Welcome to the November/December issue of Under 5. This issue comes at the end of another turbulent year for the early years sector – one that has already seen five different education secretaries and three early years ministers at the Department for Education (at the time of press).
With so many challenges ahead of us, let’s hope that the new year brings at least some more stability and certainty.
To help you and your families through the difficult winter months, the Alliance has created a free Winter Toolkit filled with helpful advice parents (page 31). We’ve also heard how one early years setting has been stepping up to help support their community through the cost-of-living crisis (page 14).
We’ve also got some advice for dealing with a request for a rent increase from the Alliance’s Law- Call team to help you negotiate the best deal you can (page 24).
At this time of year, it can also be difficult to keeping healthy habits in place. We’ve heard from the ITF about how you can support families to ensure that children’s diets are remain healthy and children stay active over the festive period (page 16).
As ever, please do keep sharing your news and update with us for My Under 5 – you can reach us at editor.u5@eyalliance.org.uk.
Rachel Lawler
Editor