Children lose out in nursery staff shortage
MORE than a third of children in Halton’s nurseries are not reaching good levels of development before moving to school, a charity has reported.
Figures provided by Save The Children shown that the borough has one of the highest rates in the North West for youngsters falling behind their peers.
Halton is only behind Liverpool and Oldham with 38% of children not reaching a good level of ● development in nurseries.
The figures show that boys in Runcorn and Widnes are more likely to fall behind in nursery than girls with figures of 47% and 32% respectively.
The charity said that there is a ‘huge’ shortage of 2,100 nursery teachers in the North West and the number of applicants nationally is in decline as nurseries struggle with funding pressures and recruitment costs.
A YouGov poll for Save The Children showed that more than a third of parents in England with children under five did not know whether their nursery employed qualified early years teachers.
At the same time, research shows that last year one in three started primary school behind their peers in areas including literacy and numeracy, in part because they did not have access to these teachers.
The charity said that of those who started behind, 7,400 will ‘likely’ remain behind in English when they reach secondary school and 5,900 will remain behind in maths.
While all nurseries have staff who are trained to care for children, not all have specialist qualified early years teachers.
They are trained to help children develop early language and numeracy skills through play and to help struggling youngsters catch up by the time they reach school.
Save The Children and other leading child development experts are calling on the Government to urgently address the shortage by investing in an early years teacher for every nursery, starting in the most deprived areas.
The charity’s chief executive, Kevin Watkins, said: “It’s just not acceptable that in this day and age, so many children in England are falling behind before they even set foot in primary school – leaving them at risk of staying behind throughout their school years and into the world of work.
“Nurseries do an incredible job nurturing our children, but financial constraints are leaving many of them struggling to hire the qualified early years teachers who help give children the skills and confidence they need to learn and grow.
“The evidence clearly shows the huge and transformational difference early years teachers can make for children.”
A charity spokesman said that children in the North West without an early years teacher were almost 10% less likely to meet the expected levels of development when they started school compared with children who do have a teacher.
Dr Elizabeth Kilbey, a clinical psychologist and expert from Channel 4’s Secret Life Of Four-YearOlds programme, said: “The early years of a child’s life are without a doubt the most crucial for their learning and development, and likewise, where support for their learning makes the biggest difference.
“Their brains absorb and grow the most when they’re little, learning everything from using words, phrases, and numbers, to understanding the world around them, and building healthy relationships.”