Neil Leitch: Early years crisis warnings ‘falling on deaf ears’
Fiona Simpson
Friday, June 10, 2022
The early years sector is stuck in a cycle of “battles” with government over underfunding, lack of resource and conversations over reducing staffing ratios in settings, Early Years Alliance (EYA) chief executive Neil Leitch has said.
Speaking at the EYA’s annual conference, which was held virtually, Leitch told delegates he had been urged by colleagues to deliver a “positive speech”.
However, this was not entirely possible because he has “never witnessed so many beleaguered, exhausted colleagues” as in recent times, he added.
“Frequent warnings from the sector that it is in crisis continue to fall on deaf ears despite the potentially catastrophic consequences of government inaction”, Leitch said.
“We’ve been crying out for so long that things need to change, that the sector is in crisis, that we need to act now to ensure we are able to continue to provide the best possible care and education for our children and families, and yet, so little seems to change.
“Instead, year after year, we have the same conversations - the same battles, over and over again,” he added.
The chief executive, who was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for services to early years in this year’s New Year’s honours list, also reiterated his concerns over government plans to reduce England’s childcare staff ratios, bringing them in line with Scotland.
Introducing such plans would be an “enormous backward step in how early years provision is viewed and understood in this country,” he said, noting that similar proposals from former childcare minister Liz Truss were scrapped after a campaign by sector leaders in 2013.
Leitch stressed that the sector’s concerns about the proposals go beyond that of safety, saying: “We are not babysitters. We aren’t simply there to keep children fed and watered. Of course, keeping them safe is a priority – but that alone is not what we do.
“We are educators. Our job is to build the foundations of learning and development that will shape these children, and I don’t mean sharp go-getters who will step over others for money and careers ... I mean caring, kind, thoughtful, unbiased children that will drive the safety and security of our world. And relaxing ratios threatens our ability to do just that.”
The conference also heard keynote speeches from Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, WHO BreatheLife ambassador and founder of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation, following the death of her daughter Ella from asthma in 2013, and Andreas Rasch-Christensen, director of research at VIA University College in Denmark.
