´óÏó´«Ã½

The Government is today announcing plans for reforms that they hope will lead to higher quality early education. They will include an overhaul of childcare qualifications, having early years teachers and child-minding agencies which they say will be closely inspected. The Education and Childcare Minister, Elizabeth Truss, is announcing the proposals as part of a three month consultation. However concerns have been expressed by many experts.ÌýHelen Penn, Professor of Early Childhood at the University of East London, joins Jane Garvey to say that while she is always keen for an improvement in the standard of childcare, she has worries about Government plans to alter the ratios of children and carers, and believes that increasing the number of children will lead to problems.

The handbag has got the cold shoulder and the rucksack is back in vogue. Celebrities like Rihanna, Kristen Stewart, and Alexa Chung have all been spotted wearing trendy backpacks.ÌýAnd they’re not just the bag of choice for the rich and famous. Sales across the board are soaring - Top Shop have seen sales go up by 40%, and Harvey Nichols have seen a 30% rise.ÌýFashion journalist Melanie Rickey joins Jane to tell usÌýabout the enduring appeal of the rucksack.

Recently we looked at how mothers were coping with the early months of motherhood. Exhilarating? Exhausting? A conspiracy of silence surrounding those early months? Now it’s the turn of fathers. There’s no doubt expectations of fatherhood are changing and that some men are more involved in fathering than in previous generations. But are men being catered for and how are they finding those first few months? Tina Miller, Professor of Sociology at Oxford Brookes University has conducted two longitudinal studies Making Sense of Motherhood, and Making Sense of Fatherhood.ÌýClive Barnett was one of the men who took part in her study, and Dean Beaumont founded in response to his experiences of becoming a father for the first time.

Ìý

Making Sense of Fatherhood, and Making Sense of Motherhood, both by Tina Millar, are published by Cambridge University Press.

Continuing our series on women around the world and their girls’ nights out, we hear from a 22 year old in Ramallah.

An estimated 22000 people have a colostomy, ileostomy, or urostomy operation in the UK every year. This involves creating an opening called a stoma and wearing a bag to drain away food or urine waste. Two weeks ago on Woman’s Hour, after novelist Bernadine Bishop spoke about having a colostomy as a result of cancer, many listeners contacted the programme to share their experiences. Jane speaks to Helen Bracey from the charity about the practicalities of living with a stoma, and hears the experience of one Woman’s Hour listener.