Men are a clear under-represented group within early years education and childcare, and discriminatory practice is commonplace. Yet the UK’s poor record on male-inclusive recruitment and retention in the sector has been allowed to continue for well over a quarter-century, and there has been little effort from successive Governments to address these challenges. This problem … Continue reading Why isn’t the UK doing more to recruit male early years practitioners?

In 1998 England’s early years workforce was 2% male. The figure is now 3% (Source: Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers (2021) summarised on page 82 of this DFE report). So 2023 marks 25 years of almost no progress – at a national level at least – towards a more gender-diverse early years sector. … Continue reading Still at 3%: a quarter-century of inertia