CEY1700

Written evidence submitted by TACTYC

Members of TACTYC, an organisation of academics involved in initial and continuing professional development for early years teachers and staff at all levels, are delighted, and relieved, to hear of the inquiry being undertaken by your committee, as there are long standing problems to be addressed.

I am sure you are all too well aware of the difficulties encountered by working parents as they face  problems related to the costs and availability of high quality childcare.  These are shared by providers, who are finding it increasingly hard to appoint and retain staff, and to afford the escalating costs of energy, food and other necessities.

Early Years workers are already paid at shockingly low rates, such that many are leaving for better remunerated jobs in shops and the hospitality industry.  Given the evidence of the impact that highly qualified staff at this stage have on children’s future welfare and achievements, they should surely be seen as an investment, which saves grief as well as money in the longer term.  Low levels of wages in the sector have been a problem for some years in the UK; we compare badly with other European countries, who have established a coherent early years sector, with an appropriate curriculum, until children start formal schooling at 6 or 7. 

Having recently returned from a study visit to Reggio Emilia, which is recognised worldwide for the quality of its outstanding provision for young children, it is disheartening to note the many problems faced by both staff and families here in the UK.  It is particularly frustrating for me: I led the British Association for Early Childhood Education a generation ago, and have worked with the British Council on several visits to China, and have also been commissioned by UNICEF to share key elements of our rich heritage of excellent early years education in other countries.  The investment in the future of young people that this makes possible was recognised and celebrated in the report commissioned by Angela Rumbold MP, when she was Minister for Education, and I was privileged to work in the DfE at the time that Sure Start was being developed.  We are now in danger of losing the vital specialist expertise as well as the provision which can transform children’s life chances.

TACTYC colleagues, who are highly qualified academics and/or senior practitioners, would be very pleased to make our case in person.  We realise that there will much pressure on you as you take up your new role, and we would like to make a positive contribution to the debate, as we have been able to do in the past.

January 2023