This section on our website is meant to be used to distribute news of our associates and interested others’ relevant research and publications, and also for pertinent conference announcements, brief reviews of conferences, papers and books and any other information concerning developments in the mixed economy of childcare which is considered relevant to our virtual network.
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In 2012 ICMEC celebrated its fifth anniversary. As co-directors we look back with great pleasure on the achievements of the last five years. These would not have been possible without the support and input of a wide-ranging network of academic scholars, childcare business leaders and practitioners, policy makers, think tank staff and students at home and abroad. We are grateful to them all and look forward to continuing our collaboration.
Eva Lloyd and Helen Penn
autumn 2012
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THE SIXTH ICMEC SEMINAR SERIES
2012/2013 SERIES OF INTERNATIONAL ICMEC SEMINARS
To register for our mailing list email e.lloyd@uel.ac.uk
Posted 12 February 2013
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The second seminar in this series took place on Tuesday 19 March 2013 at 2 p.m. at UEL's Docklands Campus. To read a brief report on the seminar and see the presenters' Powerpoint presentation, follow the link to seminar series in the lefthand margin of this page.
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The first seminar in the sixth annual series of international seminars took place on Monday 26 November 2012 p.m. at UEL's Docklands Campus. Topic: Profit or surplus? Implications for provider sustainability.
This seminar explored financial implications of provider aegis. How do social enterprises and for-profit childcare businesses compare in terms of sustainability?
Do economies of scale matter? Is ethics an issue?
Zoe Raven, CEO of the Acorn Childcare chain discussed the rationale for her recent transformation of the originally for-profit organisation into a not-for-profit/social enterprise.
For a report on this event follow the link in the lefthand margin on this webpage to 'seminars.
Posted 28 November 2012
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On 20 June 2012 The Policy Press in Bristol published Childcare markets - Can they deliver an equitable service? edited by Eva Lloyd and Helen Penn. The book will appear in the USA with the University of Chicago Press in August 2012.
The book brings together contributions from 14 national and international scholars in the fields of early childhood, social policy and economics to discuss the issues arising from childcare markets.
The viability, quality and sustainability of publicly supported early childhood education and care services is a lively issue in many countries, especially since the rights of the child imply equal access to provision for all young children. But equitable provision within childcare markets is highly problematic, as parents pay for what they can afford and parental income inequalities persist or widen.
This highly topical book presents recent, significant research from eight nations where childcare markets are the norm. It also includes research about ‘raw’ and ‘emerging’ childcare markets operating with a minimum of government intervention, mostly in low income countries or post transition economies. Childcare markets compares these childcare marketisation and regulatory processes across the political and economic systems in which they are embedded. Contributions from economists, childcare policy specialists and educationalists address the question of what constraints need to be in place if childcare markets are to deliver an equitable service.
Testimonials were received from Emeritus Professor Edward Zigler, the US Scholar behind the creation of the HeadStart programme:
“In this fascinating book, a group of distinguished scholars provide incisive analyses of market-based child care around the world. They convey child care for what it is - both a service to parents and a major determinant of children’s development and future life course. An informative must-read for both scholars and policymakers.” Edward Zigler, Ph.D. Sterling Professor of Psychology, Emeritus. Director Emeritus, The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy, Yale University.
and from Professor Mike Brewer, formerly of the Institute for Fiscal Studies:
“Lloyd and Penn have drawn together a multi-disciplinary, international, team of experts to study and reflect on childcare markets’ consequences for young children and their families. The book will be of great use to those studying the mixed economy childcare, and those interested in market-based approaches of other caring public services.” Mike Brewer, Professor of Economics, University of Essex.
The book, which appears in the year that ICMEC celebrates its fifth anniversary, is available in hard copy and as an E-book from the Policy Press: http://www.policypress.co.uk
Its publication was celebrated at a launch at UEL's Cass School of Education and Communities hosted by Selena Bolingbroke, Pro Vice Chancellor Strategic Planning and External Development and the staff of UEL's Centre for Excellence in Women's Entrepreneurship, CEWE.
posted 9 July 2012
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For a report on the ICMEC seminar which took place on 3 April 2012:
ISSUES IN DELIVERING VALUE FOR MONEY IN FREE EDUCATION FOR 3 AND 4 YEAR OLDS
follow the link to SEMINAR SERIES in the lefthand column on this page
The speakers at this event were JULIAN WOOD, Director for Education VFM at the NAO, who directed the team that undertook the study of the free entitlement, and N EIL LEITCH, CEO of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, the largest voluntary sector provider of childcare and the fourth largest provider of childcare in England.
