New edition of Birth to 5 Matters launched
The Early Years Coalition has launched the updated and expanded second edition of Birth to 5 Matters (Bto5M), non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation
With the injection of public funding into provision for children under 2 years of age, many baby rooms in English nurseries are expanding at a rapid rate. In our research Achieving high quality provision in the baby room of English nurseries, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, we are helping the sector to make sense of this shift and develop a collaborative vision for quality in the baby room. Our recently published report reviews the evidence from around the world regarding how quality is defined, measured and best supported. This article focuses on what we can learn from the review and what immediate steps nurseries around the country can take, as well as recommendations for government and sector organisations such as Early Education.
A healthy body of research has explored the conditions needed to achieve quality in practice with under-2s. Most often, this research has focused on structural levers including ratios, group sizes and the qualifications held by baby room educators. Taken together, these studies show that educator qualifications do matter for quality in the baby room but baby-specific professional learning is of particular importance. That is, it is not qualifications in general that make the difference, but qualifications that support educators to develop the knowledge, skills and experience needed to help babies to thrive.
The evidence also points towards a strong connection between quality and lower group sizes and lower ratios in the baby room. While the English ratio is currently 1:3 in the baby room, we do not at the moment regulate group size or even pay it much attention. Research from around the world suggests that group size is an important factor to focus on when thinking about the best possible experiences for babies, their families and educators in the baby room. This is particularly important given the expansion of many baby rooms in nurseries at the moment.
While the statistical evidence backing up these links is important, there is also another emerging theme when we look at research on the baby room from around the world. The literature highlights the need for a clear vision of quality in the baby room that rests in turn on a shared sense of purpose. That is, we need to know why we are caring for and educating babies in nurseries before we can define and measure quality in meaningful ways. What is the ultimate purpose of the baby room? Is the focus on developmental outcomes? Or babies’ wellbeing? Or perhaps the wellbeing of families more broadly? Or does the baby room exist simply to enable parents/carers to carry out paid work? Bringing clarity to these competing agendas is needed in order to lay a foundation for high-quality provision in the baby room.
Since regulating quality depends on a shared understanding of what quality looks and feels like in the baby room, government has a key role to play in providing clarity in relation to purpose and developing a collaborative sector-led vision of high-quality provision in the baby room. We don’t need to start from scratch; we can learn from countries around the world – such as New Zealand – that have put a co-created vision of quality at the centre of everything they do.
The government can support high-quality provision in the baby room through ensuring that we have the right professional learning in place for educators. We need a new (and funded) qualification pathway that values the baby room and its specific practices.
Finally, we are suggesting that it is time for the government to consider regulating group size for babies. There is enough evidence to show the importance of small group size on babies’ and educators’ experiences. Of course, this needs to be done in consultation with the sector to ensure that any new requirements around group size work with what is feasible for nurseries.
Training and advocacy organisations have such an important role to play in co-creating a bottom-up and multi-perspective vision of quality. They can enable educators to come together and share what quality in the baby room looks and feels like to us.
We also see a fundamental role for these organisations in fostering and designing new qualification pathways that adequately value practice with babies and recognise the specific experiences, knowledge and skill required to thrive in the baby room as an educator.
We recommend that nurseries do not wait for the government to develop guidance or requirements in relation to group size. Nurseries can act immediately by opening multiple baby rooms with small group sizes (under 8 babies), or if this is not possible, by clustering babies and educators into smaller groups within the existing baby room.
Nurseries also need to develop clear plans for supporting staff in the baby room, which recognise the particular demands, challenges and requirements that arise when we work with this age group. Nurseries can spotlight the baby room when thinking about recruitment, retention, working conditions and progression. They also need to support staff in the baby room to access high quality professional learning that specifically engages with the very youngest children.
Dr Mona Sakr is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at Middlesex University. Together with Dr Sara Bonetti and Kayla Halls, Mona leads the project Achieving high quality provision in the baby room of English nurseries, which has been funded by the Nuffield foundation to drive forward a sector-led vision of quality in the baby room and develop a framework for improvement.
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