“This is not just about being able to pay minimum wage easily, that is not the right approach. We need skilled people and to give them the time to properly assess children and be able to plan properly to give them what they need.”

Claire Kenyon is an early years researcher and nursery owner. A passionate and vocal advocate for sector reform, she firmly believes that more can be done to help solve ongoing issues with early years provision.

Claire has been in the industry for the past 30 years and has a wealth of knowledge. She has a master’s dissertation in working with young children and families and has owned a nursery for over two decades. We spoke in detail about free entitlement, funding children with Special Educational Needs (SEND) and what needs to change to make early years education more sustainable.

Affordability problems are wide-ranging. From overall funding levels to the government’s free entitlement funding formula, financial restraints are having a negative impact on settings. Covid-19 has exacerbated some of these challenges, particularly with how early years provision is funded. The problem is that additional money is not forthcoming.

Assessing some of the issues

The cost of childcare and settings closing down were two issues brought before parliament in a recent petition. They are examples of pertinent obstacles members of the early year's sector face. However, despite the successful petition that received over 100,000 signatures, the government announced there will be no planned spending review for the early years.

A recent publication from Ofsted also provides evidence of providers leaving the sector.

Claire believes that to stimulate change, there should be influential figures around those who make policy decisions.

“I have seen the way the funding has and has not worked. At the moment, it is not doing the best for our children. I think there needs to be some proper experts who can advise the government on the financial benefits of investing properly into early years. All settings have got different cost bases. We need to be subsidised and I do not think the government should say, this is what you get paid and that is it.”

Another aspect of early years education Claire wants to see change is the language. The term ‘childcare’ is commonly used but does this connote that staff only look after children?

"It sort of hints that all we do is make sure children do not hurt themselves. I strongly object to the term childcare,” says Claire.

Additionally, a challenge deriving from a lack of funding and specialist staff is caring for a child with special educational needs (SEND).

The shortage of funding coincides with the need for one-to-one care. Without the extra investment, settings face difficulties offering sufficient support for a SEND child.

Settings must secure more funding to cater to the complex needs of a child with additional needs. Claire, alongside others, do not believe enough money is made available.

“It is ludicrous”, says Claire.

“I have had children with me that have needed one-to-one care and we do not get the money to pay for them. Sometimes we pay for that ourselves which essentially means we take that child at a loss. I have done it in the past, but now I have to do a real financial assessment if we can afford to take the child. We have to pay an extra member of staff to do the care. It is a massive problem.”

But can it be solved?

“The government needs to provide at least the minimum wage for the member of staff giving a SEND child one-to-one care. Somebody spending all day with a child needs to be paid for.”

Royalty and the impact of the Center for Early Childhood

The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, announced her new project for early years. The Center for Early Childhood will place more of an emphasis on children between the ages of zero to five.

Cognitively, this is an important period of a child’s progression. Claire believes this shift in focus could be highly beneficial.

“I liked everything Kate Middleton wrote. She could be a massive help to us because she spoke about the brain development of children in the first five years of their life which is hugely important. The brain development in babies is huge. I think society, in general, does not understand how this applies to the early years. I liked everything Kate Middleton wrote and I am hopeful.”

Funding, bureaucracy and affordability

Currently, providers in England receive an hourly rate to cover the cost for free entitlement for two-year-olds and three-to-four-year-olds. This is a set base rate, with factors such as deprivation allowing some settings to give more.

The free entitlement scheme intends to cover the cost of looking after children. Monetarily supporting the scheme is demanding. Settings require sizable levels of funding. Otherwise, they might not be able to offer the entitlement places, or staff may receive a wage that is not reflective of their effort and skill.

The process of getting the funding is complicated. Settings have to fill out a significant amount of paperwork. This is an issue for both parents and providers.

“It is a minefield,” says Claire.

“It is just so much work and staff do not get paid to administer it all. It is a huge amount of work to do for somebody when the hourly rate is not actually enough to even cover our costs before all the admin. A lot of managers and owners do this work for free.”

Investing and changing the perception of the workforce

Establishing solutions to obstacles people in the early year’s sector face is an optimistic, yet achievable approach. Some revolve around money, some are tailored towards revising the whole system.

An area that Claire feels very passionate about is altering the workforce and how staff are perceived by others. To supervise a child that aids cognitive development requires experts and staff with extra qualifications.

This is seen as a “long-term investment”, says Claire.

“I strongly believe that we really need to increase the calibre of people who are working in early years. It needs to stop being about babysitting children and start being about their brain development. There needs to be more highly qualified and knowledgeable people working with young children. More investment needs to go into early years at the younger age because then there will be less need to invest at the top end.”

Solutions, policies and evaluating how society sees early years provision

For Claire, an immediate change that is necessary is increased funding. This covers what settings can pay their staff, dedicated financial support for SEND children and higher levels of entitlement rates.

Regarding the future, she wants to raise the status of early years professionals. This includes a shift away from the term childcare.

Claire wants to see a change in “societal attitudes towards” the early years sector with an emphasis on the workforce.

“I think early years education needs to be respected for what it does. I am campaigning for it and more people need to be educated. It is happening slowly. Ultimately, it is about putting the rights of the child at the centre of what we are doing. Doing the best for the child.”

Room for optimism?

For someone who has been in the sector for three decades, Claire has some space to feel hopeful. The work of the Duchess of Cambridge is likely to raise awareness for early years and highlight the importance of brain development. Changing societal attitudes towards the sector will take time. But, the pandemic should have shown families with young children just how important early years provision is.

"This time I am hopeful. It seems like for the first time there is a little bit more interest in early years partly because of Kate Middleton. I think she could be a massive help and she is bringing attention to something that someone has needed to for a long time".

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Featured image source: Pixabay