October 2025 Newsletter
As the autumn term unfolds, this month’s newsletter brings together a rich mix of sector insights—spanning workforce reform, financing models, and the quiet power of everyday advocacy. These articles speak to those working at the intersection of practice, policy, and research, offering both strategic depth and emotional resonance. Whether you're leading a setting, shaping local strategy, or reflecting on daily practice, there’s something here to inform and inspire.
Featured Articles
- Advice for Early Years Providers on Recruitment & Retention – Childcare Works
- Workforce Registration: Building the Foundations – EECC
- Tracking Workforce Pressures Across Education – NFER
- Financing Review 2025 – Elevate Great
- Lessons for Academic-Policy Engagement – UPEN
- Addressing Low Pay in Early Years – PoliticsHome
- Small Acts of Advocacy – BERA
Advice for Early Years Providers on Recruitment & Retention – Childcare Works
This practical guide offers a grounded response to one of the sector’s most persistent challenges: how to recruit and retain a stable, motivated workforce. It outlines actionable strategies for inclusive hiring, staff wellbeing, and creating a positive workplace culture. The advice is tailored to the realities of early years settings, acknowledging the emotional labour and relational depth that underpin the profession.
Leadership is framed as a key driver of workforce experience—emphasizing reflective supervision, clear communication, and opportunities for professional growth. These themes will resonate with those committed to emotionally literate practice and relational infrastructure. The guide also encourages providers to see staff wellbeing not just as a moral imperative, but as a strategic priority.
Importantly, the resource doesn’t shy away from structural issues. It acknowledges the impact of low pay, limited progression routes, and policy instability on workforce morale. In doing so, it invites leaders to advocate for change while making tangible improvements within their own settings.
For those navigating workforce pressures with compassion and strategy, this guide offers both practical tools and a framework for reflection. It supports the kind of leadership that centres kindness, clarity, and long-term sustainability. 🔗 Read the full PDF
Workforce Registration: Building the Foundations – EECC
In this thought-provoking piece, Dr Nathan Archer and Dr Sara Bonetti explore the potential of a professional workforce registry for early years educators. They argue that registration—if co-designed with the sector—could elevate professional status, improve data quality, and support career progression. Drawing on international models, the article makes a compelling case for registration as a lever for reform.
Rather than presenting registration as a top-down fix, the authors frame it as a collaborative tool that must be linked to fair pay, CPD, and sector recognition. This approach will resonate with those who see reform as relational and co-constructed. The article also highlights the need for nuanced implementation, warning against tokenistic or bureaucratic approaches.
The piece invites reflection on what it means to be a professional in early years education—and how systems can support rather than constrain that identity. It also reinforces the importance of practitioner voice in shaping reform, offering a model of change that is both visionary and grounded.
For those involved in workforce strategy or sector advocacy, this article offers a roadmap for reform that honours complexity and centres dignity. 🔗 Read the article
Tracking Workforce Pressures Across Education – NFER
NFER’s announcement of an extended study into workforce pressures across England’s education system marks a significant moment for data-led advocacy. The research aims to provide granular insights into regional staffing challenges, with implications for recruitment, retention, and policy targeting in early years settings.
The study’s scope includes early years, schools, and further education—recognizing the interconnected nature of education workforce dynamics. For those working to elevate early years within broader education debates, this signals an opportunity to ensure practitioner voices are represented in national data narratives.
Importantly, the study will track changes over time, offering longitudinal insights that can inform strategic planning and funding decisions. This kind of data infrastructure supports more responsive policymaking and strengthens the case for targeted investment.
The research also invites engagement from settings and leaders who can contribute lived experience and contextual nuance. It offers a foundation for systemic change—one that must be shaped by those working closest to children and families. 🔗 Read the press release
Financing Review 2025 – Elevate Great
This rapid review compares early childhood education and care financing across ten European countries with strong child outcomes. It highlights how treating childcare as a public good—through progressive funding, universal access, and investment in workforce—can lead to better outcomes and more equitable systems.
The review is rich in comparative insight, offering models that challenge the UK’s fragmented and underfunded approach. For those advocating for structural reform, it provides a strategic resource—linking financing structures to child wellbeing, workforce stability, and social infrastructure.
Importantly, the review doesn’t just critique—it offers solutions. It outlines how countries like Sweden and France have built coherent systems that value early years work and deliver for families. These examples can inform UK policy reform and support sector leaders in making the case for investment.
The review also speaks to those interested in relational economics—how funding models reflect societal values and shape practitioner experience. By foregrounding workforce investment as a driver of quality, it invites a deeper conversation about what we value and how we build. 🔗 Read the review
Lessons for Academic-Policy Engagement – UPEN
This resource distills key lessons from early years research-policy collaborations, offering guidance for academics seeking to engage meaningfully with policymakers. It emphasizes relational approaches, timing, and clarity of messaging—principles that will resonate with those working to bridge research and practice.
The document is particularly relevant for contributors involved in research translation, policy briefings, or coalition work. It offers practical advice on how to frame findings, build trust, and navigate the policy cycle. It also highlights the importance of co-production and practitioner voice in shaping credible, impactful research.
For those crafting sector resources or engaging with decision-makers, this guide supports strategic communication and long-term relationship building. It reinforces the value of inclusive, emotionally literate advocacy and offers tools to strengthen that approach.
The resource also invites reflection on power dynamics and positionality—encouraging academics to listen, adapt, and build trust. In doing so, it supports a more collaborative and responsive policy landscape. 🔗 Explore the resource
Addressing Low Pay in Early Years – PoliticsHome
Joe Dromey’s article tackles the persistent issue of low pay in early years, arguing that it remains a critical barrier to delivering the government’s childcare ambitions. Drawing on NFER data, the piece calls for increased funding and structural reform to ensure early years roles are attractive, sustainable, and professionally rewarding.
The article is direct and data-driven, making a strong case for investment in the workforce. For those involved in local campaigning or strategic planning, it offers language and evidence to support advocacy efforts. It also situates low pay within a broader policy context—linking it to recruitment challenges, quality concerns, and gendered undervaluation.
The piece echoes themes from other newsletter articles, including the need for coherent financing and professional recognition. It invites readers to see pay not just as a budget line, but as a statement of value and a lever for change.
For those working to elevate the status of early years professionals, this article provides timely insight and a clear call to action. 🔗 Read the article
Small Acts of Advocacy – BERA Blog
This reflective blog celebrates the quiet, everyday acts of advocacy by early years practitioners. It reframes routine relational work—comforting a child, supporting a parent, challenging a stereotype—as powerful political action. The piece invites the sector to recognize and value these contributions in shaping children’s lives and challenging systemic inequities.
For those who see practice as a form of activism, this blog offers affirmation and language. It validates the emotional labour and relational depth of early years work, while urging the sector to name and claim its impact. It also invites reflection on how small acts accumulate into cultural and systemic change.
The blog’s tone is gentle yet radical—reminding readers that advocacy doesn’t always look like policy papers or protests. Sometimes it’s a moment of kindness, a refusal to stereotype, a commitment to inclusion. These acts matter deeply.
For those curating sector narratives or supporting practitioner voice, this piece offers a lens of hope and resistance. It’s a reminder that change begins in relationship—and that early years work is, at its heart, transformative. 🔗 Read the blog
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