International Cooperation with Early Excellence Centres

The UK Early Excellence Centre Programme (EEC)

Following policy initiatives set out in "Excellence in Cities" and "Success in Schools" in 1997, the Blair Government designated 28 early childhood settings in England as "Early Excellence Centres" (EEC). These EEC were chosen as models of good practice intended to develop into "one stop shops" to meet the educational, care and health needs of families and young children in their communities. The educational needs of both adults and children were recognised. EEC could combine different providers from the state, private and voluntary sectors to meet this role and they were provided with additional Government funding to facilitate their development. They were not targeted at areas of greatest need but in reality most were situated in areas of social exclusion and deprivation. The EEC were encouraged to make strong links with their local "Early Years and Childcare Development Partnerships" (EYDCP), new collaborative bodies required to audit local need, plan strategies to meet it and develop professional training for early years practitioners across all sectors. The EEC are "integrated" centres which seek to address the needs of families and children holistically by allowing different agencies to provide different services through amalgamation, collaboration or coordination, preferably within a "one stop shop".

More information about the EEC programme can be obtained from http://www.dfes.gov.uk/earlyyearsandchildcare /eecapplication.

More information about the EEC Pilote Programme Second Evaluation Report 2000-01 http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles /RR361.pdf

The International Group on Integrated Centres (INT2)

The team of researchers at the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC) led by Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram was selected by the UK Government to design the national evaluation of these EEC, which now number nearly 100. As a separate but complementary study, an international group (INT2) interested in establishing, developing or evaluating similar integrated centres was established with funding obtained from the British Council and the UK Government"s Department for Education and Skills (DfES). The first group of INT2 has members drawn from policy or research in Brisbane and Adelaide in Australia, Berlin http://www.pfh-berlin.de/1/model/child.html, Braga in Portugal and Thessaloniki in Greece as well as policy makers and researchers connected to the EEC programme in the UK. Following the completion of a round of visits, symposia and conference presentations in each country a report will be published in 2003 setting out a conceptualisation of integrated centres within these different contexts, exploring similarities and differences and suggesting some practical and theoretical positions which might prove useful to practitioners, researchers and policy makers.

Second Group of International Partners Joins INT2

It is now intended to add a second group of countries: China (Shanghai), Japan (Hokkodai), Russia (Novgorod), USA (Maryland) and Yugoslavia (Belgrade), all of whom have made a commitment to participate in the INT2 Project. In January 2003, the first INT2 group will have completed their round of visits and will meet at CREC in Birmingham, to plan their publication. This meeting will take place January 12th through to 16th. It would seem opportune to invite the second group to overlap with this visit perhaps arriving 14th to share meetings on 15th and 16th and later to make visits to some of the UK EECs. It is unlikely that the development of the second group can follow the same pattern as the first - in particular can make visits to each other"s countries, useful as this has been. However, we could, with appropriate funding establish a special interest group, link websites and encourage dialogue in this area.

The meeting of the two groups will provide an opportunity to explore how we might go forward with this. In addition, to the two cohorts, two experts in the field, Professor Vassily Fthenakis based at the State Institute for Research into Families and Children in Munich, Bavaria http://www.ifp-bayern.de and Dr John Bennett, who headed up the recent Early Childhood Education and Care Review for the OECD in Paris http://www.childcarecanada.org/policy/polstudies/int/OECDstrong.html, have been asked to join us as rapporteurs for the discussions between the first and second groups of INT2.

CREC are looking for funding to support this meeting. Most delegates have agreed to find their own flight expenses but there are some who will need support. CREC has undertaken to provide accommodation and subsidence for delegates once they have arrived in Birmingham. A small number of additional DfES officials have expressed an interest in participating in this wider seminar, which has the potential to make a substantial contribution to policy considerations.