“Learning from Others”: English proposals for early years education and care reform and policy transfer from France and the Netherlands, 2010–15

Abstract

AbstractThe United Kingdom has been a laggard in developing early years education and care, but the Labour Governments of 1998–2010 increased childcare places significantly, and the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition of 2010–15 continued to expand provision, despite its stringent austerity policy. However, the problem of securing availability, affordability, and quality persisted. The Coalition Government (very unusually) transferred policies from its Western European neighbors (the Netherlands and France) in order to address these issues. We show why differences in context made the kind of policy transfer that took place inappropriate and how this was related to the fate of the reform proposals.