Posted 9 July 2012
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For a report on the ICMEC seminar which took place on Monday 24 October2011 follow the link to SEMINAR SERIES series in the lefthand margin on this page.
There were two speakers at this packed ICMEC event, chaired by ICMEC Co-director Eva Lloyd. They were senior civil servant, Ann Gross, who is Director of the Early Years and Special Needs Group at the Department for Education and Professor Helen Penn, Co-director of ICMEC. The topic was governmental regulation and financing of early childhood education and care in Europe and England. Helen Penn has compiled an extensive report on this for the EU, while the DFE intends to put out a consultation on early education and childcare regulation issues this autumn.
Posted 2 November 2011 _________________________________________________________________________
ICMEC Co-director speaks to Greater London Assembly Committee
Eva Lloyd, Reader in Early Childhood and Co-director of the International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare at the Cass School of Education and Communities, addressed members of the Greater London Assembly Health and Public Services Committee recently. She discussed findings of a report on the London childcare market she co-authored with Professor Helen Penn, Co-director if ICMEC, and three economists from London research agencies. To view the webcast of Eva’s presentation and the discussion that followed visit bit.ly/assemblywebcast The London Childcare Market was published in February 2011 by the London Development Agency and can be accessed via bit.ly/londonchildcaremarket
Posted 10 August 2011
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On 19 July the Department for Education and the Department for Health set out the Government’s vision for the system of health and educational services supporting young children up to age 5 and their families. These early years, now called foundation years, are considered critically important for children and families. The policy statement also constitutes the Government’s response to recommendations concerning the foundation years made in the Reviews by Graham Allen MP, Frank Field MP, Professor Eileen Munro and Dame Clare Tickell. Eva Lloyd, Reader in Early Childhood and Co-director of ICMEC in the Cass School of Education and Communities, is on the Steering Group advising the Government on its Foundation Years policies
Posted 10 August 2011
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For a report on the spring ICMEC seminar, where a new LDA report was launched on the London childcare market, follow the link in the lefthand market to SEMINAR SERIES.
The third ICMEC seminar in the 2010/2011 - fourth - series of ICMEC international seminars took place on Thursday 3 March 2011 a.m. at UEL's Docklands Campus. The event was dedicated to the launch of a major report on the London childcare market, published in early February 2011 by the London Development Agency. Eva Lloyd and Helen Penn co-wrote this report, together with researchers from two independent social and economic research agencies: Roger Tym & Partners and Laing & Buisson.
To download the report click on: http://www.lda.gov.uk/publications-and-media/index.aspx
(Posted 9 March 2011)
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Policy Advisory role for ICMEC co-director
Eva Lloyd, Reader in Early Childhood and Co-director of the International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare (ICMEC), has been invited by the Minister of State for Children and Families, Sarah Teather, to join a small early years policy steering group. The group is meant to take a leading role in a collaborative approach between Government and the early years sector to develop a new policy statement for publication in the spring and to formulate solutions to the challenges faced by the sector.
(posted 8 February 2011)
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ICMEC role in respect of Graham Allen Review of Early Intervention
After attending meetings forming part of MP Graham Allen’s Early Intervention Review, she accepted, on behalf of ICMEC, an invitation to join the review’s second phase, which explores funding options for implementation of the review’s recommended programmes. As a result, Helen was invited to meet George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer at a reception hosted at 11 Downing Street. Helen expressed her scepticism about the efficacy of targeted early interventions to Graham Allen, who co-hosted the reception. She has been invited to make a personal submission to him, outlining her critique. Whilst even more sceptical of the outcome, she is preparing a critique which stresses the importance of seeing early interventions within a wider spectrum of services, and which highlights the difficulties of “boundary maintenance” – deciding who is eligible for special interventions and who is not.
