Analysis of the UK Government's 2-Year-Old Free Childcare Offer

This report analyzes the UK government's offer of free childcare for 2-year-olds, examining its contemporary nature, eligibility criteria, and the benefits offered to eligible families, such as income support and jobseeker's allowance. It delves into current academic arguments and reflects on political and societal responses, including debates around nursery participation and waiting lists. The report also discusses various concepts and theories related to early childhood education and sustainable development. It highlights the challenges in implementing the offer, such as private nurseries declining to participate and insufficient places, and emphasizes the importance of public awareness and government initiatives to ensure its effective execution and societal impact. The analysis covers the factors influencing contemporary reactions to the offer and the need for effective management to ensure the program's success.

2 YEAR OLD OFFER

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
A) Contemporary nature of the offer..........................................................................................3
B) Current academic arguments and reflection of political and societal response.....................5
C) Different Concepts and Theories related to this offer............................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Early age education is very important for any children for their better future and bright
career. It also helps in improving their social behaviour towards their society. It has to be
properly managed by their parents, carer, etc. Child care is very crucial for the parents to take
care of. This has to done very carefully in order to give their child all the needs and requirements
which they want. This will also help them in growing their children healthy and smart. Present
report will cover topic related to an offer regarding 2 year old children's care in childcare home
for free. It will also explain about current academic arguments and reflect upon political and
societal responses for this offer and factors which is influencing the contemporary reaction to
this offer by the United Kingdom government. This report also discusses about concepts and
theories related to this topic which will help in better understanding of this 2 year old offer.
TASK
A) Contemporary nature of the offer
In United Kingdom, government has introduced a scheme in which it will help
underprivileged or poor children whose families are unable to afford their proper education. The
offer which the government of United Kingdom has offered to the parents is '2-year-old eligible
for free childcare' which will cover area like, London, West Midlands, Yorkshire, East Midlands,
Greater Manchester and Lancashire. According to this offer, 40% of 2-year-old- which is approx,
277,000 children, will be given a 15 free hours of free early education per week. This offer will
also include 15 and 30 hours free childcare for 2 and 4-year-old as well. All children will be
getting a 570 free hours per year which is usually taken as 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the
year (Number of 2-year-olds eligible for free childcare to double, 2014). This scheme is very
useful for these families who are bot able to give their children a proper education facility for
their brighter future. There are various rules and regulation to become eligible for this offer.
Children who are eligible for this offer should have one of the following reasons,
 If the child is looked after by a local council for his care.
 If they have a current statement of special education needs (SEN) or an education health
and care plan (Help paying for childcare, 2014)
 If they get Disability Living Allowance than they are eligible for this offer.

 If they have left care under a special guardianship order, child arrangements order or
adoption order than also they are eligible for this offer (Number of 2-year-olds eligible
for free childcare to double, 2014).
Eligible parents for this offer will have some benefits which includes factors, such as,
 Income Support : Income Support is extra money to help people on a low income. To
get support candidate has to be between age 16 to 60. They should have no income or a
low income and savings not more than £16,000. This scheme will help them in providing
income support from the government of United Kingdom which can be very useful and
important for them to improve their life style (Income Support, 2014). People who can
claim for this can be one of the following, for example, lone parent, pregnant women, a
carer, etc.
 Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) : The Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) is a
benefit which is available to unemployed individuals in the U.K. who are actively
seeking work. JSA is intended to help minimize the costs of living for those currently
seeking full-time employment, and the benefit may also be available to people who are
working less than 16 hours per week. This can be very significant to earn a good income
and improve their living standard (Help paying for childcare. 2014). It can also help them
in educating their children for a better future.
 Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) : This is given to the
parents if they are eligible for this offer. WSA is a United Kingdom welfare payment
given to people who are unable to work for a long term due to their medical condition or
disability. It is a type of basic income-replacement benefit paid in lieu of wages to these
people (Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), 2016). This regulation will help the
families to live properly with dignity and confidence. It will also ensure their safety as
well.
 They will get support through part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act. This will also
help them in providing financial support to improve their lifestyle.
 Working Tax Credits : Working Tax Credit (WTC) is a state benefit in the United
Kingdom made to people who work and have a low income. It was introduced in April
2003. This act or regulation will help them to get allowances for the work which they do

