Making it Look Easy

Making it Look Easy

Earlier this month, a panel of experts at the Childcare and Education Expo North discussed the question of how the childcare sector can be seen as more than just babysitters. It is a perplexing point. The headlines make it clear that Childcare is highly valued by parents and policymakers alike, but in terms of prestige and indeed pay, the workforce seems to forever lag behind their peers.

The first step to solving this problem is identifying the key issue. Jonathan Broadbery of the NDNA, who chaired the panel, posed this in his opening question; how does what childcarers do differ from babysitting? The panes’ answers were revealing. They all focused on what childcare does for the children. In the words of Ursula Krystek-Walton of Thrive Childcare and Education, they are ‘brain builders’, their role is to provide children with the crucial early education in a way that meets that individual child’s needs. 

But, as Caroline Wright of Bright Horizons pointed out, this contrasts with policymakers’ approach. There are three stakeholders in the sector. The children, the providers, and the parents, but only one of those groups holds real political power. So, it is unsurprising that when politicians think about childcare, they see it as providing a service to parents, rather than children. If the purpose of childcare is just to get parents into work, then does it really need to do any more than babysitting?

Of course, the answer changes when the needs of children are centred. Several childminders in the audience expressed their concern that proposed, reduced, qualification requirements were going to water down their profession, risking the creation of a two-tier system within childcare itself. In a similar vein, Caroline pointed out that when primary or secondary schooling is discussed, the language changes with the focus on children, no-one talks about school as being ‘free’ or even ‘funded’, and everyone understands that high quality education is expensive and a good investment for society to make. 

This conclusion led to the next point of discussion. While the sector knows how what it does differs from babysitting, do parents? The panel seemed to think not. Michael Freeston of the Early Years Alliance suggested that there was a period during the Covid lockdowns when parents who weren’t keyworkers, did develop an appreciation of the sector’s work, but that has not resulted in a paradigm shift. What can be done to improve parents’ understanding? 

The audience made some interesting suggestions around this point. One wraparound service provider told the panel that she had started offering classes to parents, educating them in children’s development needs. Another audience member provided an international perspective, reflecting that in his settings in China, they still use the 2017 EYFS framework, because they find it offers more opportunities for quantifying the benefits of early education for parents. Gary Harrison of Morton Michel neatly encapsulated the problem. When childcare providers do their jobs well, they can end up making it look easy. 

This is a critical debate. The government is currently consulting on changes to the regulatory framework surrounding childcare, and the proposals could be interpreted as prioritising increased access over professionalism, reducing qualification requirements and even the pedagogical focus. This raises the question of whether, like parents, policy makers do not truly understand what it is the childcare sector does.