Heading for Burnout: The Early Years Workforce in England post COVID-19

Over recent years there has been a raft of literature drawing attention to the inequity of working conditions for those in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector in England; however, it remains rare that we have the opportunity to hear the voices of the practitioners telling their own story. Through an online anonymous survey, we gained rich qualitative data from 59 ECEC practitioners in England who discussed feeling disillusionment, injustice and exhaustion; experiences and emotions that were magnified through their experiences during and after the pandemic. In this article we argue that the ECEC sector has reached breaking point, and that immediate action is needed if we are to avoid the loss of a passionate, skilled and dedicated workforce, and if we are to avoid the risk of our most vulnerable children suffering the consequences.