Abstract

An holistic approach to early childhood education – an education-in-its-broadest-sense for a child viewed holistically – must address the historic legacy of split early childhood systems, a divisive regime that has formed the starting point for the provision of services in all countries and continues up to this day in most. While the problem of split systems, how and why they are so dysfunctional, is widely recognised, re-formation has proven much harder to achieve in practice. In this chapter I will consider how far countries in the EU have gone along the path leading to a fully integrated system, and consider the landmark reforms made in New Zealand (in which Anne Smith played such an important part) in this context. In the course of doing so, I will define what I mean by ‘fully integrated’ – a holistic view of services for a holistic view of the child.