CEY1550

Written evidence submitted by the Early Childhood Education Research Cluster – School of Education, The University of Sheffield

 

Our Early Childhood Education Research Cluster focuses on research into aspects of early childhood education. Notable to this call for evidence is our research on young children’s learning and play in diverse social, cultural and linguistic contexts, involving parents, analysis of early education policy and workforce issues. Our focus in this submission is on early years provision. 

 

 

What challenges do early years providers face in terms of workforce, including recruiting, and retaining qualified staff, and the barriers faced by individuals joining the profession? To what extent has the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated workforce challenges?

 

A current project has identified several issues which are continuing cause for concern in the workforce. Here we summarise some key concerns drawing on the words of early years setting leaders and practitioners who participated in the study (Kay, Wood and Nuttall, in progress). 

 

              Qualifications create confusion, inequity and lead to high staff turnover

One setting leader said:

‘The Early Years Teacher [Status] doesn’t bring [QTS] alongside it, the message from government is very clear that it’s not an equivalent – that it’s somehow a lesser qualification, and therefore it doesn’t attract the status. It also doesn’t attract pay, quite clearly, and a lot of graduates can get more status, more pay, by going into a teaching role for whatever reason. So, we’ve certainly experienced that – where somebody has done their EYT with us, and then in due course has gone into teaching. That is why those courses are closing.’

 

Access to courses to enable staff to enhance their qualifications is uneven and limited, as one early years practitioner with EYTS notes:

There was a place locally that were doing a lot of conversions and I signed up and then was told ‘well there hasn’t been enough interest so we’re not running the EYP to QTS now’. 

 

Career progression is a problem for those with EYTS compared with QTS, resulting in inequity, one practitioner with EYTS said:

so we did these qualifications on the understanding that we would be equal but actually we’re not and the support to make that transition is not there and I think that’s a real shame.’

 

Despite the government commissioned Nutbrown Review of the early years workforce which made recommendations for change largely welcomed by the early years sector (Nutbrown, 2012) radical change is still needed – for children and for those who work with them in early years settings and schools. Nutbrown’s 2012 recommendations were largely ignored (Pascal et al. 2020), and a decade on, England is experiencing an ongoing policy crisis around the qualifications of the early childhood workforce. Nutbrown (2021) has rehearsed the long overdue need for reform and set out a framework for career structure and professional early childhood education qualifications in England (Figure 1) which, may usefully stem the flow of much needed, well qualified professionals from the early years sector. The exodus from, and stress in, the mainly female workforce demonstrates that change is urgent.

 

              Recruitment and retention difficulties threaten the quality of experiences               offered to children.

Recruitment and retention present serious concernsSome setting leaders find it time-consuming to recruit sufficient staff and high-quality learning and care environments.

 

Diagram, timeline

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Figure 1. Early childhood education career progression structure and qualifications.

 

… it certainly is a challenge right now, and particularly meeting the OFSTED ratios in terms of qualified staff. If we get a room leader that leaves, we spend an awful lot on advertising and trying to get people in.

 

Setting managers spend considerable time on recruitment of staff who leave after a short period of time, some leave the profession entirely for less stressful jobs with better pay and conditions. 

 

Cuts in budgets affects staff and children, as one leader said:

I think increasingly with the challenges for children and families where these things are coming into early years settings, a lot of the statutory support is being withdrawn through closure of children’s centres and Sure Starts going.

 

Another setting leader said:

I think salaries and remuneration is poor and we had an excellent student that was doing a BA in early years and she was fantastic and had so much potential, but what we were prepared to offer her, in terms of pay, wasn’t what she saw herself as earning when she came out with her degree and opted to go into a setting where she could pick up more money just by doing longer hours and extra hours and that sort of thingand I thought that was incredibly sad.

 

Funding for staff costs, staff training and professional development is inadequate.

One setting leader commented:

The government does not pay a sustainable rateThe minimum wages go up, so all staff wages go up. We are constrained by the government - tells us exactly how many staff we need, exactly how much we’ve got to pay them and yet, they tell us how much they’re going to pay for the service. So, they always want more but they won’t pay more.

