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57% of early years practitioners have suffered with work-related anxiety

On
Jun 4, 2018
By Rachel Lawler

Stress of working in early years sector
A quarter of early years practitioners are considering leaving the sector due to stress and mental health concerns, according to a conducted by the Alliance.
 
The Minds Matter survey launched earlier this year, receiving responses from more than 2,000 from people in the early years sector.
The results were revealed last week at the Alliance鈥檚 annual conference.
 

Minds Matter

The full Minds Matter report is available , but key findings include:
 
  • 57% of early years practitioners say they have suffered from anxiety as a result of their work
  • 26% have experienced depression
  • 45% say that work-related stress or mental health difficulties have impacted on their performance at work
  • 23% have taken time off as a result of work-related stress or mental health issues
 
The main sources of stress reported by respondents included high workloads, particularly paperwork and administration, financial pressure and low pay.
 

30-hours free childcare

A significant proportion of respondents also noted the impact of the government鈥檚 30-hours policy, which has been associated with funding concerns and administration problems, particularly regarding the Childcare Service website.
In response, the Alliance is calling on the Department of Education and 新澳门六合彩官网开奖 to work with the organisation to help reduce workloads in the early years, particularly in relation to excessive or unnecessary paperwork and administration.
 

Impact of policies

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance, commented: 鈥淚t鈥檚 clear from these results that years of ill-thought-out policies, inadequate funding and ever-increasing demands on the sector have taken their toll, and it is frankly shameful that we have reached this point.
鈥淲hile over the years, the struggles of those working in the early years have been largely ignored 鈥 and this is the result.
鈥淲hen you get to a situation where a quarter of your workforce is actively considering quitting, it鈥檚 clear that something needs to change.鈥
 

Focus on children

One survey respondent said: 鈥淲orking in the early years used to be all about the children. Now it is all about the paperwork and constant changes to legislation. There just aren鈥檛 enough hours in the day and not enough money in the pot to pay people what they deserve for the job they do.鈥
 

Where next?