The National Centre for Social Research published their findings entitled ‘Understanding the Early Years Workforce’ this month.
It was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and conducted in collaboration with the Education Policy Institute (EPI) with the aim of understanding staffing issues in early years.
In recent years, there has been a sizable increase in take-up and provision of early years education, yet in line with other education areas, the sector has struggled to recruit and retain practitioners.
Shreeve: “Challenges in early years are not surprising”
Commenting on the research Peter Shreeve, Assistant District Secretary of the National Education Union said:
“The challenges in early years are not surprising and, in many respects, mirror similar trends affecting education in general – poor pay, increasing workload and staff turnover.
“We note that:
- Nursery schools are some of the highest performing education institutions in our system (all 392 are rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted).
- It has been evidenced that the quality of Maintained Nursery School (MNS) provision helps to close the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers. No other part of the early years sector has the same track record at helping disadvantaged children.
- Maintained nurseries have a unique pool of expertise in supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Nurseries have over twice as many children with SEND than the national average.”
“More must be done to improve retention and career progression”
He went on to add,
“Maintained nursery schools have been systematically underfunded. As a result, one third of MNS in England have closed since 1980.
“The recent confirmation of an additional £129,000 for Early Years funding is helpful, but not enough. This latest report agrees. It states more must be done to improve retention and career progression, and attach more value to the profession.
“Rising costs in the National Minimum Wage of 13.5% together with a three-year funding freeze has impacted badly on Early Years.
“We agree with the report, which states low salaries and career progression, were felt to be incompatible with increasing workload and responsibilities. Budget pressures also make it difficult for providers to give their staff access to training.
“The announced increase does little to combat the view that jobs in Early Years are “easy” or “unskilled”. It merely adds eight pence per child per hour. In the meantime, this extra £129,000 for Island Early Years or 1.9% more compared to 2019/20 after this three-year funding freeze is hardly generous, especially considering inflation has been over 2% (and as high as 3%) in two of the last three years.
“We are acutely aware nursery school stopgap measures or allocating money to plug early years holes needs to cease. Many of the surviving 392 MNS will struggle to remain open beyond 2020, unless the Government takes urgent action. This means a funding commitment in the Budget on the 11th March to secure the long-term future of maintained nursery schools.
“If they do not, more nursery schools will simply be put at risk of closure.”
Image: seattleparks under CC BY 2.0
