When it comes to solving the recruitment crisis in the early years education sector, there is one massively untapped pool of potential recruits – men. At present only five per cent of those who work in the PVI childcare sector are male, according to the latest figures from Ceeda. While this is a higher proportion than the two per cent across the sector reported by the Government in the Early Years Workforce Strategy in April 2017, the early years workforce is clearly still vastly skewed toward women.
‘We found in general men are in post for a shorter length of time and are younger,’ says Dr Jo Verrill, managing director at Ceeda. ‘This lends weight to the idea that more men are coming into childcare recently, but it could also indicate that men come in and go out quickly. We also need to look at whether these men are working directly with children or whether they are in support roles.’
Working group
As promised in the workforce strategy, the Department for Education has set up a ‘task and finish’ group of early years stakeholders to consider gender diversity in the sector in more depth. ‘I met with [former early years minister] Caroline Dinenage last year, and was able to influence some of the proposals in the workforce strategy, and was recently invited to form a group to try to implement some of those proposals,’ says the group chair David Wright, owner of Paint Pots Nurseries in Southampton. The plan was that the 14-member group would report on the factors influencing the number of men in childcare and possible solutions to increase this by the end of 2017, but given it only met for the first time in November, it will now present the DfE with a report by April 2018.
Much of this work has already been done by the Fatherhood Institute and Men in Early Years Network. Their report, How can we attract more men into London’s Early Years workforce?, published in September 2017, set out a range of solutions, including:
- replacing the term ‘childcare’ with a more ‘professional’-sounding label, such as ‘early childhood education and care’
- lessons in schools that encourage students to reflect on gender roles, with early years courses routinely promoted to boys and young men
- social marketing strategies to reach out to individual young men
- modification of childcare courses to include gender-awareness training
- recruiting older men who have gained experience and confidence as fathers, stepfathers and grandfathers, in addition to targeting younger men
- ‘reserved’ places for males on training courses.
Mirroring the population
Of course, a workforce that mirrors the diversity of the general population gives children as broad an experience of caring adults as possible in the early years, challenging gender and other stereotypes.
‘What we really need to get clear about is why we want to get men into childcare,’ says Jeremy Davies, head of communications at The Fatherhood Institute and group deputy chair. ‘People say we need more men because boys need role models, and underneath that are notions of the male childcarer as someone who does lots of outdoor play and sport – however, there is no evidence to support the notion that male childcarers particularly benefit boys in this way. We want men in childcare because that reflects society, and because some will be really good at the job. Increasing the number of men in childcare can also boost the engagement of fathers with settings.’
Jo Warin, senior lecturer at Lancaster University and a member of the task and finish group, adds, ‘If we think we want men doing the boisterous play and women caring for the children when they fall over, we are going to reproduce gender determinism in the next generation.’
Attempts to increase gender diversity need to target public attitudes, says consultant Laura Henry. ‘There are parents who don’t want a man to change their child’s nappy,’ she says. ‘We need a PR campaign on a national level to help people understand the value men bring.’
Settings also have a duty of care to support their male workers, says June O’Sullivan, chief executive at the London Early Years Foundation. ‘As women bosses we need to feel confident to say to parents who object to a man changing a nappy, “I’m not making that distinction between male and female workers.”’
Diversity elsewhere: ethnic minorities
Other pools of talent are also not being properly utilised. Government figures show 10 per cent of early years staff are from a BME background, yet the proportion of BME children in daycare stands at 19 per cent. In her review of early years qualifications, Professor Cathy Nutbrown was concerned by how little is known about the make-up of the workforce at different qualification levels, particularly when it comes to BME practitioners. She called on the Government to conduct research on this. The workforce strategy, however, concentrates solely on the underrepresentation of men.
The Government has addressed the issue of workforce diversity in the teaching profession through the Equality and Diversity Fund, which aims to support under-represented groups in school leadership roles. The ‘protected characteristics’ that the fund aims to support are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Sexuality and gender
While many of those taking part in the programme are secondary schools, some do cover EYFS staff. Hilltop Infant School, for example, is leading a programme covering sexual orientation and gender reassignment. Its Courageous Leaders, a free programme for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or intersex teachers looking for promotion, launches in January 2018. The programme offers funded attendance to three leadership skills workshops, three personalised coaching sessions, and advice on application forms.
The fund’s objectives have not always hit their mark. According to a Centre for Research in Early Childhood analysis, ‘certain aspects were not well addressed by the DfE programme of support: there were few initiatives around SEN and disability for example,’ says Professor Chris Pascal, director of CREC. ‘However, when support was given to groups with protected characteristics as defined under the Equality Act, they were more likely to go for leadership roles.’
Sign language
After years of lobbying from equality campaigners, level 2 British Sign Language (BSL) qualifications became included as an alternative to GCSE English in January last year for apprenticeships for people whose primary language is BSL.
Campaigners, led by Early Years Equality chief executive Chrissy Meleady, said BSL-qualified candidates had been held back from pursuing careers in early years. However, BSL is not currently allowable for non-apprenticeship routes to Level 3 Early Years Educator.
DIVERSITY IN LEADERSHIP
CREC (see above) has joined forces with the Birmingham Nursery Schools Teaching Schools Alliance, funded by the Equality and Diversity Fund, to support men and those from ethnic minorities into leadership posts.
‘Certain BME groups are well-represented on the front line but don’t see themselves as ready to go for leadership,’ says Professor Chris Pascal. ‘Our programme is really about saying “you are leadership material and you should be going for this post despite the cultural stereotypes which might be blocking you”. We do a lot of work around self-e
steem and tackling imposter syndrome.’
The programme is in its third year and has supported between 30 and 40 practitioners, including Dean Robinson, nursery manager at Leigh Primary School in Birmingham (pictured). ‘The course taught me more about how to implement change in a setting,’ he says. ‘I was placed in a children’s centre, which is run completely differently from what I am used to, and was able to shadow the head.’