on hourly basis. This can help them to earn a good amount and earn £16,190 a year or
less which is very good for them. It can a beneficial regulation for them.
This offer is established in order to improve the quality of these families by giving them
several advantages from this offer. It will help these people to educate their children and make
their career brighter (Bradshaw, 2016).
B) Current academic arguments and reflection of political and societal response
There are so many issues related to this offer as not everyone is willing to accept this
offer and implement it in their system. To minimize this effect United Kingdom government has
to initiate some programs or campaigns to promote this in public. This step will help them a lot
to convince people for this offer (Chawla and Rivkin, 2014). There are many academic
arguments and reflections from political side as well. For instance, according to the Deputy
Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Nick Clegg said that this offer will be very beneficial and
useful for the family who wants their children to get a brighter future in life but are unable to
provide them proper support due to various reasons. For him this offer can help them make their
child capable enough to stand strong. Childcare and Education Minister Sam Gyimah said that,
this offer will help the children who are coming from lower income background. This free
childcare entitlement gives children crucial support that could make all the difference to how
well they do at school and beyond (Number of 2-year-olds eligible for free childcare to double,
2014).
Currently there are thousands of private nurseries are declining to accept two-year-old
from poor backgrounds despite the offer which the United Kingdom government has initiated to
educate every child for their better and bright future and to extend childcare to the most deprived
families living in United Kingdom (Davis and Elliott, 2014). This revelation has prompted
concerns that some nurseries and schools does not want poor children mixing with those from
middle-class families, their core clientele as according to them they can disturb their
environment. All three- and four-year-old receive free early education, but the extension of free
childcare to some two-year-old is not universal instead it is specifically aimed at the
underprivileged children (Number of 2-year-olds eligible for free childcare to double, 2014).
According to the statistic it is estimated that 63,000 two-year-old are on waiting lists, while
many councils are not expected to have sufficient provision in their institute.

There are mixed reactions to this offer in United Kingdom as there are so many private
nurseries and pre schools who has denied implementing this offer into their system, for example,
out of 25,000 nurseries and pre school, only 13,685 has opted for this offer to provide free
education to underprivileged 2 year old children (Engdahl, 2015). There are a number of
different reasons why childcare providers choose not to offer free places for two-year-old and
social mixing is a consideration. There are so many conflicts regarding this offer which includes
positive and negative reactions in social context. There are people who has accepted this offer as
it can help them to educate poor people or who have financial issues in their home. This can be a
great initiative by the United Kingdom government for the upliftment of these children
(Underprivileged two-year-olds being declined by 'middle-class' nurseries, 2014).
In many nurseries and pre schools there are still 44% of local authorities did not have
sufficient places to initiate this offer. It has been estimated that 63,000 two-year-old are on
waiting lists. This is a serious problem in London as only 45% of two year old has a place in
nurseries or pre school. The borough of Lambeth now has a waiting list of more than 1,000. This
problem is arising because many private nurseries which has majority of places to educate these
children has unwilling denied implementing this offer (Kabisch, Qureshi and Haase, 2015). Thee
are various reasons for why childcare are not willing to provide this offer to give two year old
free education and providing them additional support to their family as well for the improvement
of their life standard.
There are many reasons in which one factors is that there are parents whose children are
going to these nurseries and they don't want these underprivileged children to get admitted into
the same nursery as it can spoil their children according to them. This is the main issue which is
arising primarily due to this offer. According to some experts it is said that children engaged in
playing more over education has better chances to learn while this process is not followed in
many nurseries for these underprivileged children and keeps them away from this practice
(Moss, 2014).
To minimize this issue it is very important to aware the public about the importance and
benefits of this initiation. By doing this it can help United Kingdom government to implement
this offer effectively into their private as well as government nurseries and pre schools. There are
various factors which influences these contemporary reactions in social context. Government can
organize campaigns to aware these private nursery and pre school owner to know the impact of

