January 2022 Parenta magazine

CEO of the London Early Years Foundation (the UK’s largest
charitable social enterprise) explains WHY the Government
must bridge the attainment gap for disadvantaged children
through an urgent reform of 30-hours nursery policy
When the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) saw its most vulnerable children arriving at nursery
hungry, anxious and developmentally-delayed as a result of lockdowns and the impact of living in poverty
(exacerbated by the pandemic), we set up the Doubling Down programme in October 2020. This coincided
with our Prime Minister asking leaders to come to Government with ideas to solve problems and improve
local services using a place-based response.
Click here to watch June O’Sullivan’s TedX Talk video “How nurseries tackle the injustice of poverty”.
Our idea was to double the funded hours
available to children from poor and
disadvantaged backgrounds by increasing
the standard funded 15 hours to 30 hours
and also provide a proper cooked lunch.
We targeted children returning from the
pandemic whose development had been
really set back. We know that high quality
nursery education can help make a real
difference to small children and get them
into a position where they can thrive at
home and at school. So, it seemed logical
that we should provide 30 accessible
hours for them.
Between October 2020 and July 2021,
97 children were offered an additional 15
hours at nursery each week.
It also seemed a sensible approach
given the concern that so many children,
especially those from disadvantaged
families, were badly affected cognitively
and socially by the lockdown.
Organisations such as the Education
Endowment Foundation appeared to
confirm our concern.
Their survey of schools and parents
completed in May 2020 found that
children who started school in autumn
2020 needed more support than in
previous years. The findings suggest
that the greatest area of concern
was communication and language
development, in which 96% (55 out of
57) of schools said they were either “very
concerned” or “quite concerned”.
Close behind were personal, social and
emotional development (91%) and literacy
(89%) – skills which are heavily reliant
on the development of strong speech,
language and communication abilities.
Funded by generous donations from
Permira Foundation and Barclays 100 x 100
COVID-19 UK Community Relief Fund (plus
our own public crowd funding campaign
which is still on-going), analysis from
Doubling Down research found:
• Over 70% of parents and staff
saw a positive impact on their
child’s communication skills, social
development and behaviour
Percentage of children at expected level of development
across EYFS areas of Learning & Development
Physical Development
Expressive Arts & Design
Personal Social &
Emotional Development
Communication & Language
Literacy
Understanding the World
Mathematics
0%
+9
+7
+12
+7
+3
+9
+8
Pre
Post
20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
• A profound positive impact on the
mood, sleep, empathy, school
readiness and nutritious eating
amongst children
• A reduction in the amount of screen
time, especially as many of the
children had spent months living
in high rise flats with no access to
a garden or opportunities to play
outdoors
The external evaluation of the ‘Doubling
Down’ programme conducted by Rocket
Science (between October 2020 to July
2021) also highlighted improvement
across ALL seven areas of EYFS learning
and development by an average 8%. The
largest improvement was a +12% increase
in Communication and Language (from
57% to 68%), followed by +9% across
Mathematics (from 52% to 61%) and
Expressive Arts & Design (from 67% to
76%).
Staff noted that by the provision of the
extra hours at nursery also significantly
benefitted parents, many of whom were
caring for children with Special Educational
Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Staff morale
also benefited because they felt they had
more time to support vulnerable children’s
learning and development effectively.
This is super important as many staff are
reeling from the recruitment shortage
and constructive feedback is the tonic. It’s
imperative that they feel optimistic and
confident about the significant part they
play in making a positive difference to
each child.
Disappointingly, it came as no surprise
that our Childcare Minister was not
a fan of Doubling Down. He thinks
30-hours risks children not benefitting
from the Government’s own policy of 30
hours. Quoting the SEED Impact Report
from February 2020, the Minister and
his advisers seem overly focused on a
very small negative effect on children’s
emotional self-regulation among children
using nursery for more than fifteen hours
per week between the age of two and the
start of school.
The research noted a very small
unfavourable association between formal
Early Childhood Education and Care
(ECEC) use and children’s socioemotional
outcomes but contrasted with the largely
positive associations, the impact was
negligible and the researchers wondered
whether the reasons for these
unexpected differences lay in the source
of the socio-emotional measures. The
age four socio-emotional measures were
derived from parent report, whereas the
later outcomes were derived from teacher
report. The question will be considered at
age seven in a later SEED report.
The Sutton Trust’s recent report. ‘A Fair
Start – Equalising Access to Early Education’
and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) both
argue for extending the 15-hours funded
places to children from disadvantaged
backgrounds. The estimated cost of
universalising the 30-hour entitlement
would raise spending by around £250
million in 2024–25. Extending the
entitlement to disadvantaged three-and
four-year-olds would cost an extra £165
million a year. This is compared to the
roughly £735 million that the existing 30-
hour entitlement will cost. But the benefits
and the return on the investment would be
significant.
Our research provides a strong message
to both the Government and to global
investors, and demonstrates that we need
to think carefully about how we respond
to the fast-emerging problems we are
seeing across the country as a result of
the pandemic. We clearly need to reverse
the alarming decline in the health, wellbeing
and education amongst our young
children. Access to these crucial extra
Government funded hours is benefitting
children now and can actually help them
level up and reduce the attainment gap
that emerges from 22 months in children
from disadvantaged backgrounds. Doing
nothing is simply not an option.
So, back to Boris and his call for leaders
to provide examples of good practice
which we can learn from and drive
levelling-up and systemic change. Failure
to close the attainment gap continues to
have devastating consequences for the
1.3 million children aged 0-5 who live in
poverty. Just look at the most recent report
about disadvantaged white pupils.
Our Secretary of State for Education,
Nadhim Zahawi must put his money where
his mouth is. He is right when he says
June O’Sullivan
June O’Sullivan MBE is Chief Executive of
the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF),
one of the UK’s largest charitable childcare
social enterprises which currently runs 39
nurseries across twelve London boroughs.
An inspiring speaker, author and regular
media commentator on early years, social
business and child poverty, June has
been instrumental in achieving a major
strategic, pedagogical and cultural shift
for the award-winning London Early Years
Foundation, resulting in an increased
profile, a new childcare model and a
stronger social impact over the past ten
years.
@juneosullivan
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn
“… you don’t tackle inequality and poverty
unless you tackle education.”
https://leyf.org.uk/doubling-down/
26 January 2022 | parenta.com
parenta.com | January 2022 27