Alliance responds to Government announcement about teaching ‘Fundamental British Values’

8th August 2014

In response, Neil Leitch, chief executive at the Alliance said;

‘The Alliance supports the spirit of the Government’s statement as it promotes the fundamental principle that a child’s understanding of the world should never be restricted by a particular view or ideology. We believe that anything which makes a child’s world smaller would be hugely detrimental to their long-term development. The broader a child’s experiences, the more confident and effective they are likely to be at contributing to Britain’s diverse society.

The government has defined key British values as individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faith and beliefs. We believe that banning or discouraging particular viewpoints would not be a helpful way of facilitating the development of these values.

In addition, for many of us, ‘British Values’ is still difficult to define and often subjective so we cannot see how stipulating ‘British Values’ or the state of ‘Britishness’ adds anything that could ever be meaningful to the experiences of young children who make sense of their world through ‘opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places technology and the environment’ (EYFS 2014).

Practitioners are likely to struggle to think of anything that ‘needs’ to be taught to young children to achieve British Values specifically - their focus will always be on providing a rich and positive experience in all areas. Life values are more important to develop for a two year old not a limited view of culture and life.

We believe that the EYFS already provides a solid foundation to encourage a child’s understanding and acceptance that we live in diverse communities with many different cultures and lifestyles. The early learning goal, Understanding the World, clearly states that ‘children talk about past and present events in their own lives and the lives of family members…they know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions.’

Young children learn and develop through first hand experiences so practitioners and parents are hugely important as positive role models. Children learn as members of social groups in their family, the setting and the wider community. When these things are in place and the child’s early years experience is supported by the framework already in place - surely everything else then just stems naturally from it?’

For further information, please .

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes for editors

  1. The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England.
  2. Through direct provision and its membership of 14,000 nurseries, sessional pre-schools and parent and toddler groups, the Alliance supports over 800,000 children and their families in England. The Alliance also develops and runs family learning programmes, offers information and advice, runs acclaimed training and accreditation programmes and campaigns to influence early years policy and practice.
  3. For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website:

More press releases