The UK has a long tradition of educating young children. Its location in Europe has meant that they have influenced and been influenced by other approaches. This chapter presents a snapshot of current values that underpin practice in the four nations and provides some examples of practice that demonstrate how children’s learning and development are facilitated. There are inherent tensions in the UK’s four nations’ care and education system because of its complexity. For example, early childhood education has a strong link to ‘protecting’ children from harm and the economic benefit of enabling children to be productive members of society and reducing the effects of poverty and disadvantage. Additionally, this is seen through contrasting practices between play-based curricula and the pressure on early years educators to ensure children are ‘ready’ for formal education. This chapter will illustrate how the Early Years Foundation Stage in England and other curriculum frameworks in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are similarly and differently underpinning pedagogical practices. For the purpose of this chapter, we are looking at three areas of pedagogical practice, School Readiness, Social pedagogy, and the pre-primary curriculum in England and Wales: play-based learning in the early years—reality or myth?