Partnership in Integrated Early Childhood Services: an analysis of policy framings in education and human services

There is currently movement internationally towards the integration of services for young children and their families, incorporating childcare, education, health and family support. Shifting service provision towards partnership between services, and between these services and families, has been the subject of policy formation at various levels. As part of a study into the first year of operation of integrated children's centres in South Australia, a policy analysis was undertaken surveying policies in two domains: education on the one hand and human services (incorporating health) on the other. This analysis found different policy framings of partnership operating in the two domains. Additionally, the policy landscape is layered with old and new constructions of the relationship between families and services. The authors argue that the terms within which policies frame partnership, families and services should be the subject of debate and also dialogue involving those practitioners whose role it is to make integration work on the ground.