Nursery for two-year-olds 'will harm toddlers'

Gordon Brown's plan to provide free nursery places for two-year-olds risks creating a generation of "institutionalised" children, a psychologist warned today.

The Prime Minister has said he wants to extend the 15 hours of free childcare from three- and four-year-olds to two-year-olds to increase parents' choice over how they balance work and family life.

But Dr Richard House, a child psychologist at Roehampton University, said the drive to get mothers back into the workforce could be harmful to very young children.

In an attempt to raise academic standards, all childminders, playgroups and nurseries now have to follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum for children up to five.

Critics such as Dr House say it will lead to a tick-box culture in childcare and will be too rigid for children as young as two. He told the Evening Standard-"Settings for very young children-should be as close to the family environment as possible.

"Two-year-old children were very recently babies. There are concerns about very young children like that being separated from their parents."

Dr House said the risk of the Prime Minister's plan was that children would become "institutionalised" from an early age.

"In this first couple of years the parent-child relationships are absolutely vital," he said. "That is when a parent and child really get to know each other.

"If that is disrupted, one of the great concerns is that when the children get to eight, 10 or 12 they are not going to have that foundation. There will be children not getting on with their parents or turning delinquent."

Clarissa Williams, president of the National Association of Head Teachers and head of Tolworth Girls' School in Kingston, has called for reforms to the benefit system to reward parents for staying at home to look after children.

Her colleague, NAHT general secretary-Mick Brookes, said some argued that "two-year-olds should be at home with their families".

"We need a national debate about where should children be. Are we institutionalising children at a very young age?"

Mr Brown's plan will affect up to 600,000 children and cost an estimated £1 billion but it is not likely to become a reality for a decade.

The Prime Minister said the scheme would provide "more choice for women and for families".

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