Find Joy in the Middle

Yes, we need more male teaching and early years staff, but…

April 4, 2025 jameshempsall

This week the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson called for more men to teach our children in early years settings and schools Nursery World – Education secretary calls for more male teaching staff to promote positive role models Great! We were told that boys need “strong” role models for boys to look up to, and it was linked to the post-adolescence (Netflix) focus on misogyny. Less great, I shall say why later.

The imbalance in the workforce has been known for many years, and it looks like it is getting worse not better. It was reported only one in four teachers in our schools are men, falling to just one in seven in nursery and primary, with a mere one in 33 in early years (that’s 25%, 14%, and 3% respectively). What’s more, only 2% of school recruits since 2010 have been men. That means we are not seeing any signs of that imbalance being addressed any time soon.

The good news is this call for action has promoted lots of professional debate, TV panels, newspaper columns, and workplace chatter. Much of that has been about the need for boys to connect with men, and for terms and conditions to improve to attract and retain new candidates. It’s a well-trodden minefield of thinking. I offer my four thoughts and responses to all of that in this blog.

First, yes we need more men in the workforce. That is simply because a workforce that is not diverse or representative of the community is not fully exploiting different working styles, cultures, learning approaches, interests, perspectives, and talents available (and more).

Second, I ask why attribute the qualities of strength and role modelling when discussing men in the workforce? It is very tiresome as this is not a gender exclusive quality. For me, I never worked in early years to be a role model any more than my female colleagues were. But I was asked all the time if that’s why I did it.

Third, there is a piece of work that must be done to ensure everyone fully understands the job. Too many people have misguided and out-of-date ideas and understanding of it, including those with the role of careers advice, and qualifications and training. The job is diverse, and enriching, career forming, and full of opportunity.

Fourth, there is a huge issue with the curriculum (in early years and schools), rather how it is delivered through pedagogy and teaching. See point one. The workforce’s lack of diversity is promoting conscious and unconscious gender bias. Children are being given the message that learning is a female pursuit through its design, delivery, leadership, management, assessment, inspection, and value framework.

Tackle these four things, and we may start to see improvements.

From lockdown to now: Five years of looking back and moving forward.

March 21, 2025 jameshempsall

Our worlds changed on 23 March 2020. We were united by a sense of uncertainty, feelings of anxiety, and of confusion around what was to come. We gathered eyes and mouths agape, in front of TV screens as we were told to stay at home. The outside world fell silent, roads and skies emptied, non-essential shops closed, workplaces ceased operations with some being asked to work at home or be ‘furloughed’ (a new word for most of us), and keyworkers kept our essential services going.

Home was a reassuring sanctuary, if you were lucky, surrounded by loving family members. A time to pause, reflect, look after our basic needs for safety and nourishment. For many it was a trap that intensified disadvantage, deepened dysfunctional relationships, and a exacerbated their lack of opportunity. For our youngest children, their worlds became so much smaller. Some benefitted, some did not. As lockdown(s) continued, we predicted families would feel the effects in terms of parent relationship pressures, domestic abuse, economic burdens, and children’s development would be compromised or delayed. It gives none of us any pleasure to say we were right.

In early years, we started to hear from keyworker parents who needed our support so they could go to work, we delivered for them. Parents not able to use our services started to appreciate in new ways the work we do, and the shared partnership we have in supporting their children’s development and learning. Providers, like all businesses, were juggling with the new realities, the economics, and the need for short- to long-term planning, and supporting their own workforce. Local authorities were contacting us for help in navigating the complexities of Government guidance, financial packages, and the processes needed for business change, so the best possible support could be offered to the whole sector. We were only too pleased to do what we could, it was something core to our mission.

Like many others, online meetings were something of a grey area for us. But we soon got to grips with the technology (after many clumsy attempts). We started to connect as a team to make sense of what was happening on a day-to-day basis. We began meeting with individual local authority early years leads, for mutual support, sense checking, and information sharing. This is a time we look back on with great fondness and friendship. We were in it together. These exchanges formed the basis of our national support programme ‘Finding Your Way Through’ a structured strategy framework, and a set of actions, approaches and resources we developed and freely gave to the sector. Then came the idea to offer a weekly/fortnightly online session for local authority leads for peer support, wellbeing, and information sharing. We called them Coffee Breaks, essentially because we were asking everyone to stop, put the kettle on, and come together with the community for an hour of mutual support, understanding, and collaboration. What a moment that was, a movement began, and Coffee Breaks became that national space for both unstructured and focused discussion, problem solving, resource sharing, and a safe space for emotional safety. Five years on, and they continue, for all the same objectives, and they are a pleasure for us to facilitate and provide for our colleagues.

The lessons learned, from lockdown to the present day are many. It has become clearer for many who have a stake in our sector that we play an essential role in supporting parents in caring for their children, building their development and joy for learning, and their economic opportunities. Early years is an essential cog in a large machine that delivers for families across multiple (not single or artificially allocated) outcomes. Without it, and the impacts are clear. We have been identifying the increases in children’s developmental delays, speech and language, and SEND and have been adapting approaches to best help their recovery. However, we know these will continue for many, and risk affecting their school-lives and beyond.

