Research On English Government Intervention In Early Years Education And Care Market(1948-2018)

Early years education and care plays a vital role in promoting children's well-being and laying the foundation for lifelong learning.Providing all children high-quality ECEC is a major project to promote social equity and prepare future citizens.However,due to the constraints of public resources,how to achieve high-quality inclusive ECEC is still unclear.In the past 30 years,China has promoted the marketization of pre-school education and achieved rapid expansion of the market.Meantime,we must also admit that China's pre-school education has a weak foundation and owes a large amount of debts.Difficulty in accessing or paying for ECEC service has been widely experienced.In order to achieve the goal of populizing three years ECEC,it is necessary to explore a better government intervention framework in a market context.Although ECEC in England is also mainly supplied by the private sector,the English government has managed to improve accessibility,affordability and quality.This research is based on the microeconomic persectives of market failure.Using the method of literature research,field research,comparative research and case analysis,this study reveals the historical process of how the English government developed the intervention framework composed of five major levers.By disclosing the history of intervention,this paper provides enlightenment for the governance of preschool education in China's new era.The thesis is mainly divided into five parts:The first chapter explains the English government's early education market intervention framework.This chapter presents the general causes of market failures,as well as general strategies for government intervention.Based on the private and social benefits of ECEC,it explains how market failure happens in early years maket and why government intervention is needed.The English government intervention framework is based on this logic,with a purpose to achieve an "effective market" with an "active government" which seeks to respect the laws of the market.The second chapter depicts the historical stage of the ECEC market from 1948 to 1997,with limited intervention by the English government.This chapter traces the origin of the public early education to explain the why it takes serving disadvantaged children as fundamental role.It also explained how does the awareness of women independence triggered increasement in ECEC demand,responding by the private sector with a rapidly development.In order to protect the safety of children in private sector,the government has explored on mandatory registration and inspection.However,due to the fact that these policies were limited,the English ECEC raw market was featured as imbalanced distribution and inconsistent quality.The third chapter presents the historical stage from 1997 to 2007,by the end of which the English government intervention framework was officially announced.In terms of market participation,Sure Start and the Early Years Excellence program represents new function of the public sector,and the Free Hours policy stimulated the growth of private supply by purchasing services.In terms of market shaping,a regulatory system consisted of statutory quality standards,registration and inspection system started to form,as well as an oringin market support system.Local governance emerged under the central government coordination,where the role of local government has changed from a partnership member to a democratic strategic leader.A comprehensive intervention showed significant benefits and promoted the market to achieve stable quality and balanced supply-demand.The fourth chapter traces the historical stage from 2008 to 2018,where the government deepened market approach and encountered difficulty in sustainability.In terms of market participation,the public sector's major function has been strengthened,the scope of Free Hours has been expanded and the transparency of the funding system has been increased,but the overall participation has been reduced due to austerity.In terms of market shaping,continuous development of the child-centered statutory quality standard and it supporting regulatory systems has been witnessed,with a significant effort to expand the scope of compensation for family ECEC expenses.In terms of local governance,the market management process was further standardized,the role of information platform was strengthened,but the legal responsibility for local government to support quality was lifted.Although the market supply has further improved at this stage,the sustainability of supply and continuous quality development was threatened.The fifth chapter evaluates the history of the English government's intervention in ECEC market and suggests implication for China.Based on the policy tool theory,this chapter analyzes the evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the ECEC policy tools since 1948.Although the English government has actively responded to market failures,there is a strong need to surpasse the market discourse and emphasis government leadership to break through the current predicament.Based on the experience of England,China should be aware of the following issues when managing ECEC market.At macro-governance level,coordinate the conflicts between the three major policy objectives and grasp balance between the five intervention levers;at middle-level governance level,renew the social resonpility of public pre-school education,carry out process quality practice standards,improve registration and inspection system,and provide public ECEC information platform;for the micro-governance level,local government should accurately understand the market dynamics,effectively promote the balance between supply and demand,and strongly support the quality improvement.