Ofsted highlights early years workforce crisis in annual report

It finds that nurseries and pre-schools are having to either use agency staff and apprentices to maintain child to staff ratios, or cut the number of childcare places they offer.

In 2023, one in five staff was unqualified compared with one in seven in 2018, according to the report.

Ofsted cites a number of reasons for the difficulty in recruiting qualified staff, including low wages, perceived low status, poor working conditions and limited opportunities for professional development.

The challenges of recruiting staff have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and there are recruitment and retention issues across education and social care.

In schools, Ofsted said staff shortages are cutting expert teaching, increasing stress, limiting intervention when children struggle, and creating a barrier to teachers accessing training and development.

The annual report looks back at findings from inspection and regulation during the last academic year, between September 2022 and August 2023.

Key early years and childcare findings

• Ofsted carried out 12,300 full early years inspections this year and found that 85 per cent were good or outstanding.
• Childminders were more likely to be good or outstanding than nurseries and pre-schools.
• Of the inspections carried out this year 40 per cent were previously judged outstanding, and 79 per cent previously judged outstanding kept the same grade.
• However, 8 per cent that were previously judged outstanding fell to requires improvement or inadequate.
• Childminder numbers have halved in the past 10 years, from 55,300 in 2013 to 27,000 at year end.

Sector challenges

Ofsted said that the shortage of experienced and qualified staff can affect the quality of children’s learning and the training and support that settings can give to less experienced practitioners.

The report said, ‘On inspection, we found that providers often have to use agency staff to maintain required ratios. This means that children may not have a consistent key person who knows them and understands their needs. Some providers have scaled down their provision, reducing the number of children they can care for.

‘The proportion of inspections that resulted in good or outstanding judgements this year shows that many providers are doing a good job of managing the workforce challenges. However, if experienced and qualified staff continue to leave, this may have a detrimental effect on quality in the future.’

The report also highlights the fall in places, with the largest drop in full-time childcare places.

It said there is a shortage of childcare places in many areas, leaving some parents with limited or no childcare. Local authorities say that the reasons for nursery closures include difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified staff, and rising costs.

Parents also increasingly want weekend, evening and overnight childcare, as well as longer days and greater flexibility, which ‘puts further pressure on places', Ofsted said.

Both the National Day Nurseries Association and the Early Years Alliance said they were hugely concerned about the fall in qualifications among early years staff revealed in the report.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, ‘Settings need to be able to attract and retain staff, but cannot do this unless the funding shortfall is addressed.

‘The state of recruitment, [and] retention for the sector continues to undermine efforts to deliver the promised expansion in funded places. Inspectors must ensure they take the workforce pressures into consideration when inspecting nurseries.’ 

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said, ‘Ofsted is absolutely right to highlight the effect of ongoing recruitment and retention challenges on the early years, and the long-term detrimental impact that these are likely to have on quality.

‘If we are to ensure that all children get the best possible start in life, then it’s vital that government makes tackling the early years staffing crisis an urgent priority. The current situation simply isn’t sustainable.’

Broken social contract between parents and schools

In her final report as chief inspector, Amanda Spielman said that the ‘unwritten agreement’ between parents and schools in England has broken since the Covid pandemic.

Spielman highlighted ‘a troubling shift’ in attitudes towards education since the pandemic, with a rise in absenteeism in schools and disruptive behaviour, which is affecting teachers and pupils.

‘The pandemic, with all its disruptions, has of course overshadowed this period and left a troublesome legacy,' she said. 'This is evident not just in the educational and developmental gaps that some children are still struggling with – but also in a fracturing of the traditional social contract between schools and families. We see its impact in lower school attendance, poorer behaviour and friction between parents and schools. Restoring this contract is vital to sustaining the progress we’ve seen.’

Spielman, who steps down next month after seven years as chief inspector also highlighted how her time as chief inspector has coincided with pressure on budgets that have impacted Ofsted.

• Download Ofsted's annual report for 2022-23.