Early Childhood Project Lead at the Nuffield Foundation, Advisor to the Royal Foundation (writing in a personal capacity)
There is growing momentum behind the call for a step change in the provision of early childhood education and care from parents, the workforce, providers, Parliament and a wide range of other voices. The public attitudes report published by the Fairness Foundation today is further illustration of this. It reveals a striking consensus between women and men, old and young, across political parties and regions on pay for the early years workforce – eight in 10 think that it is too low. The polling shows strong support for a range of arguments to increase pay, including valuing the early years workforce as much as others in the education sector, the role of pay in improving qualifications and quality, and why we should raise both absolute and relative levels of pay.
It is perhaps not surprising that there is strong support for addressing the shockingly low rates of average pay, given that it stands at £7.42 an hour, forcing 45% of the early years workforce to rely on benefits to top up their wages. Early years professionals are paid far less than teachers in primary and secondary schools. This is part of a longstanding and broader issue of undervaluing 'care' work, which is seen as part of the domestic sphere – ‘women's work’ – and is often invisible. There are few opportunities for progression and limited resources for training, and as a result it is very hard for those providing early years childcare to retain staff, with knock-on effects for quality and sustainability. Why stay in a job that is so poorly paid and doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, even if you love it?
And yet, it is hard to think of a more important job than the task of helping to bring up the next generation. We know from a large body of research that early childhood is a foundational stage, when children’s brains are developing at great speed and the building blocks of their physical, cognitive, social and emotional skills are laid. This is a period when gaps between disadvantaged and advantaged children open up. Differences in language and communication skills are evident from 11 months; by the age of three, inequalities in cognitive and social and emotional development are apparent. These wide inequalities are tough to shift and can go on to influence children’s later life chances.
The Covid pandemic has compounded those inequalities; lockdown measures, social isolation and temporary and permanent nursery closures have impacted on young children’s development, with children falling behind at age two and at age five across all measures of development. It has also put even greater pressure on the already fragile early years sector. At its best, early years provision can be transformative for both children and their parents. Skilled professionals can create warm interactive relationships with children, caring for their regular needs – toileting, food, rests - as well as having strong knowledge of the curriculum and how children learn and encouraging high levels of parent engagement. If you want a glimpse of nurseries in action and the amazing skills of early years professionals, just listen to this podcast recorded in Sheringham Nursery in London, as well as the voices represented on the Fairness Foundation website. The workforce is a central component of achieving quality early years provision; addressing status, qualifications and pay are pressing issues.
The Fairness Foundation’s polling also shows that the public are well aware of the range of challenges facing services for families with young children: between 57% and 67% are concerned about the affordability, availability, quality, flexibility, sustainability and equality of the early years and childcare sector. In the Nuffield Foundation’s Changing Face of Early Childhood series we looked at how these different issues are closely connected, and came to the conclusion that a whole system review of early years and childcare is needed. At the moment it is not meeting the needs of parents, children, the workforce or providers.
There is support for greater investment in early years and childcare – in this survey over 60% supported this either on the grounds of meeting basic needs, or providing fair opportunities, or to enable parents to work. And while there were differences of emphasis between Labour and Conservative voters – with the former more likely to favour the argument of meeting basic needs and the latter more focused on enabling parents to work – it is important to recognise that this consensus marks a significant shift from where the public were 25 years ago, when there were sharp ideological differences. It is also interesting to see that there is little difference between women‘s and men’s attitudes to fair pay for the early years workforce and the importance of childcare-related issues. Again, a marked shift, a generation on.
When it comes to how to pay for greater investment, the public is less clear, with a split between whether the costs should be borne by the taxpayer or parents. While spending on early years and childcare has risen substantially over the last two decades, the balance of spending has shifted away from the youngest children (0-3), as a result of sharp reductions in spending on Sure Start Children’s Centres, and away from lower income families due to tax credits changes and the extra 15 hours of free provision being confined to those in paid work. And if we compare spending in this area with other OECD countries, UK spending on early education and childcare as a proportion of GDP falls well below the average.
I take solace from these polling results. There is strong public support for fair pay for the early years workforce and for greater investment in this vital sector. Alongside powerful evidence on why the early years matters, this is a powerful platform to build on as the political parties begin to put together their manifestos.
