Highly skilled, underappreciated: The Early Years workforce in England

The early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector in England is made up of a patchwork of provision consisting of: state maintained nusery schools (MNS); private, voluntary and independent providers (PVI); and childminders and nannies (Lewis and West, 2016). Since the Conservative government introduced nursery vouchers in 1997, which entitled three and four year olds to subsidised early years education, providers have contended with increased workload, regulation and expectations; whilst their pay, and their status, remain as meagre as ever (Social Moblity Commission, 2020). Despite the clear imbalance, the rewarding aspects of influencing a child’s early development have generally attracted practitioners to this role, and united a disparate range of individual roles in the early years workforce in a shared moral purpose. However, the tide, and the goodwill, appears to be turning.