The biggest issue that we’re hearing from settings at the moment is that staff are finding life in setting pretty tough.  This is taking many forms – some due to child behaviour, some due to the number of children presenting with potential SEND and some to do with staff’s own wellbeing.  Unfortunately we don’t have a magic wand to rustle up additional support or funding to make things easier (and we’re pretty sure you don’t either!) but this blog is firstly to say that if this is you, you’re not alone, and secondly to suggest a few practical things that you can try if you haven’t already!

The cohort of children who are now in Early Years settings have undoubtedly been affected by the pandemic.  In their ‘Best start in life Part 1’ document the government say:

“Children in early years settings today will have spent a good proportion of their lives in the pandemic. They have had fewer opportunities for social interaction beyond their immediate family because of lockdowns and social restrictions. Our research into education recovery in early years providers found that these children’s communication and language skills were not as strong as those of previous cohorts. Their social skills, such as turn-taking and sharing with other children, were also less developed.”

While recognising this doesn’t make dealing with the behaviour any easier, at least we can see where some of it is coming from.  The behaviours and opportunities that these children had in the first months and years was so significantly different from what came before that we almost need to start from scratch with our assumptions and expectations.  It’s also important to remember that every child’s experience of the pandemic, and therefore it’s impacts were different.  Some children benefited from parents on furlough with lots of time to spend in the garden or doing activities with them, some children were effectively locked in flats with no outside space and some families experienced extreme stress.  There is no one common experience, except that life changed.

So if we need to accept that these are children with a completely different early experience, maybe we need to have more flexibility in our thinking about where children ‘should be’.  At the PATA Managed Group inset day back in September, our staff attended training with Tamsin Grimmer on ‘Terrific Two’s’.  At the time some staff probably wondered why they were doing it as they only work in a preschool room, but we know that some of the behaviours we would usually expect in 2 year olds are presenting in the older children.  (You can book a similar course with Tamsin here: www.pataglos.org.uk/event-5327393).  Having the tools to deal with this can help reduce frustration and reframe our thinking on the children that we’re working with.

We can’t get away from the fact that many settings are telling us (including our own PMGs) that more and more children are presenting with what appear to be specific SEN needs.  There’s lots of thinking about why this is, including that we’re just better at identifying them earlier.  We know that there are huge issues in being able to access the support and funding that is really required, and frustration at the level of paperwork required to even get started on this road.  There is some good news – in Gloucestershire we understand that the Educational Psychology team are re-engaged with Early Years and there is an Educational Psychology Services (EPS) daily help line available from 9:30 to 12:30pm on 01452 427070.  We also have various training courses and if there’s something that you are looking for but we aren’t offering, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do.

We sometimes get asked about setting admissions policies to limit the number of children with SEN in a setting and while we understand fully why you might want to do this, we would recommend exercising caution.  You need to balance the right to inclusion against the needs of your existing children and your staff.  Inclusion should always be the first priority and your ‘ordinarily available provision’ should show that you will truly consider the needs of each child and try wherever possible to provide a space for them.  Very occasionally though you may have to say no.  This could be because of a physical barrier – e.g. some settings in older buildings with multiple floors would struggle to accommodate a child in a wheelchair – although you should consider if you can move things around enough to allow this to happen, or occasionally you might need to suggest looking for other provision where the balance of children with e.g. 1:1 support means that you cannot accommodate any more.  We know of one setting who in a cohort of 28 had 6 children who required 1:1. Obviously having an additional 6 adults in the room is going to affect the provision and so either you would need to limit the number of sessions so that all children get some space, or you would help the family to access other local provision. It can also be helpful to ‘spread the load’ with your staff – if a child needs 1:1 support (especially where you don’t have funding) assign different people at different times to support them.  Being 1:1 for a whole day can be incredibly draining and it can be good for a child to have a different approach at different times.

If you are in a position where you are having to make decisions such as this then you must note down objectively why you are making the decision that you are.  This will help you to explain to the parents and also provide evidence of the rationale for your decision.

So what can we do to help staff to keep going?

Reassure that it’s not just them: we’re hearing the same things from many settings and staff that we speak to.

Reset expectations: being realistic about the situation now (and not thinking back to how things have been in the past) can be really helpful in creating a positive environment.

Refresh training to give staff tools to handle the situations that they are in: feeling confident and supported goes a long way to building a strong team.

Reflect – it’s easy to get so head down that you forget the good stuff.  Look for the ‘inch-stones’ instead of the milestones and celebrate the successes however small they might be.

Relax – try and make sure that all staff are sharing the load and getting the time out that they need.  Sometimes someone just needs a few minutes of quiet or a cup of tea and they’re ready to re-set.  Make sure you have a culture of switching off at the end of your working day and encouraging other staff to do the same.

Our last blog in October was about staff wellbeing and highlighted some tools that you can signpost staff to which will support their mental health and general wellbeing.  We strongly recommend having a look at what is available and maybe having some info up in your setting that everyone can access. 

We put a lot of focus on building the resilience of children in our settings but we need to ensure that our staff teams also have tools to help themselves. We know that many people are finding things tough both in and out of work so anything we can put in place to support our staff teams is invaluable.  Let us know if there’s anything that you think PATA could do to help!