 68: All Day Provision for 3- and 4- Year Olds

1. Introduction

In 1999 a team of researchers from the Institute of Education at the University of Stirling was commissioned by the Scottish Executive Education Department to research the experiences of 3- and 4-year olds who have all-day provision in pre-school education and care settings. The study focused exclusively on what constitutes good all-day provision rather than a comparison of all- and part-day provision. When the project was commissioned there was increasing demand for provision to meet the needs of working parents and a recognition that, although there had been a rapid expansion in part-time pre-school education provision, this may not meet demands for provision from working parents.

At the time of the study all-day pre-school provision in Scotland was available in what was characterised as a 'mixed economy' of education and care services for young children and their parents. Each 3- and 4-year old was offered 12¹/₂ hours of government-funded pre-school education per week in registered settings (in the private, local authority and voluntary sectors). Some of these settings offered an all-day service and parents were also able to 'build' all-day provision from a combination of settings, perhaps a nursery class during the morning followed by an afternoon spent with a childminder, or at a private nursery. The Curriculum Framework for Children 3 to 5 (SCCC, 1999) set out the areas of experience and learning to which the pre-school child should have access. This Framework did not make any specific recommendations for all-day provision as such but was a statement of good pre-school practice and of the expectations of provision in receipt of government funding.

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