The low status of early years education harms women as well as children
Unless you are the parent or grandparent of a toddler, or employed in early years education, you may have missed the announcement that nurseries and other childcare settings in England were due to reopen on Monday, along with almost half of primary school classes. The sector, which includes around 40,000 childminders working from their own homes and a slightly smaller number of nurseries, has not featured much in lockdown reports or ministers’ speeches, despite having remained open throughout the lockdown to vulnerable children and those of key workers. This is hardly a surprise. It is more than 20 years since New Labour placed under-fives at the heart of public policy, with its Sure Start programme. Since then, a decade of austerity has put a brake on progress and returned early years to its former lowly status.
Now, the stresses placed on the sector by coronavirus threaten to destabilise it further. Neil Leitch, the chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, a membership organisation for nurseries and childminders, has accused the government of a “frankly appalling” attitude, and warned that multiple providers could go out of business.
