This is the final edition of Nursery World for 2004 - our next issue is out on January 6. We can look back on a year packed with change in the early years sector, including the publication of the five-year strategy for education and the ten-year strategy for childcare. Every Child Matters: the next steps was published, the Children Act was passed, the national service framework for health was released, children's centres started to roll out, the Sector Skills Council began, the light-touch approval scheme was set up, and there were significant mergers and acquisitions (the biggest of which fell...