 

To what extent does the early years system adequately prepare young children for their transition into primary education, particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds?

 

Teachers in Chesworth’s (2016) study had an informed understanding of the interests that children bring to their play arising from meaningful dialogue between teachers, children and parents. However, English educational policy narrowly positions play as a vehicle for delivering national learning goals thus creating challenges for understanding play in relation to diverse sociocultural practices. Within this policy structure, teachers’ interpretations of play are governed by curriculum frameworks that privilege universal, individualised learning intentions over the diverse, everyday lived experiences of children and families.

 

We argue that sustained opportunities for play and teachers who understand the pedagogy of play are needed at the point of transition to primary education so that children can better access the early stages of Reception and Year 1, bringing with them what they know they are already good at so that their new teachers can better support their next steps in learning. Importantly, this can also bring about greater inclusion because children will be better understood, and their needs addressed within the early stages of primary school settings.

 

Further, in the current instrumental policy context of early childhood education in England, narrow, linear and uniform learning structures dominate. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is positioned as a site for school readiness in which technical skills take priority over complex thinking and enquiry. A teacher in Chesworth’s (2019) study said:

Everything is targets, targets, targets and sometimes other things they're [the children] doing can be missed because you're so focussed on picking up specific things.

 

When formal learning requires young children to sit for periods of time, their interactions often follow a rigid format. In contrast, when playing, the diversity, complexity and creativity of children’s interactions often increase. As children transition to Year One, their opportunities for play decrease, leading to fewer opportunities for more complex communication (Fashanu, Wood and Payne, 2019; Tatham-Fashanu, 2021).

 

Transition from early years settings to school settings will be eased for children, including those new to the country and identified as having special educational needs and/or disabilities if learning were centred on rich play.  The EYFS guidance claims to value play, but also privileges a directive approach in terms of ensuring that play is ‘planned and purposeful’. The curriculum incorporates goals or outcomes that must be ‘delivered’ by practitioners through planning activities that will enable children to achieve the Early Learning Goals (ELGs) and demonstrate ‘school readiness’. Findings of our final report to the Froebel Trust (Chesworth and Wood 2022) highlight the national policy context for the EYFS and the influences it has upon practitioners’ approaches to assessment, curriculum and pedagogy, not least the external pressures associated with the requirement to monitor progress towards the ELGs. Practitioners’ curriculum decision-making was, by necessity, informed by the linear model of learning associated with progression towards the ELGs. This limits practitioners’ capacity to realise the potential and complexity of play that, given the opportunity, children demonstrate (Chesworth, Folorunsho and Wood, 2022). As a result, Chesworth and Wood (in progress) argue that policy requirements act to restrict some children’s meaningful participation in preschool, intensifying marginalisation and leading to negative educational consequences that are likely to continue as they make the transition to school. 

 

Thinking particularly of SEND, Georgeson et al. (2023) illuminate the practices and inclusive philosophies of Maintained Nursery Schools and a Special School, which, through play, meet and enhance each child’s strengths with meaningful interactive curricula. They conclude that ‘It is our moral duty to put the needs of children first, rather than the needs of the school and an education focused on a narrow range of attainment’ (p 92), and further ‘It is vital that we have high expectations for all children and also to recognise that some children require very different provision in order to make progress, and that the steps they take might seem small and repetitive in comparison with others. We should also remember that, for some children with life-limiting conditions, the concept of ‘progress’ might be less valid than the concepts of a life well led and living in the moment. We need to change the narrative whereby children with SEN/D are constantly compared to their peers in order to judge their progress, so that we do not inadvertently orchestrate a situation where children with SEN/D are always viewed as failing and their considerable individual achievements are not duly recognised.’ (p 93)

 

The extent to which the reduction of Sure Start Children’s Centres has affected children and families, particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the role of Family Hubs.

 

We know that the numbers of children living in poverty have increased, more children are multiply disadvantaged. The situation is urgent. Sure Start Children’s Centres have been reduced leaving serious gaps in services for young children which go some way to mitigating poverty (Sylva and Curtis 2023). Where Sure Start Centres remain – the services they offer have been reduced to the point where they are, in many cases, unrecognisable compared to the original conception of Sure Start provision (Sylva et al. 2015). Research with asylum-seeking and refugee families with young children (Tatham, 2023) reveals that voluntary and community organisations provide a wide range of support necessary for children to thrive. Where Sure Start centres and Family Hubs are lacking, VCOs are taking on the role of supporting families in the way that Sure Start once did.

