APPG Meeting Summary - 13/6/23 - Financial Sustainability and Investment in Early Years

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You can watch the full meeting recording here: 

 

 

Key Points from the Meeting 

• Shanti Flynn, Head of Education at Storal, stated the "The biggest barrier to a truly inclusive early education offer is the lack of a national strategy with local authorities making different demands on our providers." Burden of paperwork, inconsistency at the local level, long waiting lists and the funding deficit are also clear barriers. 
• Shanti's recommendations were greater integration at local level, especially for the 2 year progress check to ensure early intervention is done correctly. Secondly, to the review the funding deficit so that children with additional needs are not left with a greater disadvantage. 
• Josh Hillman, Director of Education at the Nuffield Foundation bought some evidence headlines from studies: its only high-quality early education which improves children's outcomes, "disadvantaged" children stand to gain the most from high quality early education - particularly those that start from the age of 2. 
• Josh's priorities are quality, targeting & incentives and more holistic services. High quality provision relies on strengthening the work force. More structured intervention programs that are well-evidenced and help staff develop positive relationships with children. Raising Pupil Premium funding. Looking at different practices in local authorities. 
• Catherine McLeod MBE, Chief Executive of Dingley’s Promise: Catherine shared some recent figures from Early Years Alliance research: 73% settings say number of children with SEND is rising, 92% have had to use their own money to support them. Only 18% of local authorities believe they have enough provision for all the children with SEND in the EY. 
• Catherine outlined the main barriers as too much paperwork, complicated funding systems, recruitment and retention crisis mean  staff continuity is an issue for children with SEND, lack of whole setting knowledge and confidence. 
• Catherine's recommendations are more focus on sufficiency for children with SEND, simplify the process of applying for support, more training for staff on inclusive practice and real engagement with families and responding to needs.
• "Without family trust, you can't have inclusion." 
• Dawn Kiefer and Emma-Jane Hassan, Early Education Leads, Reach Children's Hub:  They have been running a listening campaign where they asked early years professions the question "What is putting pressure on you, or those around you, in the early years sector." - Increase demand for SEND support, not feeling valued by wider society, difficulty in recruiting and retaining highly qualified staff, the underpinning reason was the low salary. 
• The next steps is listening to more people in the sector. 
• A living wage is a basic expectation for all EY educators and this will be a focus of the campaign.