Just when we thought we’d had enough challenges, with more Covid-19 cases, rising energy prices, and three different Education Secretaries in two days, we had to face the hottest temperatures ever recorded across the UK with our young children. Never before have my fingers felt so scorched by so many hot potatoes in a single year.
The heatwave required early years leaders to balance a range of different needs and interests. Difficult decisions require a clear head, yet the run-up to the heatwave was a noisy and anxious time. There were reports about schools and early years settings deciding to close. Alarming claims were made about the risks to children and to health.
It is hard to think clearly when there is so much clamour. We know that young children are not always able to regulate their temperature. But, in the community I work in, many children live in very cramped, poor-quality rented flats with little or no shade or outside space. Where families of five are in a one-bedroom flat, children will be safer, and cooler, in their nursery, cared for by trained staff including paediatric first-aiders.
Similarly, many families are desperately short of money. When a nursery closes with little or no notice, or cuts short its hours, that can lead to parents missing work. Families’ circumstances get even more precarious.
We also heard from families who were told to pick up their children in the middle of the day, when the temperature was hottest. Walking or taking the bus in the sweltering London heat was almost certainly more risky to the children than staying in nursery.
However, this was also a time to trust parents’ good sense and judgement. Some parents knew that after a sleepless night, their children would be miserable in nursery.
The heatwave has raised some much bigger issues. Firstly, the quality of the building stock in the early years and school sectors is poor – often too cold in winter, and too hot in summer. Our poor buildings require levels of heating which are fast becoming unaffordable. The amount of gas we are using is creating the very conditions that drive further climate change. We urgently need government investment to improve building standards, increase energy efficiency, and support the shift away from gas boilers and diesel or petrol-powered cars.
Secondly, if we think we are having a tough time now, let’s spare a thought for the future of the small children we are responsible for. We need fewer words and more action on the climate emergency.