 

Assessment data from the end of Reception (the final year of the EYFS) consistently highlights 30% of children (aged 4 - 5 years old) do not meet the expected outcomes in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development, Maths and Literacy which make up the Good Level of Development (GLD), used by the Department for Education (DfE) as a measure of school readiness (Campbell et al., 2019; DfE, 2022).  Reported FSP assessment data for 2022 highlights only 65.2% of children have reached the GLD, a significant drop when compared with pre-pandemic data (71.8%) (DfE, 2022). Those less likely to achieve the GLD include children receiving Free School Meals, with English as an Additional Language, with a Special Educational Need (SEN), summer-born, and gypsy/Roma children (DfE, 2022). In policy terms, these children are academically and developmentally behind (not ‘school ready’) before they begin the KS1 National Curriculum in Y1 and make the EYFS/KS1 transition in a deficit position (Kay, 2018).

 

Education and social policy interventions in ECE prioritise ‘raising standards, reducing poverty, and improving future outcomes for children’ (Kay, 2022). The policy thrust to ensuring children are ‘school ready’ is intended to improve children’s life chances and close the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers (OfSTED, 2017; HM Government, 2022a). However, despite 20 years of this policy intervention, the 2022 EYFS assessment data show the attainment gap between the lowest performing pupils and their peers has been widening since 2016 (DfE, 2022). Furthermore, the full impact that COVID lockdowns has had on children's learning, development and readiness for school is likely to exacerbate existing inequalities (Kindred 2, 2020).

 

The earlier start to formal education will not narrow the attainment gap. England has a compulsory school starting age of 5 years old but due to a one-point entry into Reception in September, most children start school aged 4, compared with age 6 or 7 in many other countries (World Bank, 2014).

 

These young children enter Reception with diverse needs, abilities, and experiences, the home learning environment, especially for emergent bilingual children, may greatly depend on home literacy practices and confidence regarding the English language (Little, 2017). Nevertheless, home learning and family language and literacy practices are a vital part of children’s identities, and parents are aware of the delicate balance that exists between home and formal education contexts, specifically how the start of education can impact home language development (Little, 2020). The EYFS explicitly mentions the development of the home language (Learning and Development Considerations, 1.13), yet when children start primary school, support for home languages is no longer part of the curriculum, and staff can feel underequipped for working with children from multilingual backgrounds (Cunningham and Little, 2022). With over 20% of primary school children growing up multilingual (DfE, 2020) and numbers increasing, a more holistic approach is needed to support transition and ensure suitable training and development for teachers in the early years and primary stagesOur research into family literacy and home learning (Nutbrown et al. 2022) shows how much can be achieved when time is dedicated to home visiting families to enable parents to do more to support their own children. This requires continuing professional development for practitioners and staff time to develop and maintain regular learning interactions with families.

 

 

Without doubt, early years provision has been threatened by many factors, not least the COVID-19 pandemic, budget crises, policy shifts towards more rigid inspection accountability structures, assessment regimes, and reduced funding (including that for support programmes for children who need more help, and well qualified staff). The haemorrhaging of much needed staff from the workforce must end, serious financial commitment is the only secure way of achieving this. What is needed is secure and long-term investment, and a sustained focus on reducing inequalities, so that all children thrive in their early years settings and can transition successfully, and happily, to their primary schools.

 

 

References

Campbell, T., Gambaro, L. & Stewart, K. (2019) Inequalities in the experience of early education in England: Access, peer groups and transitions. London: Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion London School of Economics https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/casepaper214.pdf

Chesworth, L. (2016) A funds of knowledge approach to examining play interests: listening to children’s and parents’ perspectives, International Journal of Early Years Education, 24:3, 294-308, DOI: 10.1080/09669760.2016.1188370

Chesworth, L. (2019) Theorising young children's interests: making connections and in-the-moment happenings, Learning, culture and social interaction, 23, p.100263. doi: 10.1016/j.lcsi.2018.11.010.

