Early Years Digest

The Guardian - Invest in childhood to unlock £45.5bn a year, says Princess of Wales’s taskforce

Business investment in early childhood could unlock £45.5bn in value a year for the UK economy, according to a report by a taskforce created by the Princess of Wales. In the report, CEOs from eight leading companies urged “businesses of all sizes across the UK, to join us and help build a healthy, happy society for everyone”.

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The Telegraph - Inside Britain’s nursery crisis

For many parents, leaving their babies at nursery is simply a necessity that allows them to get to work. And, of course, different families have different requirements, but fundamentally, what every parent wants from their chosen setting is a safe environment with good food and sensible, caring adults who will attend to their needs.

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The Independent - Childcare sector in ‘crisis’ with ‘pitiful’ number of childminders signing up to government grant scheme

Information obtained by The Independent via a freedom of information request shows that 1,627 grants were awarded through the government’s childminder start-up grant initiative between the end of November last year and the end of March – with some 1,837 applications during this period.

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The Daily Mirror - Labour's Bridget Phillipson vows to make affordable childcare available for more parents

In an interview with the Mirror, Bridget told how early years education “is where you make the single biggest difference to children's life chances even before they arrive at school”. “It's how we will make sure that all children, no matter what their background, have every chance to thrive,” she added.

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The Guardian - Toddlers ‘sold out’ to balance books of childcare bill, English nursery providers say

Toddlers have been “sold out” to balance the books of the government’s childcare bill, according to nursery providers, who say young children have been put at risk by changes in supervision rules. The deaths of two babies in nurseries made headlines last week but frontline workers say they are also concerned for the safety of older toddlers after the government relaxed rules on staff ratios.

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Schools Week - How schools could be at the centre of Labour’s Sure Start 2.0 plan

If there’s a more iconic New Labour domestic policy than Sure Start, I can’t think of one. It ticked all the boxes for both left wing members and centrist cabinet ministers. As a policy, it was perfect for the Labour party of the late 1990s. Sure Start centres were futuristic, shiny, universal (in terms of their offer) and they smacked of long-term investment. Everyone inside the progressive big tent could sign up. They became seen as one of the Blair government’s signature achievements (in stark contrast to some of the, ahem, wilder foreign policy expeditions).

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Children and Young People Now - Covid inquiry turns attention to pandemic’s impact on children

The inquiry’s eighth investigation will focus on how children and young people have been affected by the pandemic, policies made by government and the catastrophe's long-term impact on their lives. Access to education, early years, and health support for children during the pandemic will be examined.

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The Guardian - Next government urged to wake up to UK’s ‘shocking’ levels of child poverty

The next government should pass a new law within 100 days of winning the general election that would commit ministers to eradicating child poverty for good, the five biggest UK children’s charities say this weekend. The organisations demand legislation in the first king’s speech that would include plans for a “child lock” – equivalent to the current pensions “triple lock”.

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Nursery World Magazine - Sarah Mackenzie: Why schools should learn from early years

From attendance tsars to ‘every moment matters’ campaigns, even those outside of the education sector can’t be immune to the volume of media coverage on the school attendance ‘issue’ and the initiatives being churned out to tackle the ‘problem’. It isn’t unusual for me to think ‘just look at early years’, but on this occasion, I want to scream it from the rooftops. Learn from us.

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TES Magazine - General election: ‘Restore pupil premium funding to close disadvantage gap’

The next government must “reverse the erosion” of pupil premium funding and require schools to prioritise pupils eligible for the funding to help close the disadvantage gap, a social mobility charity has said. Polling from the Sutton Trust, published today, has found that most of the public (55 per cent) feel the government does not do enough to ensure richer and poorer children have the same opportunities within the same school.

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Early Years Alliance - 40,000 more staff and 84,500 places needed by 2025 to meet increased early entitlement demand, PAC warn

The inquiry’s eighth investigation will focus on how children and young people have been affected by the pandemic, policies made by government and the catastrophe's long-term impact on their lives. Access to education, early years, and health support for children during the pandemic will be examined.

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The Mobilise Podcast - Episode 1: Sir David Bell

Sir David Bell, Former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education, talks to Sally about research, politics and the critical role that civil servants play in helping Ministers to navigate evidence. This is a journey through more than twenty years of children’s policy from Every Child Matters, through raising the school leaving age, the Academies act to Labour’s current thinking on early education.

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The Voice of Early Childhood Podcast - Starting from the child? In conversation with Julie Fisher

Professor Julie Fisher talks all about her seminal text; Starting from the child? This episode marks an exciting time as Julie publishes the 5th edition of her book. Julie explains how Starting from the child? began in the 1990's, and how it responds to policy and practice, and follows the history of early childhood education in England.

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The Independent - Muddling: How ad hoc childcare became the new normal for stressed parents like me

With costs rising and flexi-working booming, formal childcare arrangements are being phased out in favour of a more ad hoc approach – with friends, family and even dog walkers being roped in at the last minute to take care of children. But this is no solution, argues Charlotte Cripps.

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Schools Week - Fixing 14 years of damage must be an election priority

It is no exaggeration to say that after 14 years of damaging and unhelpful policies, education is at breaking point. We are running on empty. The education system needs urgent attention from early years right through to post-16. This must be reflected in the manifestos of all the political parties. The scale of the problem is immense and encroaches on all aspects of our education system. Everything from the undervalued workforce, through to the impoverished aspiration and provision for children and young people.

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The London School of Economics - Investing in Early Years Family Support: Four Lessons from the Sure Start programme

Two recent reports consider the long-term impact of the UK’s Sure Start programme, which aimed to narrow the gap between children from lower- and higher-income families. As we look to the future, Naomi Eisenstadt, Director of the Sure Start Unit for its first six years, offers four lessons.

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The Sutton Trust - Fair opportunity for all

Fair Opportunity for All makes the case for why the next government must put opportunities for the next generation at the centre of its agenda, and outlines a set of evidenced backed and costed recommendations that can equip the government to improve social mobility and widen opportunity – looking at the early years, through to schools, apprenticeships, higher education and into the workplace.

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The Institute for Public Policy Research - An electoral strategy for childcare

With a UK general election now announced, political parties should consider how they can meet this motivation with an improved early years offer. IPPR conducted two surveys of adults in England to learn about perceptions of our childcare system. A survey of a nationally representative sample of more than 4,000 adults, and a survey of more than 2,000 parents and grandparents. Crucially, both surveys exposed that swing voters are more likely than others to identify childcare as a priority. This suggests that a strong early years proposition could play a crucial role in influencing outcomes in marginal seats.

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The Early Years Research Journal (T&F Online) - Children’s involvement in home-based childcare: are boys more susceptible to caregiver sensitivity than girls?

Children who are in high-quality childcare are encouraged to explore the material and social environment. Boys and girls might differ in their susceptibility to this quality of childcare. In the current study, we tested whether childcare quality is related to children’s involvement in home-based childcare, and whether child gender acts as a moderator in this association.

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