(posted 9 March 2011)
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International presentations by Helen Penn
Helen Penn has been invited to speak at a number of international events, because of the work being undertaken by ICMEC on childcare markets.
She gave a seminar on childcare markets at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, in October 2010; and another at the National University of Taiwan, also in October. Both seminars were attended by government representatives as well as academics and postgraduate students.
She was invited to the UNESCO World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) held in Moscow in 2010, attended by delegates from almost every country. She spoke alongside the deputy Minister for Education in South Africa on options for financing childcare. She argued that international aid agencies had low aspirations for ECCE, and considered that the private entrepreneurs could be relied on to deliver services; whereas the evidence indicated that government intervention was more effective, especially in reaching the poorest children.
Helen was also invited to chair the finance session at the EU presidency conference in Budapest, in Hungary in February 2011. She summarized the issues facing European countries concerning the funding of childcare, and chaired the discussion between Jan van Raven, a Harvard economist, who had been developing costing models for Eastern European countries, and the Director of Early Education and Care for Slovenia, which had a fully funded government system of care and education, and which was increasingly being used as a model for Europe.
(posted 9 March 2011)
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Helen Penn's latest book launched at UEL
Helen Penn’s new book Quality in Early Childhood Services: An International Perspective published by Open University Press/McGraw Hill was launched at the Cass School of Education and Communities on 16th February. The launch was attended by staff and students. Cass Lecturer in Early Childhood Richard Harty spoke about the usefulness of the book for students, because although it dealt with big issues, it was also accessible and easy to read. Dr Liz Brooker from the Institute of Education at the University of London said that the book was a landmark in challenging the way in which people thought about early years education and care in the UK, and gave us a new and deeper perspective about the subject.
(posted 9 March 2011)
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FOURTH SERIES OF ICMEC INTERNATIONAL SEMINARS STARTS
For a report on the first and second seminar in the current series follow the link to SEMINARS in the lefhand margin on this page of the ICMEC website.
On Tuesday 14 September 2010 EARLY CHILDHOOD POLICY DEVELOPMENTS IN NEW ZEALAND was the topic discussed at the first ICMEC seminar in the fourth series. ICMEC hosted Professor Helen May who discussed recent policy shifts in early childhood policy in New Zealand. Professor May is Professor of Education and Dean of the College of Education at the University of Otago. During the early 1990s Helen worked with Margaret Carr on the development of Te Whaariki, the first national curriculum guidelines for New Zealand. For futher information on Professor May's work follow this link:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/education/staff/helenmay.html
The discussant at this seminar was Professor Jennifer Sumsion, Foundation Professor of Early Childhood Studies at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia. She considered policy developments in New Zealand as seen through an Australian lens. A report on this seminar will become available within the next couple of weeks. Links to Professor May's ICMEC presentation and some articles by Professor May are available on the seminar series page on this website.
Posted 15 September 2010; amended 23 September 2010
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ICMEC PAPER ON CHILDCARE MARKET RESEARCH PUBLISHED
This summer Eva Lloyd and Helen Penn published a paper in the issue 1 of volume 17 of Public Policy Research, the quarterly journal of IPPR, the Institute of Public Policy Research. It is based on findings from the comparative research project Eva Lloyd recently completed with funding from the UEL Royal Docks Business School.
The article 'Why do childcare markets fail? Comparing England and the Netherlands' explores the very different reasons why recent childcare market developments in the two countries have not delivered the anticipated outcomes, despite active official encouragement through a range of policy measures. It concludes that the very concept of childcare markets remains problematic.
Posted 15 September 2010
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HELEN PENN TO SPEAK ON CHILDCARE MARKETS AT UNESCO CONFERENCE
Professor Helen Penn is due to deliver a keynote lecture on childcare markets at the first UNESCO World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education due to be held in Moscow between 27 and 29 September 2010. For further information see: http://www.unesco.org/en/moscow/
Posted 15 September 2010
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THIRD SERIES OF ICMEC INTERNATIONAL SEMINARS
For a report on the three seminars in the 2009/10 series, follow the link to seminar series in the lefhand margin on this page.
