220 pages
244 x 170mm
October 2011


This is an important book, both for its historical insights and for its relevance today. - Dame Gillian Pugh, Chair of the National Children’s Bureau

The playgroup movement achieves its half century in 2011, yet the Pre-school Playgroups Association which founded it survived in its original form for only the first 30 years. The reasons for this failure are important - perhaps even more now than they were then, because PPA embodied so many qualities and attitudes that goverenment and policy makers would like to achieve right now. The PPA tapped powerful reserves of learning potential in children but also in adults, families and whole communities. It generated an explosion of lateral thinking and innovative social development that reverberates to this day.

And then it broke up.

This book, written by people who were part of the organisation, looks at the nature of its success but also turns an analytical eye on the reasons for its premature end.

At a time when governments are looking to encourage volunteering, there are lessons here that need to be learned - not just about about early years work but about the needs and development of social organisations such as PPA. The writers offer warnings as well as praise for voluntary organisations and also for the bodies - including governments - that aim to support them.

This makes the book of interest not just to those concerned with children’s early lives and education, including parents, but also to readers concerned with the involvement of adults in their own learning and all those committed to the healthy development of a democratic society and a positive balance of power and responsibility within its organisations.