Stay true to yourself

It’s funny, there has been so many otherworldly things happening that finding just one topic to focus on is hard. We have been open over the entire lockdown period, and now things are apparently easing we are back in full-scale planning mode, but with a diminished staff team (through furlough). In all of the confusion and change, my one guiding principle has been honesty.

Experience has taught me: don’t try to soften the blow; don’t say you can do things you can’t be sure you’ll honour; and be transparent with everyone who works with you. Not so easy when everything is so uncharted, but perhaps more important because of it.

The sudden announcement that schools were going to begin to reopen initially ignored the early years. It was as if a decision had been made in Whitehall and then it was left to civil servants to try and make it work, many of whom hadn’t been in a school or nursery since they attended themselves. The difficult dichotomy was: why were the protective measures that exist on the outside of our walls not needed on the inside? Why when they had to distance from their relatives was it OK for our staff to be in a room of children (albeit with fewer resources and more cleaning)?

Honesty breeds trust – even if others don’t like what you are saying (or don’t want to hear it). In a situation where no-one knows what is going on, this is all we have. The communication from central Government was pitiful – firstly in not liaising with schools and settings to talk through the planning before making the announcement, and secondly in releasing document after document which were then changed or contradicted each other. All against the media backdrop of making providers feel bad because ‘the education of children – especially the vulnerable – is at stake’. If the Government cared so deeply about the early years and schools, why have they spent the last ten years decimating the sector? The way in which this has been done is confusing, unfair and hypocritical.

So, with honesty from our leaders in short supply, we need to be more honest ourselves. We need to make our own decisions, because in all truth we cannot trust others to do it for us. Parents often don’t know what to do – so we can let them know what we honestly can do.

It might be hard, but at least I am doing what I feel is right in the face of so many hidden agendas and half-truths. To be honest – it helps me sleep at night.