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FOR A LINK TO A MAJOR NEW REPORT FOR THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION BY HELEN PENN ON KEY LESSONS FROM EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE RESEARCH FOR POLICY MAKERS FOLLOW THE LINK TO PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS IN THE LEFTHAND COLUMN ON THIS PAGE.
Posted 9 June 2009
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Eva Lloyd will be spending the second half of June in The Netherlands where she is conducting fieldwork for a comparative research project supported by the UEL Business School. She is comparing recent develoments in the operation of the childcare markets in England and The Netherlands. For a brief description of this research follow this link: introduction to study vs4
Posted 9 June 2009
This comparative study has received further generous support from the Royal Docks Business School to continue beyond the end of November 2009 till the end of July 2010.
Posted 11 March 2010
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Recent developments at the world's largest childcare chain
On 14 January 2009 Julia Gillard MP, the Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education announced that the Rudd Government has made up to $34 million Australian dollars available to keep open till 31 March 2009 the 241 ABC childcare centres still operating. A buyer had not yet been identified by the earlier deadline of 31 December 2008, but numerous bids have now been received. Regular updates on the situation can be found at www.theaustralian.news.com
Posting date 6 February 2009
The Australian Government this week stepped in to bail out a significant proportion of Australian childcare provision while a buyer is being sought for the failed chain ABC Learning. The bailout finishes on 31 December 2008. According to Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard a significant proportion of ABC Learning's 1,048 childcare centres in Australia are unprofitable.
For BREAKING NEWS see financial pages of The Australian: www.theaustralian.news.com or other Australian and international newspapers.
Posting date 11 November 2008
Recent information, including an article and videoclip, on the dramatic developments involving ABC Learning in Australia can be found by following this link to a news story dated 27 August 2008: 'Fast Eddy' leaves ABC Learning investors reeling - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Posting date 10 September 2008
To read an article published on 1 August in The Australian about the financial problems at ABC Learning in Australia follow this link: 0,,24109205-643,00
Posting date 5 August 2008
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For a report on the first seminar in the second series of international ICMEC seminars go to 'seminar series' in the lefthand column on this page. Three academics from Australia spoke at this seminar, which took place on the afternoon of Monday 1 September 2008 at UEL's Stratford campus.
Posting date 10 September 2008
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In July Zena Brabazon, former head of early years and play in the London Borough of Haringey, joined ICMEC for a year as its first Visiting Research Fellow. Zena will be conducting research on the provision of early years and childcare in Children's Centres in London.
In June, ICMEC said goodbye to Karen Horsley, ICMEC's Research Assistant, who ICMEC associates will remember from her cheerful and efficient running of ICMEC events. Karen is to be congratulated on gaining a position as lecturer in Early Childhood at UEL's Cass School of Education and Communities. Fortunately this means that we shall still see her around and may be able to entice her to attend some of our events.
Posting date 28 July 2008
As part of ICMEC's first year of operating ICMEC's co-directors
If you would like to read ICMEC's first annual report for 2008/09 email Eva Lloy: e.lloyd@uel.ac.uk
posting date 28 July 2008
At an event after the 4th ICMEC seminar, organised in partnership with the Overseas Development Institute, Dr Caroline Harper, Research Fellow and programme Leader, Social Development at ODI, launched in the UK a new book on early childhood care and development in Africa. This was recently published by the World Bank. One of the book's editors, Dr Marito Garcia, lead human development economist at the World Bank's Human Development Department, Africa Region, spoke on the subject of the book and comments were provided by Professor Helen Penn, Co-director of ICMEC and Dr Hasina Ebrahim from the School of Education at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.
For a report on the 4th ICMEC seminar and links to video clips of presentations forming part of this launch, follow the link to seminar series in the lefthand margin of this page.
For details of the 2008 book: Africa's Future, Africa's Challenge: early CHildhood Care and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Marito Garcia, Alan Pence and Judith Evans, see the World Bank website.
