Community Catch-Up with Early Years Minister

Community was pleased to meet with the Minister for Early Education, Paul Waugh MP, at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

During the meeting with the minister, our Operations Director and National Secretary for Education and Early Years Helen Osgood raised a number of issues affecting our members across the sector. These included funding for early years settings, the prominence ‘childcare deserts’ in England, and staff workload and wellbeing.

The Minister was also interested to learn more about our new ‘Retention, Retention, Retention’ campaign, which highlights the urgent need to stem the tide of educators leaving the profession.

Reflecting on the meeting, Community Operations Director Helen Osgood said:

“We are grateful to the minister for taking the time to meet with us at conference, and it is clear from our discussions that he understands the many challenges facing the education and early years sectors. We were particularly pleased to familiarise him with the asks included in our new Retention, Retention, Retention campaign; including on increasing PPA time, introducing a ‘right to disconnect’, and addressing burnout.

“As our new campaign highlights, the retention crisis in education is now particularly acute: 10% of trainee teachers never complete their course – a figure that has doubled over the last 5 years – and almost 40% of those who qualify and go on to work in state schools quit the profession within 5 years. Something needs to be done, and we appreciated the minister’s acknowledgement of the scale of the challenge and the pressing need for action.

“We were very encouraged by our meeting with the minister, and we look forward to engaging with him further on issues affecting all our members in early years settings and schools.”