Nursery World - Diversity in the early years workforce: new data but more is needed

Diversity in the early years is not just about a shortage of men in the workforce, says Beatrice Merrick - we need to look at whether all communities are represented too

Beatrice Merrick: 'Far less attention has been given to the issue of whether the workforce reflects the ethnicities of the children and families it supports'

Discussions about diversity in the early years workforce often focus on the lack of men.

Far less attention has been given to the issue of whether the workforce reflects the ethnicities of the children and families it supports and whether all sections of the community are equally well represented.

The Nutbrown Review in 2012 contained a recommendation on this: 'The Department for Education should conduct research on the number of BME staff at different qualification levels, and engage with the sector to address any issues identified.' This was never followed up by Government.

Today, however, we have a small step forward. The Department for Education (DfE) have published an additional table in their Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers 2019 (included below) on the proportions of staff by ethnicity for a small sample of providers.

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