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Stephen Morgan MP and Bridget Phillipson MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Dear Stephen Morgan MP and Bridget Phillipson MP
RE: Group Size in the Baby Room of English Nurseries
With the continued expansion of the early education entitlement in September 2025, it is essential that we keep our focus on the quality of babies’ experiences in nursery and ensure that expansion does not come at the expense of these formative years.
In recent research on achieving high-quality provision in the baby room of English nurseries, involving more than 300 baby room educators and nursery managers and reaching over 5,000 babies, we see that group size in the baby room varies significantly from one nursery to the next. While some nurseries keep their baby rooms small, with 12 babies or fewer, other nurseries have a baby room containing 30 babies and 10 adults.
Global evidence demonstrates that large group sizes in the baby room are correlated with reduced safety and poorer interactions. The reasons for this link are clear and evidence-based: when babies are in too large a group, they struggle to build deeper relationships with particular adults who know and can respond to their specific cues. They also miss out on vital speech and language experiences because of being in a noisier and more chaotic environment. All the evidence points towards poorer developmental outcomes, across all domains, when larger group sizes are permitted. Simply put, if babies could talk, they would tell us they need quieter and more intimate spaces.
Large baby rooms are not just a difficult experience for babies; they also impact negatively on staff wellbeing and, ultimately, retention. The higher the turnover in the baby room, the less continuity babies and families experience. Everyone suffers.
We, the under-signed, are calling for the introduction of new regulation to keep group size for 0-2 year olds to a maximum of 12 babies per room.
We understand that nurseries are operating in a difficult climate at the moment. Nurseries often want to do the right thing by babies – and understand that limiting group size is integral to this – but they also want to respond to the increased demand for babies’ places and keep costs low.
Responding to this context, regulation of group size in the baby room would need to be introduced in a phased way. Modest capital support would help nurseries to reconfigure their spaces to operate with multiple, smaller baby rooms rather than one overly large baby room.
We, like you, believe that positive change is possible and we thank you for the work you are doing for the early education and care sector. We would welcome further conversations on this matter.
Kind regards,
The under-signed
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