Peter's writing has benefitted from working with colleagues who bring a wide range of perspectives and interests. This has included books on:

• reform of early childhood services (Transforming Nursery Education, with Helen Penn)
• gender and caring (Men in the Nursery, with Claire Cameron and Charlie Owen)
• reform of early childhood services in England, Scotland and Sweden (A New Deal for Children? with Bronwen Cohen and Pat Petrie)
• listening to and participation of young children (Beyond Listening, with Alison Clark and Anne Trine Kjorholt)
• process of social policy formation (The Politics of Parental Leave Policies, with Sheila Kamerman).

His main publishing relationship has been with Routledge, starting with the landmark book, written with Gunilla Dahlberg and Alan Pence, Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care. This uses postmodern theories and an exploration of pedagogical work in Reggio Emilia to develop a critique of the very concept of ‘quality’. The book has gone into a second edition, and been translated into 8 languages. A book series, Contesting Early Childhood, edited jointly with Gunilla Dahlberg, followed, which so far has 8 titles, including Ethics and Politics in Early Childhood Education by Peter and Gunilla, with more on the way. The series questions dominant discourses in early childhood, and provides alternative narratives that draw on theorists such as Foucault and, Deleuze – but always with examples of how these theorists are being worked with in practice. Other books for Routledge include Care Work in Europe with Claire Cameron, which draws on a major European study of the workforce in services for children, young people and older persons. A book nearing completion with Michael Fielding Radical Education and the Common School, argues the case for an education based on democratic values and a re-formed school, age-integrated, human-scaled and serving its local community.

Between 1986 and 1996, Peter coordinated an EC expert group, the Childcare Network, which published a wide range of reports on early childhood education and care, leave policies for parents and men as carers. Building on that work, between 2000 and 2009 he edited a unique pan-European and multi-lingual magazine Children in Europe. He was the rapportuer for two of the countries reviewed in Starting Strong, the major OECD study of early childhood education and care across 20 member states. Most recently, he has worked on a UNESCO study of countries that have integrated early childhood services within the education system; the report Caring and Learning Together is published in April.