‘It feels like a sinking ship’: inside Britain’s struggling nurseries

theguardian.com:

It is 9am and nursery manager Michelle Shaw is in her office, eating toast at her desk as a buzzer repeatedly blares. She reaches above her head to lift a phone receiver. “Push the gate,” she says between bites, as parents begin to drop off their children for the morning session. The buzzer goes again. “Push the gate,” she says. And again. “Push the gate”, “Push the gate”, her words now so rapid they are indecipherable.

Shaw has been working in early-years education for 32 years, and says she still loves her job. Petite and restless, she is constantly on the move, spotting and solving problems, responding to staff queries and requests, and engaging with parents and children – including a serious little boy clutching a handful of dinosaurs, who is forever finding his way to her cluttered office and into her arms.

This is the Central Children’s Centre on Edward Street in the north-east Lincolnshire coastal town of Grimsby, part of a chain of 13 nurseries run by an organisation called For Under Fives. Shaw’s staff work with allotted children, wearing earpieces fitted like bouncers, bags slung across their bodies to carry tablets on which they keep records and take photographs to share with families. Set in an old primary school, the nursery, with its well-worn toys, busy playground and pet guinea pig, is a vital hub for the community it serves.

In the main nursery space, a little girl with a ponytail dances to Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl, while a withdrawn boy with long hair walks around holding a large plastic butterfly. Elsewhere toys are upturned, trolleys are pushed at speed, shoes are thrown off and an old piano gets a fair bit of attention. At a table, a member of staff hands out pieces of toast to children who stand