orthodox position, Labour’s stated ambition to provide a universal ECEC entitlement
appears paradoxical; the two should not be able to co-exist.
The next section addresses these ‘paradoxes’ in New Labour’s policy record for
ECEC. Critical perspectives on this record see it as part of a liberal strategy of
‘recommodification’ or perhaps as insubstantial, at best a fig-leaf for New Labour’s
neoliberalism. More sympathetic critics argue that New Labour’s genuine ambitions
for ECEC have been thwarted, perhaps inevitably, by the liberal structure of the
British welfare state. By contrast, as we have seen, New Labour’s proponents see it
as a (potential) cornerstone for a new ‘Anglo-Social’ welfare state. Additionally, I
consider the ways in which devolution is implicated in ECEC policy. In fact, analysis
suggests that New Labour’s approach towards both ECEC and devolution is
considerably more complex and less considered – indeed more ambiguous or
contradictory than most of these arguments suggest. Compelling evidence suggests
that Labour’s initial ECEC moves were inadequate to the scale of the challenge,
particularly in view of ‘liberal’ features of the policy context, and also showed
significant recommodificatory features. Of course, we should not assume that new
social policies, even of a recommodificatory character, are easily constructed. If
British ECEC has subsequently developed in a more expansive direction from such an
unpromising foundation is, perhaps, even more remarkable.
NEW LABOUR: THE ECEC POLICY RECORD
When Labour came to power in 1997, Britain was arguably right at the bottom of the
ECEC league table: childcare was the sootiest of British Cinderella services. By 2005
the government claimed to have funded an additional 520,000 sustainable childcare
places and provided access to a free nursery place for every three- or four- year-old
‘Universal childcare’ by 2010. Specifically, they argued that a re-elected Labour
government would ‘create 3,500 Sure Start Children’s Centres for children under five
years – five in every constituency – a universal local service that brings together
21
Labour Party Britain Forward not Back: The Labour Party manifesto 2005 London: Labour Party,
2005, p. 76
9
Convention