The ODI website can be found at www.odi.org.uk
posting date 5 June 2008
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Follow the link below to see a recent video clip featuring an Australian newsbulletin reporting on ABC Learning shares' nosedive and sell-off in the USA.
posting date 6 March 2008
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ICMEC director visits New Zealand and Australia
Eva Lloyd, Co-Director of ICMEC, paid a recent visit to New Zealand to meet with early childhood practitioners, managers and policy makers. She gave a keynnote presentation in Wellington on 11 February, which dealt with the tensions and contradictions arising from the UK's early childhood policies. Her audience were delegates at a one day policy conference organised by CHILDforum, an early childhood practitioner and research network. She also spoke on the same subject at the School of Education of Victoria University of Wellington.
This presentation can be found by following this link:
Wellington Child Forum 11 February 2008
To read about CHILDforum follow this link: CHILDforum.com - Education and Parenting Research Network - child forum, early childhood research, early childhood education
Between 20 and 22 February Eva Lloyd attended a worshop to explore buidling an international research collaboration in early childhood education and care, organised by Professor Deborah Brennan at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. This workshop was attended by early childhood specialists from all Australian universities, including Professor Jennifer Sumsion from Charles Sturt University, New South Wales, who is a member of the ICMEC Advisory Board. Eva Lloyd gave a presentation on the role of ICMEC and key issues concerning the mixed economy of childcare in the UK, alongside a small number of international invitees, including Professor Gordon Cleveland from the University of Toronto at Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Eva Lloyd
posted 6 March 2008
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Chief Executive of ABC Learning debates private childcare on Australian television
Eddy Groves, chief executive of ABC Learning, the publicly quoted Australian childcare company which now dominates the Australian childcare market, took part in a debate on Australia's ABC TV channel on 2 November 2007. Among the panellists was Professor Deborah Brennan from the Department of Government at the University of Sydney, NSW.
To see a replay of the the debate go to: http://abc.net.au/tv/differenceofopinion/
Posting date 4 December 2007
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THE MIXED ECONOMY OF CHILDCARE: RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES 10.09.07
On 10 September 2007 an international audience including delegates from Australia, Canada, Sweden and The Netherlands, took part in an international conference: The Mixed Economy of Childcare: Risks and Opportunities. This was organised by Professor Helen Penn and Eva Lloyd, ICMEC’s co-directors, and UEL School of Education colleagues at the Docklands Campus of the University of East London.
Keynote presentations were given by experts on the mixed economy of childcare: Professor Jennifer Sumsion, Charles Sturt University, Australia, Dr Susan Prentice, University of Manitoba, Canada, Mike Brewer, Director of the direct tax and welfare research programme at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Parnima Tanuku, CEO of the National Day Nurseries Association and Carole Edmond, Managing Director of Teddies Nurseries, BUPA, who also represented the Major Providers’ Group of corporate childcare chains.
At this conference ICMEC was officially launched by Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Competitiveness at the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. According to the Minister said:…..
Academics and students, representatives from local and central government, the unions, the for-profit and not-for-profit childcare sector, think tanks and the media, engaged in lively discussions of the issues raised by the presentations. Delegates heard how the UK Government is committed to delivering early childhood education and care through a mixed market economy. Currently the private for-profit sector delivers three quarters of daycare provision in the UK. In particular the UK corporate for-profit childcare sector has grown seven-fold since 1997. Similar growth of private for-profit care is reported in some other OECD countries.
In Australia since the early nineties the growth rate of for-profit childcare provision has been eight times that of not-for-profit services, as Jennifer Sumsion told the conference, while most of its for-profit provision is now in the hands of ABC Learning. In Canada, recent economic research suggests that the for-profit sector may not be cost-effective in delivering quality care, said Dr Susan Prentice.
The growth in private for-profit childcare and early education was based on the assumption of rising demand from mothers entering the workforce, Mike Brewer reminded delegates. But female employment rates in the UK have not expanded as predicted. Are mixed economies of childcare faltering due to oversupply of provision?
How can regulation protect childcare quality while also promoting the childcare market? Is a child-focused, equitable, universally accessible and publicly subsidised early childhood care and education system attainable through the for-profit sector? These were among the pressing questions discussed at this conference.
Presentations by all speakers on the day can be found by following this link.
Professor Helen Penn was interviewed during the summer for an article by Emily Lambert in FORBES magazine, which explored the impact of the arrival of Australian company ABC Learning on the US childcare market.
Follow the link to Publications and Abstracts.
© 2007
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