ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Kathryn Riley describes the bureaucratic, professional and ideological divisions that have characterised the pattern of services for pre-school children in the United Kingdom. These divisions are now being challenged by a number of local authorities, though not by central government, which remains reluctant to make the links between high quality care and education for young children and the need for high quality, flexible childcare for their working parents. Kathryn Riley describes developments in Strathclyde, in Manchester and in some of the new London local education authorities which came into existence in April 1990 after the demise of the Inner London Education Authority. The aim of full unification of services is rare; greater coordination is more common.
