You Only Get One Chance at This | Neil Leitch on Best Beginnings

Neil Leitch has spent decades fighting for the early years sector to be taken seriously. As CEO of the Early Years Alliance, the largest early years membership organisation in England, he has seen what happens when families don't get the support they need in the earliest years of life and what changes when they do.In this episode we talk about a freedom of information request that took two and a half years to win and revealed that in 2021 the Department for Education calculated it would cost £7.49 per hour to properly fund early years provision for three and four year olds. Today providers receive around £5.60. Less than the government's own figure, four years on, after double digit inflation and rising costs.We also talk about why 77% of early years educators who leave the sector say they feel undervalued by government, what real education actually looks like, why every child has talent but not every child has opportunity and why the earliest years are the single most important period we consistently underinvest in.Subscribe to Best Beginnings wherever you listen to podcasts and if you know someone who needs to hear this, share it with them.