Young Children in Rural Areas: Implementing the Children Act

Abstract

SUMMARY. This article is based on the results of the first stage of a study of the Children Act (day care and preschool education), and looks at how the Children Act 1989 has been put into practice with respect to services for children under eight, in rural local authorities in England and Wales. It considers the duties given by the Act to local authorities from a rural perspective, including providing a range of services for children in need, reviewing the services that are available for all young children, and setting standards for day care services provided by the voluntary and private sectors. It concludes that although the Act has helped to focus attention on the needs of children in rural areas, there is a danger that nothing will be done to meet them because of the principle of targeting resources on children who are most in need. Rural isolation was rarely specified as an indicator of need, and other criteria often had an urban bias which may work against the development of services in rural areas. The article also argues that there is a particular need to develop new models of service delivery and ways of providing training and support to early years workers which are appropriate for rural areas.