新澳门六合彩官网开奖 right to highlight early years recruitment challenges in annual report, says Alliance
The Early Years Alliance has issued a comment in response to 新澳门六合彩官网开奖's 2022/23 annual report.
The report warns that "the challenges of recruiting qualified [early years] staff before COVID-19 ... continue to get worse" citing "low wages, perceived low status, poor working conditions and limited opportunities for professional development". It also highlights that "childminder numbers have halved in the past 10 years, from 55,300 in 2013 to 27,000 at year end".
Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:
鈥溞掳拿帕喜使偻 is absolutely right to highlight the effect of ongoing recruitment and retention challenges on the early years, and the long-term detrimental impact that these are likely to have on quality.
鈥淔or years now, settings have had to survive on wholly inadequate funding rates, resulting in consistently low rates of pay throughout the sector. Is it any wonder, then, that we are seeing so many talented professionals leave the early years 鈥 and that it is such a struggle to recruit new qualified with the right qualifications and skillsets?
鈥淭he early years is the single most critical period of a child鈥檚 learning and development and yet, as this report points out, more and more settings are being forced to rely on temporary agency staff just to remain open, result in a poorer consistency 鈥 and in some cases - quality of care and education for children.
鈥淎dd to this the fact that we are losing childminding professionals in their droves, and it鈥檚 clear that the sector is reaching breaking point.
鈥淚f we are to ensure that all children get the best possible start in life, then it鈥檚 vital that government makes tackling the early years staffing crisis an urgent priority. The current situation simply isn鈥檛 sustainable.鈥