Mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on Early Years – A Rapid Review

During the first lockdown resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, early years settings closed to all but the children of key workers and vulnerable children. Early years settings remained open during the second lockdown but attendance was still below the levels seen before the pandemic. This meant that many children missed out on valuable early years education; research has shown that children who attend preschool have better outcomes even into adulthood. A good Home Learning Environment also has a significant role to play in children’s development. With children staying at home, many families had to juggle childcare, home learning and work, while dealing with financial difficulties and worries about health. This may well have impacted on the home learning environment and we know the many young children experienced an increase adverse childhood experiences (ACES) during the pandemic. This project was carried out to synthesise what we already know about the potential harms of the pandemic on young children, and identify ways to mitigate these in future crises.