ICMEC was launched at an international conference held on 10 September 2007 at UEL's Docklands Campus. On that occasion Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Competitiveness at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in the then Labour Government, officially launched the research centre.
To find the text of all presentations delivered there follow this link.
The context and background to the conference were described as follows.
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. In Canada, recent economic research suggests that the for-profit sector may not be cost-effective in delivering quality care.
The growth in private for-profit childcare and early education was based on the assumption of rising demand from mothers entering the workforce. 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 are among the pressing questions to be discussed at this conference.
ICMEC annual reports I and II
The annual reports for ICMEC from 2007/08 and 2008/09 are available here: ICMEC Annual Report 2007-08 FINAL and ICMEC 2nd annual report 0809 final
Programme
- 9.45 - Coffee and registration
- 10.15 - Welcome and Introduction
- Professor Jim Barry, UEL Business School
- 10.20 - ICMEC
- Professor Helen Penn and Eva Lloyd, ICMEC Co-Directors, UEL School of Education
- 10.30 - Professor Martin Everett
- UEL Vice Chancellor, introduces Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Competitiveness at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
- 10.35 - Ministerial address followed by questions
- 11.00 - Mothers’ labour market participation and use of childcare in the UK: setting the scene.
- Mike Brewer, Institute for Fiscal Studies
- 11.30 - Corporate childcare in Australia: is it in the public interest?
- Professor Jennifer Sumsion, Charles Sturt University, NSW, Australia
- 12.00 - Plenary Discussion
- 12.30 - 13.30 - LUNCH
- 1.30 - 13.35 - Welcome
- Professor Helen Penn. School of Education, University of East London
- 1.35 - Public policy, private delivery: the puzzle of public-private partnerships in childcare
- Professor Susan Prentice, University of Manitoba, Canada
- 2.00 - Challenges facing the mixed economy in delivering quality and sufficiency
- Purnima Tanuku, Chief Executive, National Day Nurseries Association
- 2.30 - The mixed economy of childcare:the Major Providers’ Group perspective
- Carole Edmond, Managing Director Teddies Nurseries, BUPA.
- 3.00 - Plenary Discussion
- 3.30 - 4.00 - Tea and networking
Speakers
Major Providers' Group presentation Carole Edmund ICMEC conference 10 September 2007
Eva Lloyd presentation ICMEC conference 10 September 2007
Jennifer Sumsion presentation ICMEC conference 10 September 2007
Purnima Tanuku presentation ICMEC conference 10 September 2007
Stephen entered Parliament in 1994 as MP for Newham North East, and has been MP for East Ham since 1997. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Andrew Smith from May 1997 to March 1998, and to Mo Mowlam from March to July 1998.
Stephen was born in 1955. He was educated at Farnborough Grammar School and read mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He has lived in the East London Borough of Newham since 1979 and married Hui-Leng in July 1986. Before entering Parliament, Stephen worked in the telecommunications industry for 15 years, first for Logica and then for Ovum. He was elected to Newham Council in 1984 and served as Leader of the Council from 1990 to 1994.
Stephen Timms MP presentation ICMEC conference 10 September 2007
Susan Prentice ICMEC conference presentation 10 September 2007
Who should attend
This conference should be of interest to:
- Representatives of national, local and London government in the fields of policy and planning, education, health, employment, business and enterprise and social exclusion
- Childcare business managers
- Children Centre managers
- Representatives of the national media, community and voluntary sector childcare and social welfare organisations
- Researchers and managers from Universities and other Institutes of Further and Higher Education
- Representatives of private equity firms and other financial groups interested in investing in early childhood education and care provision
Contact us
Please register via the conference website. For any queries concerning the conference registration contact:
Mrs Veronica Burton
Research Administrator, UEL School of Education
Tel: +44 (0)208 223 2834
Fax: +44 (0)208 223 2882
Email: V.A.Burton@uel.ac.uk