Free Entitlement For Childminders

In the UK all children aged between 3 and 4 years have the right to receive the minimum of 15 hours education which can be used between 3 and 5 days per week. There are many ways that this can be provided.

Early years learning usually runs with adults working with children on focused activities that have specific concepts such as play involving using numbers, starting letter formation and language activities. The classroom will usually contain educational toys/play areas and children will be encouraged to work/play independently and choose from a wide range of activities. Foundation stage classrooms/areas also have facilities outside the classroom for outside play.

The early years curriculum that supports children's care learning and development is the foundation phase. Foundation phase promotes learning through play. There are 7 areas of learning that consists of:

Since 2004, all children in the UK aged three and four years old have been entitled to free places at nursery or another preschool setting (including childminders). From 1st September 2010 the Government extended these hours from 12.5 to 15 hours for up to 38 weeks of the year.

Summarise entitlement and provision for early years’ education (Refer to Childcare Act 2006 and Every Child matters) (1.1)

The legal status and principles of the Early Years Foundation stage is used with children aged from birth to five years. The Government have outlined three primary and four specific areas and seventeen early learning goals that they think are important to a child’s development and planning is used to meet a child’s individual needs.

Early childhood education often focuses on learning through play or a center-based approach to learning. Jean Piaget was a philosopher who placed great importance on the education of young children. Piaget believed that learning comes from within and that children construct their own knowledge of the world through experience. “The research and theory of Jean Piaget concludes that play meets the physical, intellectual, language, emotional and social needs of children.” (wikipedia.org)

The Early Years Foundation stage is play based framework that childcare providers use as a standard to ensure children from birth to five years are learning and developing well, in a safe and healthy environment and have the knowledge and skills to start school. Practitioners plan and provide a range of activities which helps enables a child’s development. The four main principles are enabling environment, positive relationships, unique child and learning and development. Early year’s framework focuses on 7 areas of learning and development, split between prime and specific

Educators can facilitate the children with different materials and environments in the classrooms that are in the early learning centres. The children need to develop their minds cognitively. “Children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world” (Berk 2007). Children are needing to develop their abilities through their play experiences, and also through their play experiences, they can develop appropriately. Early childhood education plays a large part in a child's early development.

This program was created to create ways for people to. Special needs children with the removal of financial difficulties for disincentives for the allowance of the option. The child receives federal funds to Title-E a federal funding providing education and training for the child welfare work field, it's also possible to receive state funded subsidies but depends on the state to which the adoption is occurring within (Adoptions 2007). The adoption must go through a licensed adoption agency, where then a public child welfare agency will determine if a family is eligible for adoption. The financial assistance is based on

Today in the UK every child is legally required to attend school from the age of 5, but most schools are now on a single intake so a child will start school in the September of the year they turn 5 e.g. if a child is 5 in August 2018 they will be offered a school place from September 2017. A child may also attend a school based nursery from the day they turn 3 depending on availability of

up to 15 hours per week for 38 weeks a year (The Child Care Act 2006), the government funds local authorities to ensure that every child receives up to two years free education before they reach

In an area where so many households require two incomes in order to survive, child care has become a necessity. Unfortunately, there are many issues within the daycare structure that impair parent’s ability to go to work, or forces parents to take time off they cannot afford. The parents who are unable to work because the cost of daycare is too expensive that face issues with gaps in their employment history, which reduces their future ability to be hired and the pay rate they will receive. Parents who end their children to day care, but the day care does not cover all of the hours needed face the issue of missing work, therefore making a bad impression upon their employer. The Daycare system needs to be more affordable and offer more hours in order to be a greater benefit to families.

Early year’s education refers to children between 2-5 years of age who are entitled to some element of schooling and education. Early year’s education is available (if wanted by the parent) from when the child turns three year old until the child reaches the compulsory schooling age of 5 years old. Funding is provided for 15 hours a week of free childcare, starting usually from the term that the child reaches their third birthday (or from two years old depending on their family situation) up until the child reaches 5 years old. From 5 years old this education extends to full time compulsory education until the child reaches 18 years of age. There are several options of early years education ranging from nursery schools: where learning and childcare is provided to 3-5 year olds, day nurseries which are usually within a workplace and range from birth up until 5 , childminders: where care is provided from the childminder’s own home and also nannies: stay at home childcare.

According to the Department for Education and Skills and Department for works and Pensions, (2002), They argue that ‘ Childcare can make a significant impact to children, parents, and communities, helping to tackle child poverty, improve children’s achievements at school, enable parents to choose to work as a route out of poverty. In other word, the government strongly believes that high quality childcare provision will enable children to excel in schools, helping them to improve in their education and helping poor families with children improve their standard of living by getting them back into paid employment as well as training.