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Early years policy and services have been subjected to substantial and rapid reform over the past 20 years. This article provides a brief overview of legislative and policy changes over this period, with a particular focus on regulation and workforce issues, and traces the enduring influence of the Children Act 1989 to the present. It identifies a paradigm shift in early years services from a world view based on public health and care and on devolution of responsibility, to one in which promoting children's learning and development is core and centralised regulation and national standards are seen as essential. This is reflected in changed responsibilities at government department and regulatory body level. Despite these major changes, the article concludes that the key principles of the Act ‐ in terms of children's rights, parents' responsibilities, listening to children and inter‐agency co‐operation ‐ are still apparent.

This chapter explains how to design and operationalize a knowledge network analysis. The authors walk through a nine-step methodology that addresses each stage of the process. The nine-step process is the result of an in-depth review of the theoretical and applied literature. The authors explain how and why each step contributes to the quality and goodness of the analysis. The risks of skipping or sub-optimizing steps are explained. The step-by-step process highlights the dependence of a knowledge network analysis on data sources. The authors explain the importance of identifying, collecting, and curating sources.