ED5016 Social Policy for Children & Families: Annotated Bibliography

This assignment is an annotated bibliography featuring two entries evaluating texts related to social policy in early childhood education and care. The first entry analyzes a journal article by Eva Lloyd (2015) focusing on the impact of social policies on early childhood education and care under the Coalition Government in the UK, highlighting the policy's shortcomings and implementation challenges. The second entry reviews an academic blog by Ingold and Javornik (2015) discussing the short-sightedness of focusing free childcare policies solely on working parents, pointing out the lack of clarity in defining 'working parents' and comparing the UK's approach with other EU countries. Both entries provide critical evaluations of the selected texts, assessing their relevance, authority, objectivity, and currency in the context of social policy and early childhood development. The assignment fulfills learning outcomes related to understanding policy developments, examining the impact of social policy, and demonstrating academic skills.

Annotated bibliography
Lloyd, E. (2015) ‘Early childhood education and care policy under the Coalition Government’,
London Review of Education, 13 (2), pp. 144-156, Available at:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=114973227&site=ehost-live
[Accessed on: 22/3/2019]
The concerned issue, in this study, revolves around impact of social policies on child
education and child care in the early childhood phases in the context of UK. so, in the
chosen journal, detailed information have been given on how this area of social policy
has been developed over the last few years and what changes have been done in each
updated policy regarding early childhood care and education. For this reason, childcare
acts have been mentioned that are important to know what rights each and every child in
UK has regardless of what economical backgrounds they come from. On the other hand,
various policies have been mentioned along with some profit and nonprofits
organizations that have collaborate together for implementing those policies in the
society for the benefit of the deprived section of the society. So, it can be said that this
journal is relevant for the topic on which the study has been based.
This journal article has discussed about the social policies in England that has been used
in order to improve child care and early childhood education facilities under the coalition
government. For this reason, the author has defined what is meant by coalition’s
performance along with discussing three factors that controls this performance. On the
other hand, a firm difference has been shown between other social policies dedicated for
social welfare and the policies regarding child care and child education in UK. This
includes those social services that the deprived children are supposed to get from the
government. A connection has been illuminated between child care and child rights.
After reviewing this journal, it has been found that the journal poses with the fact that
coalition government was slow to give heed to this area of social policy and finally did so
due to election pressure. On the other hand, according to the author, the slow
development in this area of social policy was due to complication in distribution of
responsibilities among the local authorities regarding child care and child education

services and benefits. Various policies and childcare right acts have been mentioned in
this work in order to depict the changing child care policy rationale of the government. In
conclusion, the author has blamed the policy implementation challenges behind the lack
of support provided to the poorest section of the society.
The journal has been written by Eva Lloyd who happens to be a professor in the school
namely Early Childhood Cass school of education and communities and in ICMEC
(Director International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare). She
has joined her position as a researcher of childcare privatization and marketisation
policies in 2007, got awarded in 2013 for her services in education and wrote this journal
in 2015. Thus, it can be said that she was quite experienced in this field of social policy
while writing the work. On the other hand, the journal has been published in London
Review of Education journal that is a peer reviewed journal. So, it can be said that this
chosen article is well authorized and authentic and can be relied on.
In this journal article, I found that the author focuses more on the negative aspects or the
short comings of the policies under the coalition government in UK and less on the
achievements of these policies. However, the title of the article claimed that this work is
about early childhood care and education policies in UK under the collation government.
So, it would be more objective if only data would have been presented regarding the
policies and their implementations and not personal remarks of the authors.
The chosen article has been written and published in 2015 and all the references, used in
this article are dated from 2007 to 2015. So, it can be said that this article does not current
scenario regarding the social policies in this area. Many changes have been made after
the publication of this journal around this area of social policy. This fact reduces the
utilization value of this article despite the fact that this work is relevant to the concerned
topic.
Ingold, J. and Javornik, J. (2015) ‘Focusing free childcare on “working parents” is short sighted.’
The Conversation, 22 July, Available at: https://theconversation.com/focusing-free-childcare-on-
working-parents-is-short-sighted-44623 [Accessed on: 22/3/2019]

This academic blog has been focused on child care for the children who have working
parents. The title suggests that the policies regarding this area of social policy is shirt
sighted. This has been mentioned that the government has increased the time span of free
childcare for working parents so that more people can start working without taking stress
on how their children will be raised. On the other hand, it has also been mentioned that
this newly updated policy on childcare did not give heed to each and every working
parent who needs this free childcare facility from the government.
On the other hand, this newly updated policy has not give clarity on what the term
working parents stands for. Thus, it has become difficult to measure the eligibility criteria
for having this kind of service and it has also become troublesome for the working
parents to get the opportunities that they deserve. Some evidences have been given to
compare the condition of working parents in other EU countries and in UK in order to
evaluate the state of this area of social policy in UK. On the other hand, the relevance of
this area of social policy in the context of UK has been mentioned by including data
regarding childcare costs in Britain.
This academic blog discusses about the issue of childcare in the context of UK and about
the impact of the policies to improve free childcare facilities here. For that reason,
reliable sources of evidences have been mentioned that have been helpful in
understanding not only the importance of these policies in UK but also the negative
aspects of the short sidedness of the policy makers. Additionally, some reliable survey
results have been added in this work to delve deeper into the issue. The work has been
fully focused on the area of the study. Moreover, the condition of the development in
social policy in UK has been compared with the other states and thus this becomes more
relevant for understanding the importance of developing social policies for childcare. A
difference aspect has been given by the authors so that it can be understood that free
childcare is not only necessary for early childhood care. Rather, children of every age
need to be taken care of and thus policies need to be introduced for them too. So, it can
be said that this work is reliable and useful for the concerned topic.
Both the writers, Jo Ingold and Jana Javornik are resourceful persons involved with the
University of Leeds and are experienced in researching on this area of social policy and

its significance. On the other hand, the academic blog has been published in the famous
online journal site The Conversation that is edited by professional editors. So, it can be
said that this work is authentic and can be relied on for this study. Apart from that, the
work has been supported by some primary data that make this work more authentic. On
the other hand, this journal site is an open access site and thus it is possible that if any
wrong information has been provided in this article then those can be reported by the
readers.
This chosen academic piece shows objectivity because it deals with almost every possible
side of the social policies and does not show any bias for establishing a certain argument.
However, no theories have been used in the weaving if the arguments and thus most of
the remarks came from the personal judgments of the authors. Objectivity can also been
noticed in this work in the arguments that has been constructed on the basis of the
national data on childcare costs in UK.
The work has been published in 2015 in the above mentioned journal site but has not
been updated since. So, the issue of currency can be seen in this work. This can be said
because the work talks about the upcoming policy regarding free childcare that has
already been issued in the current time. Thus, various assumptions made by the author
regarding this policy become less valuable in the recent time. On the other hand, the work
has not been based on many references except some. So, this academic work can be
biased to some extent.