New government, new messages

The Victoria Climbie Inquiry report called out such practices as short-sighted, unhelpful, and failing.  We all agreed with Lord Laming then and signed up to the five Every Child Matters outcomes he recommended (Being Healthy, Staying Safe, Enjoying and Achieving, Making a Positive Contribution to Society, and Achieving Economic Well-being). Many of us miss their application terribly, although I noticed some missed a golden opportunity by not fully engaging with the economic one. 

It has been a while since I have heard it said by schools, but I would be willing to believe the view education is somehow delivered in a vacuum without due regard for children’s wellbeing and welfare, still exists. Surprising given we are more attuned to mental health, food poverty, and the effects on child development than ever.  Some of these unhelpful thoughts have been increasing since Covid, promoted by the resultant delays upon some children’s development we have observed since. Things have undoubtedly changed for this new generation, and we must all change in our response – swiftly and positively. We must all adjust to fit the child and their families, and not be rigid and unmoving.  We should not expect by some miracle they will adapt for us instead. 

Now, and this is the bones of this blog. Having criticised schools for taking an isolationist view on their work in the past, some in early years are now doing the same some 20 years later.  They are artificially separating the noble role of child carer from early educator. The concern is by offering a childcare service, to support the economic wellbeing of a family and its children, that it somehow diminishes the role and status of the early years practitioner, the provider, and the profession as a whole.  I would venture it shares the same root cause that fuelled the narrative of schools.  Like most in the early years sector, I also want more.  I want us to do more, be given more, and to be recognised and valued more for the outcomes and impacts we achieve.

The lobby though is clumsy.  Some in our sector call out “we are not babysitters!”.  Why connect us to the activity of a 16-year-old earning pocket money at the home of family or friends?  The easiest way to make people think about you in the wrong way is to do just that – say what you are not.  Just like when someone says, “I’m not upset”, we immediately think ‘why say that, they must be?’.  We may as well be shouting “we are not pumpkins!”. 

There is an alternative and this is the call to action.  Instead, we should say what we are, what we deliver, and what will make everything better for everyone.  To be solution focused, positively, always.  To be delivering early education, childcare to support families to economically engage, to feed and nourish our children so they get the most out of their days, months and years to come. 

Childcare is everybody’s business, everybody’s concern, and everybody’s responsibility.  Every experience of childcare is a learning opportunity.  It is the foundation of healthy child development, attachment, play, learning, self-actualisation, and economic wellbeing amongst other things.  It is impossible to meet anyone’s needs in any context without having due regard for their care as the basic foundation upon which to build.  Basic Maslow theory is that.  We should be proud to be early years and childcare, delivered seamlessly together for better and multiple outcomes for children, their families, and those that work in the sector, in all the different ways and settings we do it in. 

James Hempsall is managing director of Coram Hempall’s.