Suffolk school representatives warn county council committee that teachers are having to change nappies, with young children facing ‘significant challenges’

A Suffolk County Council body has heard that young children are facing major challenges, with teachers regularly having to change nappies and up to 40 per cent of three-year-olds not properly toilet-trained.

School representatives told the education and children’s services scrutiny committee that children are facing significant challenges at the ‘most critical time.’

Earlier today, the committee got to hear about some of the issues early years education providers are facing.

Although the meeting focused on school readiness, which describes how prepared a child is to succeed in school, a range of issues were also brought up.

One of the issues raised was the lack of specialist provision in Suffolk, coupled with a lack of resources available to early years facilities.

Sophie Conway, leader at The Play Pit Day nursery, said: “We sent three children into school in September who really needed specialist provision and it’s just not there.

“We don’t have the time, we don’t have resources, we don’t have the staff, and we can’t recruit.”

In Suffolk, the number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) — the documents describing the special educational needs of anyone under 25 — has risen by 9.5 per cent between January 2022 and 2023, to just over 6,950.

The lack of specialist provision, Ms Conway added, is made worse by some schools that do not actively participate in children’s transition period into school life, when their needs, and how to address them, are usually made known.

The added resource pressures, driven by the cost-of-living crisis, the committee has heard, are also affecting the way parents interact and prepare their children for school, which then translates into the strain educators are experiencing.

Maria Kemble, executive head at two primary schools in Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury, said the financial hardships, which began through the pandemic, are affecting children at the ‘most critical time’ in their development.

She explained: “In the cost-of-living crisis, if there are two parents in a home, they are probably working several jobs, or shifts, which means they are really single-parenting a lot of the time.

“Families are materially okay but are time-poor — we haven’t seen the full impact of the pandemic on our youngest children yet.”

This, she says, is apparent in the way devices have taken over the ways in which children play and grow, with the job of parenting further outsourced to technology and educators.

Ms Kemble continued: “It’s quite worrying that we seem to have a generation of parents who genuinely do not know how to play with their children.”

The committee heard, for instance, that educators were having to change nappies regularly, with as many as 40 per cent of children aged three not secure in their toilet training.

In addition to this, the shift in parenting has also left Mark Girling, executive headteacher at two junior schools in Felixstowe, with worries over children’s speech and language attainment.

He said: “There’s a blurring between what is school responsibility and what is parents’ responsibility.

“At its absolute best, it’s a partnership, but there’s a blurring and a changing of expectations.”

The council heard a range of recommendations which include increased lobbying for better funding for early years education, and further partnership between local institutions.

Cllr James Reeder, cabinet member for children and young people’s services, said: “A child’s journey into the world of learning starts long before they cross the threshold of the school — children’s first years of life are vitally important in shaping how they will engage in learning.”

“I am committed to seeing that children in Suffolk receive the best possible education that allows them to fulfil their ambitions.”