Several UK companies, including the Co-op Group, today (21 May) committed to taking action following the publication of a report by the Royal Foundation's Early Childhood Education Business Taskforce which sets out the business case for prioritising early childhood education.
The Taskforce was set up by Prince Charles in March 2023 to galvanise business action on early childhood and brought together representatives from eight companies – The Co-op Group, Aviva, Deloitte, Iceland Foods, IKEA UK & Ireland, The LEGO Group, NatWest Group and Unilever UK – to identify the scale of the opportunity and the role business can play.
The Taskforce commissioned report, Prioritizing the Early Years for a Happier, Healthier Society, explains how a focus on the early years will create a happier, more productive workforce and transform the health and wellbeing of the UK economy and society for future generations.
The report finds that investing in the early years could add at least £45.5 billion to the national economy each year, including £12.2 billion from improving people's social-emotional skills in the early years, £16.1 billion from reducing the need to spend public money on remedies for adverse childhood outcomes, and £17.2 billion from supporting parents and carers of under-five children into work.
“The Co-op is proud to be a member of the Business Task Force, which aims to raise awareness of prioritizing and investing in early childhood,” said CEO Shireen Khoury-Haq.
“As a member-owned organisation with over five million members and a quarter of our 56,000 employees with caring responsibilities, we are fully committed to the work of the Case for Change report, which aims to transform the way society prioritises and supports children and their support networks during their youngest and most formative years.”
The group's efforts include expanding support to local organisations that support early childhood, such as baby banks, and encouraging people to apply for funding from the local community fund that will open in June. It also supports early childhood education at 20 primary schools under the Baby Bank Alliance and the Co-op Academy Trust, and helps raise funds for Barnardo, which focuses on young people aged 11 to 25, including young parents.
Through its unique Levy Share scheme, the group will enable like-minded partners to contribute up to 50% of unused annual Apprenticeship Levy funding and share it in a targeted way to support the delivery of apprenticeship training, as well as announcing an opening pledge of £1 million from the Business Taskforce and a commitment to raise £5 million over the next five years to set up a specific fund to support early years.
This will fund over 600 apprenticeships which will be allocated to support individuals looking to start or further their careers working with early years children and their families in a range of sectors across the UK.
In addition, the Group introduced the Royal Foundation to Midcounties Co-op, which runs 50 nurseries through its Little Pioneers business and used its experience in early childhood education to help contribute to the Group's taskforce.Little Pioneers features as one of the case studies in the report and Sally Bonner (former MD of Little Pioneers) was interviewed as part of the information gathering process.
Midcounties will also take part in seminars held by NatWest with other childcare providers and work with Lego on social and emotional development with the group's academies. The association has also pledged to donate £50,000 as part of its £1 million commitment to apprenticeship scheme LevyShare.
“The work to develop a unique levy allocation system to create an early years specific fund will provide a much needed boost and help make the early years career pathway attractive and exciting for new entrants,” Ms Khoury-Haq said. “Furthermore, extending support to early years focused community groups, such as Baby Banks, through local community funds will make a real difference in moving the early years agenda forward.”
“We hope that other companies and business leaders will also consider this Case for Change report and think about the important role they can play in helping to shape early childhood.”
The report identifies five areas where businesses of all sizes can have the greatest impact on children under five, the adults around them, the economy and society at large. These include building a culture that prioritizes early childhood and helping families access basic supports and necessities; providing parents and caregivers with more support, resources, choice and flexibility in their work; and prioritizing and nurturing the social-emotional skills of young children and the adults in their lives.
The report also says efforts to increase access to quality, affordable and reliable early childhood education and care must be supported.
“Today marks another milestone in our commitment to prioritising early childhood across society,” said Christian Guy, executive director of the Royal Foundation Early Childhood Centre. “Some of the UK's largest companies have come together to issue a powerful call on other corporate leaders to prioritise young children and their carers for the good of our society and our economy.”
“The potential is huge and we invite all businesses of all shapes and sizes to join our eight founding members, early childhood centres and Princesses and help transform the way our country supports these vital early years.”
