'Looks like a sinking ship': At struggling UK nurseries

It's 9 a.m. and daycare director Michelle Shaw is in her office, eating toast at her desk as a buzzer sounds repeatedly. She reaches above her head to lift a telephone receiver. “Push the door,” she says between bites, as parents start dropping off their kids for the morning session. The buzzer starts again. "Push the door," she said. And even. "Push the door", "Push the door", his words now so fast they are indecipherable.

Shaw has worked in early childhood education for 32 years, and says she still loves her job. Small and restless, she's constantly on the move, spotting and solving problems, answering staff questions and requests, and engaging with parents and children - including a serious little boy holding a handful of dinosaurs, who always finds his way to her cluttered desk and into his arms.

This is the Central Children's Center on Edward Street in the coastal town of Grimsby, northeast Lincolnshire, which is part of a chain of 13 nurseries run by an organization called For Under Fives. Shaw staff work with children spread out, wearing headphones fitted like bouncers, sling bags to carry tablets on which they keep records and take photos to share with families. Located in a former elementary school, the nursery, with its well-worn toys, bustling playground and guinea pig, is a vital center for the community it serves.

In the In the main space of the nursery, a little girl with a ponytail dances to Billy Joel's Uptown Girl, while a withdrawn boy with long hair walks around holding a large plastic butterfly.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 knocked over, carts are pushed around, shoes are thrown around and an old piano draws attention. At one table, a staff member distributes toast to the children who are eating in silence around the table. Some will not have had breakfast.

There are constant and calm exchanges between the staff. Who needs to change? Who stumbled upon it? Was the accident recorded? Can you check those blues? Some of the children are vulnerable, their families affected by poverty, drug addiction and domestic violence. It's the kind of work that's hard to leave behind at the end of the day. "I worry about them," says a staff member.

They also see firsthand the impact of lockdowns and social isolation on children's development . Speech and language are delayed, more children seem to have special educational needs, they take longer to get rid of nappies - some still aren't proper at four years old - and many of them struggle to learn to play with their peers. Shaw worries about some of them just...