New nursery rules in England are 'simply frightening' and 'impossible'
Nurseries in England say the new rules have reduced care to "crowd control". The first study into the previous Conservative Party government's shake-up of childcare shows staff are overwhelmed, the Observer newspaper has reported.
Nursery staff are often doing more “crowd control” than education, because of the increased number of children they are looking after. A third of staff (32 per cent) at nurseries that followed the new guidelines feel that quality has been hit.
The survey of 152 early-years settings by researchers at Northampton and Nottingham Trent universities, heard from staff who felt they were now “simply firefighting”. Aaron Bradbury, lecturer in early childhood studies at Nottingham Trent University, who co-authored the research, said: “We found those who increased their ratios are often experiencing real problems, with children left to cry or hurting themselves because staff are overwhelmed.”
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He said that many providers had “stuck to their principles” and refused to increase the number of children per adult, but with the sector in deep crisis and many nurseries closing, others had had to take more children “just to keep the lights on”.
Bradbury said: “This was only ever about cost-cutting, but parents want their children to be nurtured and safe.” One practitioner who responded to the anonymous survey said: “It makes my role impossible. Instead of educating, I’m simply crowd control.”
Another said: “We often find it difficult to give children the attention they need.” Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, which represents 14,000 providers of care and education to under-fives in England, said: “The sector is on its knees, and we have a recruitment and retention crisis worse than ever before, so ministers were out of their minds to increase ratios.”
Leitch said: “The [Conservative] government made this announcement about two-year-olds being entitled to 15 hours of free childcare a week and then thought, ‘How the hell are we going to deliver this?’. Nurseries shouldn’t just watch over children; we should help them develop.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We hear the concerns from the sector about the balance between managing finances, staffing and offering the places parents need.”