Early childhood policies and practices are shaped by competing images and discourses of the young child. This paper reviews four core perspectives that have been most influential. 
1. A developmental perspective emphasizes regularities in young children’s physical and psychosocial growth during early childhood, as well as their dependencies and vulnerabilities during this formative, phase of their lives. 
2. A political and economic perspective is informed by developmental principles, translated into social and educational interventions, and underpinned by economic models of human capital. 
3. A social and cultural perspective draws attention to respects in which early childhood is a constructed status and to the diversities of ways it is understood and practised, for, with and by young children, with implications for how goals, models and standards are defined, and by whom. 
4. A human rights perspective reframes conventional approaches to theory, research policy and practice in ways that fully respect young children’s dignity, their entitlements and their capacities to contribute to their own development and to the development of services. 
For each of these overarching perspectives, the paper outlines a cluster of specific theoretical, research and policy themes, summarizes major areas of controversy, and identifies a range of alternative visions for early childhood.

/pdf/changing-perspectives-on-early-childhood-theory-research-and-1yi5095qat.pdf

Changing perspectives on early childhood: theory, research and policy

The Sure Start programme is central to New Labour’s long-term strategy for preventing social exclusion. Its focus on young children and early intervention epitomizes a social investment approach to social policy and reflects a social integrationist understanding of social inclusion that identifies individual opportunity in the labour market as the means for achieving inclusion, and educational achievement as its basis. Evidence on which Sure Start is based has been used by the government to support a primarily individual and instrumental approach to combating social exclusion. Complex research evidence is transformed into a set of target outcomes for Sure Start resulting in a policy that at national level promotes a view of mothers as principally responsible for children’s development and well-being, and risks sliding into a moral discourse of social exclusion that blames parents for poor outcomes.

Childhood, parenting and early intervention: A critical examination of the Sure Start national programme

This paper explores bias in the use of evidence in policy. It argues that existing models of the evidence–policy relationship neglect the tendency for attention to be paid only to that evidence helpful to the interests of powerful social groups. An evolutionary analogy is used to explain how this bias arises, without the need for irrationality or conspiracy on the part of policy makers. Examples are given in the fields of drug, asylum and other policies, and the possible responses by researchers to the biased use of research evidence are discussed.

/pdf/survival-of-the-ideas-that-fit-an-evolutionary-analogy-for-58j4nfwrbz.pdf

Survival of the Ideas that Fit: An Evolutionary Analogy for the Use of Evidence in Policy

The findings discussed here are based on five case studies and a small survey (n = 46) of how secondary schools are responding to demands that they collaborate with other services to intervene to prevent the social exclusion of children and young people. The case studies revealed a new space of action opening up around schools where practices were being shaped by ‘welfare managers’ who were employed by schools and were undertaking responsive work with vulnerable children and young people and the other services who were also supporting them. At the same time heads of year and/or heads of school and form tutors were increasingly focusing on children’s achievement in school. The changes in roles and responsibilities were encouraged by workforce remodelling and changes in criteria for teachers’ salaries. However, focusing primarily on the work undertaken by the welfare managers, the article draws on cultural‐historical activity theory analyses of relational agency and distributed expertise to question whether...

Inter‐professional work and expertise: new roles at the boundaries of schools

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors, not necessarily those of the Home Office (nor do they reflect Government policy).

What works in community involvement in area-based initiatives? A systematic review of the literature

The paradigm of 'risk and protection-focused prevention' and its impact on services for children and families

Made to measure? Evaluating community initiatives for children: Introduction

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The paradigm of 'risk and protection-focused prevention' and its impact on services for children and families

Made to measure? Evaluating community initiatives for children: Introduction