The early years workforce is fundamental to delivering a high quality experience for children in the early years. Yet the workforce is undervalued, underpaid and lacking opportunities to progress in terms of qualifications and careers.
We work to highlight existing challenges and campaign for solutions relating to:
See links below for details of our current research into early years workforce policy across the four UK nations.
Our new report is calling for stronger action across all four UK nations to strengthen qualification requirements for the early years workforce (EYW) and to
Early Years Workforce in the four UK nations (EYW4N) Final Report It IS rocket science: professionalising the early childhood workforce in the UK (November 2025)
Early Education has released an interim report of its comparative study of early years workforce policies across the four UK nations. It finds common challenges
