- Call for dedicated early years catch-up funding
- Concerns highlighted over language and PSED
- Parents worry about impact of pandemic on pre-school children’s development and wellbeing
While there has been a raft of reports in recent weeks recommending that early years should be at the heart of Covid recovery, the much-touted plan for schools has so far failed to materialise in a substantial way for early years settings.
The Government has invested £1.7 billion into its education ‘recovery programme’ to date, but only £10 million (0.6 per cent) of this funding is available to early years settings.
Michael Pettavel, head teacher of Brougham Street Childcare and Nursery School, wrote in Nursery World last month, ‘Every child under the age of five has been “written off ”. The recovery grants put into the early years are minute to the point of non- existence; there is no national strategy to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the youngest, most impressionable, vulnerable and by definition “in need” members of our society. The children who arrive at a setting without ever having had social contact beyond their own home, the missed speech and language and paediatric appointments and much besides, all conspire to createaperfectstorminfiveor ten years’ time.’
While the Department for Education confirmed to Nursery World in March that private and voluntary settings would also be able to benefit from the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme, which is currently used in Reception classes, there have been no updates as to when this will happen. Nursery World asked the DfE for more information for this article, but at the time of going to press had received no further details.
Aside from sector organisations’ calls for extra funding for the sector, the Education Policy Institute and the head teachers’ union NAHT are among those urging dedicated catch-up funding for all early years settings.
Central plank
The latest to do so is the Sutton Trust, which in addition to calling for a ‘substantial and sustained commitment’ to the school recovery plan in its report, Fairness First: Social Mobility, Covid and Education Recovery, recommends early years should form a central plank of recovery.
It highlights that while the most-disadvantaged two-year- olds receive 15 hours of funded early education, ‘the emphasis is flipped for three- and four-year- olds’ with the 30 hours offer only availableforfamiliesearning above a certain income, ‘and so excludes the very children who need help most and who stand to benefit most’.
It is also calling for an increase in the Early Years Pupil Premium towards the level received by primary schools, and for funding of continuous professional development for the early years workforce to form part of a new funding settlement, so small settings and those in less affluent areas can survive and deliver high-quality provision.
‘Much focus over the past year has been on what has happened in schools, but we cannot afford to forget the youngest and oldest children,’ it said. ‘Pre-school-age children are at a highly sensitive stage in their development, with potential long-term consequences of any disruption to that development. Early years must be at the heart of the recovery plan.’
It added, ‘The pandemic has reminded us how crucial the early years sector is for the functioning of our daily lives and our children’s futures. But it also laid bare the fragility of a sector which comprises many small and poorly funded private and voluntary providers, particularly those in less-well-off areas.
‘An increase in the Early Years Pupil Premium to levels equivalent to those in primary schoolwouldhelp,aswellas increased rates of funding, to invest in a skilled workforce that can make the most impact. Above all, we need to see early years provision as an opportunity to provide a great start in life for all children, and not just as a way to provide childcare.’
Parents' worries
The Sutton Trust commissioned You Gov to carry out a poll of 570 parents of two-to four-year-olds. This reveals that a majority of parents of pre-school children (56 per cent) are worried about the impact on their child’s overall development or wellbeing during the pandemic.
One in five (20 per cent) feel that their child’s physical development has been impacted negatively during the pandemic, and a quarter (25 per cent) feel similarly about their language development. However, a much bigger concern for parents is the impact on their child’s social and emotional development, with just over half (52 per cent) citing this as being negatively impacted.
When it comes to the reasons behind these worries, more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of parents cited not being able to play with other children, while 63 per cent cited being unable to see other close relatives.
Just over half (51 per cent) of parents feel the Government has not done enough to support the development of all pre-school- age children in the pandemic.
Meanwhile, a survey by the Early Years Alliance has found that nearly half of providers believe the gap between disadvantaged under-fives and their peers has grown during the pandemic, with the majority finding that fewer children across all backgrounds are reaching expected levels of attainment.
The findings, from a survey of 1,300 early years workers, include reports of regression in children’s development, such as losing ‘the abilitytoplayindependently’, expecting to be carried when they can already walk, and seeming to have forgotten how to put on their shoes.
More than half (54 per cent) of respondents said they observed negative changes in the learning and development of children when they returned to their setting after the first national lockdown (23 March to 1 June).
Personal, social and emotional development, and children’s communication and language, were highlighted as areas of concern among the majority of respondents.
Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch said, ‘Proper funding would enable the targeted interventions needed to improve children’s personal, social and emotional development alongside their physical development, which many respondents noted have suffered as a result of being cut off from friends and opportunities to play and explore. Given the proven link between investment in early years and better educational and social outcomes, especially for the most disadvantaged children, a failure to invest now would be unforgiveable.’
Extra funding
Bubbles Pre-school in Bicester (pictured right) is a pack-away setting in a community hall, with around 40 children on roll.
Supervisor Jackie Barker says the setting staggered the return for families in June last year to prioritise funded two-year-olds and children with additional needs. ‘We had smaller numbers and gave some children extra sessions,’ she says.
Some children who had not been attending have ‘lost confidence with friendships’, and on returning, ‘children were a few steps back in general attainment’.
Overall, she adds, ‘we haven’t seen much of a gap, but that may be because we self-consciously put support in place’.
Speech and language delay was the most noticeable issue for children returning. Four-year- old twins with English as an additional language have
missed more than a year of pre-school, and were ‘only just learning English’ when the first
lockdown started, and there was concern they would struggle to settle in.
‘We are re-assessing where they are. They have settled back in – maybe because they are another year older. We invited them to come back for a play, to get used to the activities again,’ Ms Barker says.
The pre-school has received some extra funding from Oxfordshire County Council for WellComm, a speech and language toolkit for screening and intervention in the early years to help identify children who need speech and language therapy. The council’s early
years team is asking all settings to use this from September; however, this is being provided in line with the revised EYFS and the greater emphasis on Communication and Language, rather than for learning lost during the pandemic.
What should the Government do? Ms Barker says, ‘We need extra funding for one-to-one support, as more and more children are diagnosed with additional needs. They need to come and see what we do. We’re a small, voluntary setting in a community hall with very different needs from a private nursery. They [ministers] say thank you, but it feels a little tired. They need to see the constraints we’re under.’
Meanwhile, the term ‘catch-up’ in early years is fraught with negative connotations.
As Mr Pettavel wrote, ‘As all children have had a disrupted school year, the question should not be “When will they catch up?” but “Are we meeting their needs?” The concept of “catching up” likens education to a race, one in which time is “lost” and needs to be made up in the shortest possible window.’
Case study: Ruth Martin, owner/headteacher, Artisans Kindergarten, Harpenden
'The children we knew well and who came to us through the re-opening phases in 2020 seem to have lost less than their younger peers. However, even for this older group we have found that preparing them for school has been very different this year. Building focus, and especially grit to persevere at things that are tricky, has needed much more input from us and is taking longer to establish. Pragmatic communication skills, all the nuances that aren’t words, we are teaching explicitly to more children and to older children than we have needed to historically. It is behaviours, not knowledge, which have suffered.
‘For the younger children who have joined us for the first time during the pandemic, the profile is different. Eye contact is largely missing, self-help skills are less advanced. The ability to assess situations for risk, whether it is the route they choose through the garden or the balance of something they are carrying, is diminished, though it comes quite quickly with opportunity to practice. More vitally, they are reticent about new experiences rather than engrossing themselves as an archetypal toddler, which further restricts development. We have also noticed weaker core strength. Communication on a one-to-one basis is as we would expect, but the ability to manage in groups is almost nonexistent.
‘In terms of recovery, parents have been asked to take on unrealistic demands. We are seeing less joy in the experience of being a new parent, more isolation, guilt, resentment and weariness, which all negatively affect a family dynamic.
‘Families, as units, need to be in the recovery plan; mums who have had a year of maternity leave but have not been able to create support networks of new mums need leave extended, because those networks are what will keep the family safe and happy and the mum a productive part of the working community for years to come. Recovery is based on “catch-up”. But no new mum gets the first year back and nor does their child. It is about going back, rather than catching up, and painstakingly creating the foundational blocks so that the future years are secure, rather than trying to run through the next year faster.
‘In terms of settings and recovery, we need to consider that early years professionals have been on the front line throughout, while also supporting their own family needs. They are also weary and worried.
‘Bringing in a new EYFS adds to the cognitive and energy demands, just when all resources should be freed for the children. Higher levels of need in the children require higher intensity of input, and that has financial and emotional cost; if we really want to repair those foundations then settings need money to meet the increased needs of those they serve. They also need thanks and recognition for being the only part of the education system to have been face-to-face throughout.’