Expanding access to services without attention to quality will not deliver good outcomes for children or the long term productivity benefits for society. Furthermore, research has shown that if quality is low, it can have long-lasting detrimental effects on child development, instead of bringing positive effects¹.

Why quality is central to the issue of early childhood education and care
by Martha Friendly, Executive Director, Childcare Resource and Research Unit

The term “quality” has long been central in the discourse on child care. However, despite the substantial literature about how much quality matters, what determines how it is defined, and the evidence about what factors are likely to make child care quality better or poorer,  discussion about “quality” in Canadian child care is sometimes more rhetorical than substantive.

Quality very much matters
A key conclusion from three decades of research is that quality matters; studies from multiple countries tell us that the importance of child care quality cannot be overstated.  Early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs can have beneficial developmental effects if quality is high while poor quality programs may have a negative effect, especially for very young or disadvantaged children.¹

A 2011 European Commission statement observed that: “It is increasingly clear that access [to child care] without quality is of little merit”. This statement cited research to support the idea that “more child care places are not enough: services have to be high quality and go beyond labour market considerations to consider children and their families’ wellbeing both in the present and the future”. ²This is consistent with other evidence-based conclusions that quality is of paramount importance in ECEC such as “The positive relation between child care quality and virtually every facet of children’s development that has been studied is one of the most consistent findings in developmental science.”³

Defining quality
When comparing ECEC in different societies, it is obvious that there are many different traditions, conceptions and approaches. Thus, perceptions of what ECEC quality means may vary across cultures, reflecting different values, social contexts, conceptions of childhood and views of the purposes of ECEC.

Canada does not have a clearly articulated pan‐Canadian ECEC vision.  Canadian rationales for ECEC have swung between school readiness to children’s rights, from reducing poverty to women’s equality to workforce productivity. Developing an articulated vision of ECEC is considered to be a precursor to an operational definition of quality. In 2004, the OECD’s review of Canadian ECEC recommended   “discussion among governments, policy makers, researchers and other stakeholders…as a first task…to sit down together to conceptualize a coherent, long ‐term vision, based on the best available evidence and prioritized into defined steps and time frames.”^4,5

However, although there is no single universal definition of quality, ECEC, experts observe that,
there are some values so critical to the well being of children that they are widely perceived to be the foundation of any definition of quality. There is general consensus that children need to feel loved, respected and listened to; that they are sociable and enjoy the company of other children and adults besides their immediate family; and that through affection, through social intercourse and with a stimulating environment, they mature, learn and develop a remarkably wide range of skills and competencies in the first five or six years.⁶

The European Commission statement observed that there is “a strong consensus that staffing, curriculum and the content of programmes are central elements in quality, along with the governance of systems”² and that examining and strengthening these can improve quality and accessibility. The OECD’s Starting Strong has emphasized the importance of a “participatory approach to quality improvement and assurance” and that defining, ensuring, and monitoring quality should be a participatory and democratic process that engages staff, parents, and children.¹