This document, Unhurried Pathways, sets out an approach to early childhood which aims to shift the discourse about young children away from a statutory, ‘politics-centred’ approach, and towards one in which professionals working in the field reclaim theirautonomy and professionalism – such that early years practice can be grounded in unique local contexts, with diversity actively welcomed and embraced, rather than being undermined by an ideology of uniformity, mechanical compliance and‘normalisation’.