The past five years have also reminded us of the power of togetherness, our unswerving commitment to the sector, our empathy and affinity with parents and children, and not forgetting our resilience. That said, there are fragilities that continue despite the ambitions, recognition, and increased spend in the sector. The need for support, challenge, and community in the sector remains vital. This needs to include all types of setting or school, group-based or home based, and reaching all practitioners to fully deliver our impacts confidently, healthily, and joyfully for better futures.

Taking a long look at the policy landscape in early years and childcare

March 5, 2025 jameshempsall

We’re used to change in the early years and childcare sector. Some it we can see coming a mile off, some of it comes unexpectedly. No one saw the Covid pandemic coming in 2020, and the Brexit referendum result was on a knife-edge back in 2016. Recent political uncertainty has led to us having a different minister almost every year for as long as we can remember. Whatever the change, and whenever the moment, we must all take the time to look at the landscape and beyond its horizon. Because of all of this has profound effects on what we do, and how we do it.

Foundations
We have achieved so much as a sector and as a profession. We should be proud of moving from a good cause to an essential element of the welfare state. We have matured in terms of practice, quality, professionalism, research, academic approaches, and data. The public, parents, professionals, and politicians are supportive and interested. That’s a lot to celebrate, but unfortunately, interest does not always result in things being right or fully understood, and so our work is not over yet. But it does provide a great foundation.

Fragile construction
On that foundation though, a fragile construction of disparate parts has been built, attached to various single-minded objectives. We have experienced very many incremental additions to policy, to funding, and to working requirements. Some is focused upon early education, some on closing the gap, some on childcare for working families. All great objectives, and equally invaluable. It is though, a complex jigsaw of inter-related and competing elements all jostling to achieve their stated ambitions. We are still tasked with holding it all together and reconciling targeted and universal provision as the solution to its imperfections. This unstable construction requires us all to be the glue (practitioners, providers, professionals, family facing workers, local authorities, and government departments) in all our various roles and interactions.

System simplicity
It needn’t be like this. The whole system is too complicated and complex. It is not enough to make it easier; it must be simple and easy for children, families, and providers. The system needs to seamlessly and effectively deliver universal services for all, and to do more for those that need it by experiencing the effects of disadvantage and needing additional opportunities. That way we will reach those who need the targeted support, and everyone can get early education and childcare right first time and fully understand it, how to use it, access it, and enjoy the benefits from it. That requires us to ask the important questions around how we make that happen, including abandoning archaic systems, abolishing anachronisms, and adopting the best of technology.

Emerging policy?
Some of this thinking is happening already, and government has committed to continue it. Some was referenced in the Chancellor’s budget statement last autumn, some in the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change in December, and the Secretary of State has regularly committed to early years being her “top priority”. The previous Government’s flagship policies to expand early years entitlements, and to open new wraparound childcare were early decisions in the new governments continued support. But what else can we expect to see in the long-term? We think we shall see:

Wide ranging longer-term reform of early education and childcare across all areas.
Early education will continue to expand as planned and will change in accessibility, affordability, and quality.
Wraparound childcare will evolve, connecting in better ways to the new offer of free breakfast clubs, and we hope to see a new focus on school holiday childcare.
More emphasis on schools being providers/hosts of childcare and early education, or at least better connected to or invested in it, as the issue of ‘school readiness’ will gain prominence as schools experience the effects of the pandemic on families that we have already seen in early years. There shall also be a stronger focus on school attendance, and children’s wellbeing which is inextricably linked.
Increased emphasis on tackling effects of disadvantage. Extension of approaches e.g. Holiday Activities and Food (HAF), Family Hubs, SEND, closing attainment gaps, and being ready to learn through school breakfast clubs.
Centralised practical focus on workforce growth, retention, and status, with fresh approaches to entry routes and qualifications.
Different interest in the quality of provision, and how it is registered and inspected, and excellence through Stronger Practice Hubs.

Our advice to everyone is that:
• We improve all parts of the puzzle to create cohesive strategy, policy, and its application.
• There are simple accessible route maps or customer journeys, making it easiest for those in most need or disadvantage, replacing the need for outreach investment in the long term.
• Existing resources are channelled to the front line, rethinking the risks the over burdensome system is trying to mitigate against.
• A united early years and childcare offer is attached to multiple outcomes and impacts – and not be single-minded.
• We repurpose, redistribute, and reach resources to meet the needs of families that need it most, tackling disadvantage and helping parents’ economic behaviours.
• There needs to be two different funding models applied discerningly. The first: providing childcare for working parents as an incentive to work, and an enabler of it. With simple to access subsidies for any additional paid for services. The second: investment focused and targeted for creating the conditions for social impact, bringing local people into the childcare workforce, funding graduate leadership, and deploying early identification and intervention approaches.

Let’s think again about school readiness.

