Letters to the Editor: Webinar for childcare providers

To help childcare and early years providers in this task, the Department for Education has funded Hempsall’s to deliver a free new national webinar on 19 January.

The webinar will outline steps providers could take to business plan for now, summer term and across 2021. Developed around a six-step Business Map process, the webinar will assist anyone thinking about necessary business decisions to support business change and sustainability, whether they are new to the role or an experienced manager.

Business Map has been developed this year through the many information, training and one-to-one business support sessions we have delivered. We have listened to the challenges and needs of settings and created something new and different.

We start by looking at what’s changing, then how we find out more about how this affects each setting. After which there is a risk assessment process, this is more about identifying what the pressure points are. Then we explore possible ideas and options, including what has worked for others. After that we help everyone to consider their own plans and decisions. At the end there is a review and the process starts again if adaptations are needed.

Webinar attendees will be able to download the free Business Map, certificate of attendance, and supporting resources at the end.

For more information and to book places go to https://tinyurl.com/y3hlzzqh (for the daytime event) and https://tinyurl.com/y68h9ksw (for the evening event)


James Hempsall, director, Hempsall’s Consultancy

Free training boost for childcare

The inclusion of early years qualifications in the government’s free adult training initiative is positive news for childcare providers and for young adults wanting to develop their careers in early years education (Free qualifications offered by government as part of the Covid-19 recovery, cypnow.co.uk, 8 December).

This could save students and employers thousands of pounds in fees so could remove a major barrier to starting the Early Years Educator course in the first place.

Research has shown that children in early years benefit from being educated by staff with higher qualifications and greater levels of experience. Improving the access to these qualifications will support professional development in the sector.

We know from our own early years workforce research that the number of Level 3-qualified practitioners has dropped alarmingly in the last few years. Equally, nurseries and other childcare providers are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain Level 3-qualified staff.

Employers will be able to develop their practitioners aged 24 and over who would not have been eligible for funding previously.

We hope this will spur on many practitioners already working with young children who are qualified to Level 2 or below to progress their own careers and sign up for a course from April.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association

Young people have their say on exclusions

Young people have spoken out about the lasting impact school exclusions have had on their lives – and how they think the system needs to change – in a documentary by human rights charity EachOther.

The charity launched its first feature documentary, called Excluded, on Human Rights Day on 10 December. The documentary focuses exclusively on the voices and stories of young people whose experiences and views on school exclusions are wide-ranging.

It features young people who had been temporarily excluded, permanently excluded, indirectly excluded, and those that had never been excluded – often referred to as “the other 29” in a class. Among them is Natalia Morgan, who says: “Schools can’t just exist as separate institutions where you just go to study for exams: they need to take into consideration what happens beyond the school gates.”

Morgan is a member of “No Lost Causes”, a youth-led movement raising awareness of the ways in which excluded pupils often end up entering the criminal justice system.

No Lost Causes met with education select committee chair Robert Halfon MP after his attention was grabbed by a campaign by anonymous young people from a group called “Education not Exclusion” who in summer 2018 replaced the map on Northern Line Underground trains with a mock version portraying the “school-to-prison pipeline”.

The documentary also hears from young people in Scotland. In particular, St Roch’s school features at the heart of the inclusive, compassionate learning model that has brought about change in Glasgow.

The young people in this film are speaking up for their right to education. EachOther is standing up for their right to be heard. Their everyday stories, told in their own words, bring human rights to life.

Andy Hull, chief executive, EachOther