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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THIRD SERIES OF ICMEC INTERNATIONAL SEMINARS IN PROGRESS
For a report on the first two seminars in the new 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. On 5 March 2010 Alexia Demetriou joined this project as a research Assistant.
Posted 11 March 2010
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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. 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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