Thread by @suzannezeedyk

When childcare becomes about the money rather than the care. A THREAD.
I've done some digging on this harmful govt proposal to alter ratios from 1adult:3babies to 1adult:5babies. I thought I'd share with you all what I found.

https://twitter.com/NathanArcher1/status/1444197439246905344

2. Can I begin early by linking to the recent post from @Dr2NisreenAlwan & @IanLaveryMP showing our Prime Minister stating explicitly that what matters in policy is what is profitable, not what makes life worthwhile. "Most important metric: wage growth."

https://twitter.com/Dr2NisreenAlwan/status/1444213697145151491?s=20

3. OK. A 'research report' was released Oct 2020 by the Dept for Educ (Eng & Wales) entitled: "Occupancy & staff ratios at early years providers". Conducted by the 'Govt National Centre for Social Research'. Based on figures before the pandemic. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

4. The very first paragraph makes the ethos of the report clear. "Occupancy rates & staff-to-child ratios are key to minimising costs and improving financial sustainability of early years settings as businesses."
BUSINESSES.

5. "This study was motivated by a need to better understand providers’ perceptions of what affects occupancy in their setting & their views on t barriers to increasing occupancy rates."
Translation of 'occupancy': "How do we stuff as many kids as possible into available space?"

6. Here's a bit of word-counting I conducted:
Relationships: 5
Interaction: 0
Communication: 0
Pedagogy: 0
Emotions: 0
Dysregulation: 0
Self-regulation: 0
Brain development: 0
Stress: 4 - All were mentions of staff stress

7. The report noted that some settings actively chose a staff-child ratio that did not make "the best business sense". They engaged in a "trade-off" that reduced their profit in exchange for creating a place that where staff were "happy".

8. Here's exactly what one of those settings said:
"We only break even and make a very, very small profit, but I'd prefer to be happy, healthy and stress free than have a business that's highly profitable and got a big turnover of staff and not a happy place to work."

9. Here's t final sentence: "It is important to continue to develop a broad range of mechanisms for supporting the financial sustainability of the early years sector as part of early years policy making."
So: We begin &end the report with a clear statement of its ethos: MONEY.

10. You can of course read the report yourself. I've just tried to give some highlights.
Yes, there is some mention of SEND.
No, there is no consideration of the impact of the pandemic on children's needs & behaviour. Or staff or parents' mental health pressures.

11. Ok. Now I want to contrast this 2020 report commissiond by Dept for Educ with an earlier report commissioned by the same dept on the same topic of ratios - but this one published in 2002 (yes, Labour govt) & conducted by @TCRU_UCL at Univ of London. dera.ioe.ac.uk/4642/1/RR320.p…

12. That 2002 report is entitled "Research on Ratios, Group Size and Staff Qualifications and Training in Early Years and Childcare Settings". It is a very comprehensive report, conducted by specialists in child development, which contains observations of children's behaviour.

13. Here is its very first paragraph:
"[This report builds on an research] which showed that higher ratios (i.e. more staff per group of children) result in better outcomes for staff and children."

14. Here are a couple of excerpts: "It has been shown settings in which more episodes of joint attention were observed between adults & children scored higher on overall measures of quality."
Joint attention is what happens whn adults hv time to hang out with individual childrn.

15. "Findings suggest that adult-child ratios may influence the amount of time adults interact with children. Staff expressed the view that relaxed ratios would result in fewer interactions between staff and children."

16. Here's a beautiful graph from the report that shows exactly that. As the ratio of staff to children expanded, researchers observed fewer episodes of joint attention.
Note: JOINT ATTENTION IS CRUCIAL FOR CHILDREN'S LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT. Especially during the ages 0 - 3.

17. Word counts:
Relationships: 14
Interaction: 63
Communication: 2
Pedagogy: 56
Emotions: 8
Dysregulation: 0
Self-regulation: 0
Brain development: 0
Stress: 0

18. Conclusions of the report - Key sentence:
"The influence of adult-child ratios is linked with many other predictors of good quality childcare."
RATIOS ARE LINKED TO OTHER PREDICTORS OF GOOD QUALITY CHILDCARE.
Do we still want good quality childcare in 2021 or not?

19. A moment of irony...
The very last para of ths 2002 report talks abt a 'level playing field'. Our govt in 2021 is engaged in what they call 'levelling up'. Guess what?
"The term ‘level playing field’ is an inaccurate description whn applied to t private childcare sector."

20. You can read both reports yourself. (Please remember that any plans for childcare rations/regulation in England do not apply in Scotland.)
As a research scientist of child development, I want to end this thread with what I hope are helpful observations.

21.
1) Children's brains & stress systems are shaped more dramatically during the first 3 years of life than they ever will be again.
2) They are shaped by children's experiences of attuned relationships. Yes - relationships w/ adults have BIOLOGICAL, MOLECULAR impacts.

22.
3) We have just lived through a pandemic of high stress levels. Parents' stress will have shaped children. Staff stress will now be shaping children. Universal Credit Cuts will be shaping children. BIOLOGICALLY. That means LONG TERM.

23.
4) Journalst @pollytoynbee recently reminded us of t many grim ways children are bearing t brunt of current govt policy. Childcare Ratios is one more. "What becomes of a society that deliberately neglects its children, leaving them the leftovers?" theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

24.
I have some people on my timeline asking in exasperation how anyone can believe that reducing child-staff ratios can be good for children. NO ONE IN GOVT THOUGHT THIS PROPOSAL WAS GOOD FOR CHILDREN. It is intended to be GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY.

25. Let me repost the clip I started with. Our Prime Minister saying that the only metric that counts is 'wage growth'. He doesn't mean wage growth for the early years sector.

https://twitter.com/Dr2NisreenAlwan/status/1444213697145151491?s=20

26/end. This discussion is ultimately about VALUES.
It is important to see how values underpin & frame govt policy. Don't assume that everybody shares yours.
Yet, it is entirely plausible that people in power will be willing to sacrifice (your) children for a quick buck.

@SollyKathryn @LauraHAllain @paulinescott222 @realdcameron @earlyyearsscot @EarlyYearsErica @QueenStreetNS @Mr_PaintPots @fionalarkin13 @FJRMonifieth @polblonde @Dr_Pam_Jarvis @kymscott5 @JuneOSullivan @TheBabyExpert @JANEOROURKE @EYAlliance @KeepEYsUnique @UpstartScot @margl43