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The Early Years Alliance has issued a comment in response to аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø¿ª½±'s latest report on education recovery in the early years which covers the 2022 summer term. The briefing can be read .

Commenting Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:

“We know that the pandemic has had a significant impact on the learning and development of young children, many of whom have spent the majority of their lives under some form of Covid-19 restrictions. As such, it is encouraging to see that early educators have been doing all they can to support the children in their care to recover from the challenges of the past two years.

“That said, the report shows the disastrous impact that years of underfunding has had on the sector and lays bare significant recruitment and retention challenges as well as an array of additional challenges, such as training, that the sector is facing.  

“What’s more, the report concerningly shows that fewer eligible two-year-olds are taking up funded places. We know that children from disadvantaged backgrounds benefit the most from high quality early years provision and educators have been working incredibly hard to ensure that every child can get access to early education, but, as the report shows, stretched setting budgets often makes this an impossible task. 

“There’s no doubt that all these issues can be solved if the government finally addresses the need to significantly increase funding to enable educators to offer more training, opportunities and, crucially, a fair wage to encourage staff to both join and remain in the sector. 

“Once again, аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø¿ª½±â€™s update on the early years sector highlights how vital early years educators have been in helping children develop and catch-up on key education and social skills during the pandemic. It’s time the government recognised this fact and gave the sector the respect, appreciation and, most importantly, investment that it needs."