this offer. This offer will help to extend childcare to the most deprived families who needed it the
most to improve their life standard. There are various factors which can impact the overall
reactions of the people (Robertson, 2014). To reduce this government has to initiate some
programs which can help these families to better understand this offer and admit their children
for their healthier development which will help them in improving their future and career option
and making them strong as an individual personality. This will help them in bringing up their
children and finding the best ways to educate them from the earliest age. This offer has been
managed very badly by the government, so have to look after this if they really want to
implement this into their system and should also ensure that all the owners of private nurseries
and pre school has agreed to this offer and will help these underprivileged children to make them
educated (Roskos, 2017).
C) Different Concepts and Theories related to this offer
This is very important for any parent to take care of their children which can help them to
improve their present and future which plays an important role in shaping their career. Education
plays a significant role in children's life. This helps them to make their upcoming future bright
for themselves. There are various different concepts and theories which can be related to this
offer. Pre school is understood as early childhood education for six-year-old. These helps to
improve their sustainable development of children (Singer, 2017). Sustainable development is
development in which real long-term needs of both present and future human generations are met
as optimally as possible. This means that not only the basic individual biological needs, but also
real economical, cultural and social needs ought to be met. So early childhood education is very
important for children to have (Spodek and Saracho, 2014). Some theories which can be related
to this offer can includes,
 Bandura's Social Learning Theory : This theory is based on psychologist Albert
Bandura. According to this theory, children learns a lot from observing their surrounding
which impact greatly in their behavior. By observing the actions of others, including
parents and peers, children develop new skills and acquire new information. Observations
plays a critical role in learning. This theory is very important for the development of the
child in a proper and effective manner which will help him understand hid surrounding in
which he is studying. This will also improve his thinking power as well. Social learning

plays an important role in children's life to make them capable enough to stay strong
(Child Development Theories and Examples, 2017).
 L. Vygotsky's Socio cultural Theory : This theory is based on Lev Vygotsky who was a
psychologist. According to his thoughts children learn passively and through hands-on
experiences. This socio cultural theory also recommended that parents, caregivers, peers
and the culture at large all are responsible for developing higher order functions for
children. According to Vygotsky, learning is an inherently social process. Through
interacting with others, learning becomes integrated into an individual's understanding of
the world. This theory has also helped in understanding the capability of children of what
they can do with someone's help and what they can do their own. This principle will help
children to make interaction with other people as well (Child Development Theories and
Examples, 2017).
All these theories plays an important role for the proper development of their children if
they implement this.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that it is very important to have a proper
education and care of children in order to secure their future and making them capable enough to
stand strong. From this report it is clear that there are various issues and problems which is
arising due to this offer of by the United Kingdom government. Many private nurseries and pre
school owner has denied implementing this offer in their system as they don't want
underprivileged or poor children to interact with middle class people's children in the nursery
because according to them they are disturbing their environment. This report also includes the
reason behind these issues which is arising. It also discussed about the current academic
arguments and reflection of political and societal response which plays an important to
understand this offer more precisely and what is the motto of United Kingdom government to
introduce this offer for those families whose financial condition is not good due to some reason.
This report also explains about the different concepts and theories related to this which can
justify this offer.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bradshaw, J. ed., 2016. The Well-being of Children in the United Kingdom. Policy Press.
Chawla, L. and Rivkin, M., 2014. Early childhood education for sustainability in the United
States of America. Research in early childhood education for sustainability: International
perspectives and provocations, pp.248-265.
Davis, J. and Elliott, S. eds., 2014. Research in early childhood education for sustainability:
International perspectives and provocations. Routledge.
Engdahl, I., 2015. Early childhood education for sustainability: The OMEP world project.
International Journal of Early Childhood, 47(3). pp.347-366.
Kabisch, N., Qureshi, S. and Haase, D., 2015. Human–environment interactions in urban green
spaces—A systematic review of contemporary issues and prospects for future research.
Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 50. pp.25-34.
Moss, P., 2014. Transformative change and real utopias in early childhood education: A story of
democracy, experimentation and potentiality. Routledge.
Robertson, J., 2014. A two-year-old goes to hospital. Concord Media (distributor).
Roskos, K. A. ed., 2017. Play and literacy in early childhood: Research from multiple
perspectives. Routledge.
Singer, E., 2017. Child-care and the psychology of development. Routledge.
Spodek, B. and Saracho, O. N., 2014. Handbook of research on the education of young children.
Routledge.
Online
Number of 2-year-olds eligible for free childcare to double. 2014. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.gov.United Kingdom/government/news/number-of-2-year-olds-eligible-for-
free-childcare-to-double>
Help paying for childcare. 2014. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.gov.United
Kingdom/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-and-education-for-2-to-4-year-olds>
Income Support. 2014. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.gov.United Kingdom/income-
support/eligibility>

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.benefitsandwork.co.UK/employment-and-support-allowance/esa-glossary/
2753-income-related-esa>
Child Development Theories and Examples. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.verywellmind.com/child-development-theories-2795068>
Underprivileged two-year-olds being declined by 'middle-class' nurseries. 2014. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/aug/23/middle-class-
nurseries-avoid-poor-two-year-olds>