Chesworth, L., Folorunsho, A. and Wood, E. (2022) Understanding practitioners’ curriculum decision-making to support complexity in children’s play in a multi-diverse pre-school setting: Final Report available from  https://www.froebel.org.uk/uploads/documents/Final-Report-Froebel-Trust-Chesworth-et-al-2022-Practitioners-Curriculum-Decision-Making-Final-Report.pdf

Chesworth, L. and Wood, E. (in progress) Whose knowledge matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage? [working title]

Cunningham, C. and Little, S. (2022, online first): 'Inert benevolence' towards languages beyond English in the discourses of English primary school teachers, Linguistics and Education. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2022.101122

Department for Education (DfE) (2020) Schools, pupils and their characteristics 2019/20. Retrieved from https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics (accessed 19th January 2021)

Department for Education (DfE) (2022) Early years foundation stage profile results: 2021 to 2022. Retrieved from https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results

Fashanu, C., Wood, E. and Payne, M. (2020) Multilingual communication under the radar: how multilingual children challenge the dominant monolingual discourse in a super-diverse, Early Years educational setting in England, English in Education, 54:1, 93-112.

Georgeson, J., Adam, H., Short, E., Ullman, K (2023) Inclusive education for young children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND): Multiple perspectives In, C. Nutbrown (Ed) (2023) Early Childhood Education: Current realities and future priorities London: Sage

HM Government (2022a) Opportunity for all: Strong schools with great teachers for your child. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1063602/Opportunity_for_all_strong_schools_with_great_teachers_for_your_child__print_version_.pdf

Kay, L., Wood, E. and Nuttall, J. (in progress) Using membership categorisation analysis to understand the discursive construction of the Early Years Teacher in England [working title]

Kay, L. (2018) School readiness: A culture of compliance. EdD thesis, University of Sheffield

Kindred 2 (2020) Kindred 2 – School Readiness. Retrieved from https://kindredsquared.org.uk/projects/#school-readiness

Little, S. (2017) A generational arc: early literacy practices among Pakistani and Indian heritage language families, International Journal of Early Years Education, 25:4, 424-438, DOI: 10.1080/09669760.2017.1341302

Little, S. (2020) Whose heritage? What inheritance?: conceptualising family language identities, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23:2, 198-212, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2017.1348463

Nutbrown, C. 2012. Foundations for Quality: The Independent Review of Early Education and Childcare Qualifications Final Report. Cheshire: Department for Education. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/175463/Nutbrown-Review.pdf. 

Nutbrown, C. (2021) Early childhood educators’ qualifications: a framework for change, International Journal of Early Years Education, 29:3, 236-249, DOI: 10.1080/09669760.2021.1892601

Nutbrown, C. Clough, P. Davies, K. and Hannon, P. (2022) Home Learning Environment for Young Children, London: Sage.

OfSTED (2017) Bold Beginning,s Manchester, UK: Crown Copyright.

Pascal, C., Bertram, T. and Cole-Albäck, A. (2020) Early Years Workforce Review: Revisiting the Nutbrown Review – Policy and Impact. London: The Sutton Trust. 

Sylva, K., Goff, J., Eisenstadt. E., Smith, T., Hall, J., Evangelou, M., Smith, G. and Sammons, P. (2015) Evaluation of Children’s Centres in England (ECCE). Strand 3: Organisation, services and reach of Children’s Centres. London: Department for Education.

Sylva, K. and Curtis, L. (2023) Combatting the effects of poverty on the outcomes of
young children and their families: The role of Children’s Centres. In, C. Nutbrown (Ed) (2023) Early Childhood Education: Current realities and future priorities London: Sage.

Tatham-Fashanu, C. (2021) A third space pedagogy: embracing complexity in a super-diverse, early childhood education setting. Pedagogy, Culture and Society DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2021.1952295

Tatham, C. (2023) Supporting Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Families with Young Children to Access Education During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Available from: https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/supporting-refugee-families

World Bank (2014) Official entrance age to primary education (years). Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.AGES

 

January 2023

 

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