Government £21bn pre-school plan 'flops'

Updated 14.39 Tue Aug 28 2007

Keywords: Sure Start, nursery, pre-school, education, children

The Government's £21 billion plan to boost the development of pre-school children appears to have failed, experts have said.

Since 1997, Labour has introduced various programmes such as Sure Start, Every Child Matters as well as bringing in free nursery places for three-year-olds and getting the Children's Act 2002 through Parliament.

A six-year study of 35,000 children by academics at Durham University has revealed that tots' skills are unchanged despite the programme

But, a six-year study of 35,000 children by academics at Durham University has revealed that tots' skills are unchanged despite the programme.

Author Dr Christine Merrell said: "Our aim with this study is to provide a single perspective on the changing profiles of children starting school in England during a time of rapid change."

Dr Merrell believes the programmes should have resulted in some measurable changes in our sample of almost 35,000 children.

"It is possible, however, that it is just still too early to measure the effects of these programmes particularly those of the Children's Act and Every Child Matters, which were only introduced in the past few years."

The research is being presented at the biennial European Association for Learning and Instruction (EARLI) conference in Budapest, Hungary.