Acute Shortage Of Nursery Teachers In Yorkshire & Humber Claim

Tuesday, 1 November 2016 07:00

A new report by Save the Children highlights a shortage of trained nursery teachers across Yorkshire and the Humber, leading to calls for the government to invest urgently in the sector.

The charity warns that more than 1,700 independent nurseries in the region don’t have a qualified nursery teacher, leaving more than 21,000 children at greater risk of falling behind by the time they reach school – and staying behind throughout their lives. While all nurseries have staff who are trained to care for children, not all have a qualified early years teachers among their staff.

Research commissioned by the charity found that children in independent nurseries without an early years teacher are almost 10% less likely to meet the expected levels of development when they start school compared to children who do have a teacher, leaving them struggling with basic skills like speaking full sentences, using tenses, and following simple instructions. Children who start behind are also more likely to stay behind throughout their school years and beyond into their work lives.

Gareth Jenkins, Director of UK Poverty at Save the Children said: “It’s incredibly worrying that so many children in England are at risk of falling behind by the time they start school when we know they don’t have to be.”

“As a country, we need to start recognising that if we want to give every child the best chance in life – no matter what their background – they must have the support they need to learn, grow and develop in the early years of their lives.”

Yorkshire and the Humber
Local authority	% of children in an independent nursery without an early years teacher
Kingston Upon Hull, City of	82
Rotherham	67
Barnsley	61
Bradford	60
Kirklees	52
North Lincolnshire	50
York	50
Doncaster	50
North East Lincolnshire	49
North Yorkshire	49
East Riding of Yorkshire	48
Wakefield	46
Leeds	46
Sheffield	35
Calderdale	28

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