Do we really want childcare to be the latest investment fund wheeze?

Why is talk about early childhood education more focused on mergers and takeovers than it is on child wellbeing?

Although this is a recent phenomenon in Ireland, the financialisation of early education has taken hold in the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia. File picture

A worring trend has emerged in recent years in relation to childcare settings — that is, the focus has shifted to business viability, mergers and takeovers, and private equity backing, and away from child wellbeing and pedagogy.

These are businesses, there is no disputing that, and of course, they need to be viable. But while all the focus is on this, who is thinking about the care and emerging best practice for the children who spend substantial time in these settings?