Response to Government's early years review

In response to today's Government announcement of the consultation looking at relaxing childcare/adult ratios in nurseries in England,  Professor of Early Childhood  Eva Lloyd OBE, at the University of East London, and director, at the International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare - ICMEC, says: 

 I do fear for the safety and wellbeing of children in nursery care if the proposal to relax the child/staff ratio goes ahead.  Child safety would be a big concern of parents, as well as the early years practitioners themselves while looking after very young children. Anyone who has looked after a two-year-old knows you need eyes in the back of your head. The nursery workers also need to be very engaged with each child to help with language development in particular. This requires building up familiarity, especially if the child spends long hours there."

"Secondly, it would be a counter-intuitive and meaningless move, because the nurseries will have to pay their staff more to keep them as a result of the increased work with more children to care for. This will then mean parents end up paying more in fees anyway. We are currently in the worst recruitment and retention crisis the sector has ever known. Nursery staff are amongst the worst-paid of society already, and the increased workload and stress will cause even more to leave the sector entirely.  

"The cost of living crisis affects everything the nursery has to buy and services they use, as well as staff costs. Everyone is in the same boat. 

“You can't directly compare the English situation to what child/staff ratios other countries have, as the government argues. You have to look at the contact levels, level of qualification of the room leaders, how long the children stay there.  The Netherlands tried relaxing the ratio in 2005 with bigger group sizes as well as liberalising the regulatory regime. The government rapidly changed its mind, brought in increased regulations and pursued quality after it realised this was not the answer.  

"In 2013, the early years sector roundly rejected Liz Truss's ratio relaxation proposals. Why is this government trying again while this situation is much worse?

"I fear the UK government will try out this dangerous experiment before it too realises what a mistake it is."