In a recent article (smalltalk (winter 2018) pg 4) Jane Alexander, CEO, Early Years Wales said when discussing the history of the organisation that
" The change to Early Years Wales is another milestone in our development as an organisation. Over the last year we have been in discussion with staff, trustees and members to define the organisation’s activities and the people that we support. The name Early Years Wales is the result."
"As Early Years Wales we continue to promote the importance of play in children’s development. We work with parents, families, day nurseries, playgroups, toddler groups, students and other agencies who have an interest in the Early Years of a child’s life. We support participation in play that benefits all generations - physical, social, creative and innovative play - that is a child’s right and results in healthy development and well-being for everyone."
"Over the past 50+ years with our support, many playgroups, day nurseries and toddler groups have been set up. We have assisted the development of many playgroups to become full day nurseries as a response to the needs of families. As our members have evolved so have we, by delivering training to the workforce and flying the kite for early years development and learning through play throughout Wales."
"We are excited to begin this next chapter and reassure you that our current activities and staffing structure will remain. However, as Early Years Wales we will be pushing more to provide the services that will support parents especially in those first few years - the first 1000 days of life. As one member of staff recently said, “I work here because I have seen the benefits that my children had from early years provision and want to enable future parents to have the same benefits.”
"So, we want to develop our services further, to reach out more to families during those very early years, support them in helping their child’s development and to access the type of pre-school provision that supports their needs. We want to prevent isolation by highlighting opportunities to network with peers and we want to support the workforce that delivers services in this age group."
"The early years, childcare and play workforce are an essential part of the lives of many thousands of children in Wales in the first 5 years of their life and we are developing our training to offer specific upskilling courses e.g. for those working with 0-2’s, we offer training to support language acquisition – look out for our training programme."
"Having said all of this, we would not be where we are now without the enthusiasm of our head office, regional teams and our members. Our staff have embraced this change and the atmosphere here has been buzzing as we move to the next stage in the life of our organisation." "All that remains to be said is, ‘thank you’ for your continued support and we look forward to working with you to achieve a positive future for all young children and their families."