Last year our annual survey of more than 580 early years educators found unanimous agreement amongst respondents that they valued the opportunity to support children’s growth and development, and 99% valued making a difference to their lives.
But there were also challenges. They told us there was a lack of recognition for the value of their role. Inadequate pay and high workload piled on the pressure. However, to our surprise, two thirds of respondents said they’d recommend working in the sector to others.
The findings highlight the mismatch between the personal fulfilment of the role and constraints on the sector. It speaks to the resilience of the sector but is not sustainable without addressing the issues.
Of course funding is the most obvious area that needs addressing. But, beyond funding, what are the practical, small changes that could make a difference?
Reduce the administrative burden
Paperwork and admin eat into the time early years educators have available. Looking at how this can be reduced for instance, by streamlining documentation or using digital systems, can help.
Some practitioners are also finding AI saves time with admin tasks, and our 2025 survey found that three quarters of those using AI reported it saved them time with admin. This needs to be approached with care to ensure data privacy, statutory compliance, and also that communications remain genuinely personal. The key lies in using AI as a starting point for formatting, drafting, and organising, while ensuring human judgment always drives the final decisions.
Champion wellbeing
Creating a culture of wellbeing can involve many things from daily check-ins to birthday cards to protecting non-contact time to allow staff the all-important planning and monitoring time. But what’s important is that wellbeing is embedded into the organisation. Building collective care needs to run throughout the organisation and to be demonstrated in everything that happens from a discussion with a family member, to being a sounding board for a colleague, to shaping management decisions, setting policies, and protecting the everyday environment where staff and children thrive.
An important tool in supporting staff is offering effective supervision. There are lots of day-to-day things that may need to be covered in supervision, but it’s important to ring fence time to talk about an individual’s professional practice, workplace challenges, and future plans.
Support through apprenticeships
Embracing apprenticeships is a brilliant way to cultivate a resilient team, as it allows managers to grow enthusiastic new talent, embed the setting's core values from day one, and provide clear progression routes that naturally boost long-term staff retention.
This investment isn't just for new starters. It extends to your existing workforce too. Upskilling established staff through higher-level apprenticeships validates their expertise, opens up clear
avenues for career advancement, and shows the team that their long term growth is genuinely valued and helps in creating a culture of collective development where everyone feels supported to progress.
Clear professional boundaries
Increasing the resilience of the workforce also means a healthy work life balance which is upheld across setting. Establishing clear professional barriers and protecting non-contact time, helps educators to avoid burn out and emotional exhaustion. It also has to work at all levels. Senior staff need to walk the talk and demonstrate a healthy hours culture as well.
These small, practical changes can make a real difference to the day to day experience of early years educators. However, we cannot ignore the need for adequate funding. Across the world, governments are recognising early years education as essential social infrastructure. Countries like New Zealand have started to align early years salaries directly with state schools to reflect the true value of the profession.
We need similar forward thinking policy in the UK. Practical changes at a setting level help, but we cannot ignore the funding elephant in the room.
Ben Case is an Education Advisor at Tapestry and a former early years educator. For more information from the Tapestry survey visit: https://education.tapestry.info/surveys/