March 3, 2025 jameshempsall

I had a really awful time at school. I was far from ready. I was unsocialised, anxious, and sensitive. As a summer born white working-class boy I had already been dealt a difficult hand of cards. Being at home with mum had not helped me to be school ready for lots of reasons. Back then, pre-school groups were not readily available in our community, and as a stay-at-home mum, my mother mostly kept me at home, and we had a small family. I remember attending a pre-school group, once or twice. I was four years old, and I can still describe the experience in vivid detail, some fifty years later, as it was so traumatising and confusing for me. It did nothing to help me. Neither did starting one school for a year before being moved to another for the next. Making friends was hard, I was different, the culture and curriculum was ill-matched to my learning style and preferences, and that fuelled the fire of the bullying I experienced throughout primary and secondary. I left as soon as was able, with a meagre handful of qualifications, but with determination to find a world that was a better fit for me.

That’s why I am certain one of our important roles in early years and one of our key moral purposes is to prepare children for all aspects of school. We should be embracing ‘school readiness’ as a mission and goal for all the children we work with. But instead, too many of us are resisting this. We argue the nuances and distinctions of the term ‘school readiness’. We should focus on activity on outcomes and impacts instead. I have written about this topic for years. I’ve been quoted too: “If school readiness means we support children to develop their key skills in communication, speaking, listening and questioning, social and emotional well-being, and physical development, then count me in. If it is about producing learning robots trained to comply with a rigid and inflexible education system, then I am less keen on the idea.” (cited in The complete companion to teaching and leading practice in the early years. Jarvis P et al 2016). I still like what I said then, and that was 10 years ago.

Despite us still having a fragile construction of multiple offers and entitlements to juggle, often attached to single-minded policy objectives, we have a great foundation upon which to build. Children rely on us to hold it all together and reconcile its creases that I truly hope will be ironed out one day very soon. We all have to be the glue in our various roles and interactions that help children build the resilience to feel safe and to engage, and to develop and use the skills to communicate and connect with the world around them, of which school is a very big and important part indeed. Everyone needs to know that and understand ‘school readiness’ in its widest sense to avoid any misconceptions and mistakes.

This blog was first published on http://www.cypnow.co.uk

Playgrounds are part of the solution for many problems

September 10, 2024September 10, 2024 jameshempsall

32 years ago, I became the project coordinator of one of Leicester’s playgrounds. Then, the city council wanted to withdraw its funding due to concerns about quality and service delivery. In 18 months, we turned around the centre’s fortunes through a combination of partnership working, service reform, community engagement, and lots of hard work. It is where I earned my stripes and learned my craft. I saw for the first time the profound and long-lasting outcomes that can be achieved by such services, for children and families in the least advantaged communities. It fuelled my mission then and that remains in my blood.

Now all nine Leicester playgrounds face an uncertain future, due to budget demands CYP Now – Leicester playgrounds’ future uncertain amid £1mn funding cuts As a result, centres are being asked by the local authority to build self-funding plans for 2025, after a period of advice offered via the council to build alternative funding models.

Not only has this event brought back memories, but it has also raised all sorts of thoughts and feelings. Not least, when I saw parents, children and young people protesting outside the council offices. That was emotional.

Of course, no single service has a right to exist. All of us, whatever we do, and however invaluable and impactful we are, must demonstrate our worth, be willing and able to change, and build sustainable business models. And that is true in all areas, and in all delivery across the public, voluntary, and charitable sectors. Quite simply, there are lots of needs for what we all do, and a multitude of competing demands, with an ever decreasing and finite resource.

In 1992, we only had one funder and that was the local authority. All our eggs were certainly in one basket. That was a significant risk, and every February we held our collective breath, always with the threat of part or full budget cuts. It didn’t help our feeling of worth or sustainability. If we did fundraise, there were challenges for how we did that, what overlaps were created, hoops to be jumped through, and I have to say it sparked the interest of the council who started to think they could reduce their funding as a result. Hardly an incentive.

There is no doubt that multiple funding strands build stronger financial foundations. But it takes a lot of effort to develop and sustain the juggling required to make a success of that. That’s where capacity building comes in. Fundraising, sales, or income generation is not a skill everyone has, or indeed wants. One thing we have seen in the early years sector is how they have federated, or in other words brought smaller providers together by growing small, medium, and large (and super) chains that are better able to fulfil all the functions required and benefit from more efficient overheads and pooled resources and capacity. Often with external investment. That is easier said than done in the voluntary play sector, but it is not impossible.

For the people of Leicester, the council, and partner services, playgrounds are an essential part of the early identification, early intervention, and prevention continuum. No one should doubt that. That means they should be strategically and operationally connected to other services. Yet, it can be hard to connect and to be afforded the respect you need to do that. I remember doors being closed, invitations not being extended, being asked to leave meetings even, and the challenges of getting people to realise all that could be achieved. On that note, we are seeing the emergence of a vibrant new policy landscape that is entirely within the remit of playgrounds. Those including food poverty, the Holiday and Activities and Food programme (HAF), free breakfasts or clubs in primary schools, school attendance, wraparound childcare after school, expansion of early years education, and families’ routes into employment and engagement in childcare. That means we all need to be thinking about these services in coordinated, long term, and sustainable ways that are diverse, engaging for communities, and play their part in delivering the outcomes we all need.

This blog was originally published by Children and Young People Now.