Early years teaching consultation has potential to right a historic wrong
The Department for Education in England is currently consulting on potential changes to Early Years Teaching Qualifications. It is very welcome news that whichever option
Our new report is calling for stronger action across all four UK nations to strengthen qualification requirements for the early years workforce (EYW) and to establish clear career progression routes with appropriate pay and status, in order to address the current recruitment and retention crisis and drive up quality in the sector.
The recommendations form part of “It is rocket science: professionalising the early childhood workforce in the UK”, the final report from our comparative study of early years workforce policies across the four UK nations, highlighting the urgent need to improve the status and recognition of early childhood education staff.
The report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, calls for minimum entrance requirements to work in early childhood education, and as a minimum, that staff who are unqualified when starting work in the sector should be on a pathway to achieve a qualification within a set period (this is already the case in Scotland). It also states that there should be minimum entry requirements for maths, English (and Welsh in Wales) to ensure practitioners have the necessary literacy and maths skills to match the demands of the job.
In addition, the recommendations highlight the need for the current fragmented and confusing array of qualifications in all four nations to be addressed to create clearer, high-quality pathways through a career in early childhood education, with well-defined progression routes, aligned to related sectors, including teaching in primary. It also proposes linking these to national pay scales. Taken together with professional registration, the report identifies these measures as essential to improving the status and recognition of early childhood education professionals, tackling the current recruitment and retention crisis, and driving up quality across the sector.
Drawing together a review of the literature alongside interviews and focus groups with national stakeholders and interviews with international experts in early years education and childcare, the report includes insights from over 80 experts. The evidence highlights sustained challenges in recruitment, retention, remuneration, professional recognition, qualifications, and status for those working with young children.
In all four nations, a largely fragmented approach to workforce development, with a lack of a clear EYW strategy, has created a crisis that is not only felt daily by those working in early years education and care, but is also at risk of undermining the quality of early years services at the heart of providing children’s foundations to learning, development, and life.
Principal Investigator, Professor Verity Campbell-Barr, said:
“By comparing the situation in all four UK nations and drawing on international experience, we have identified examples of policies which have successfully moved the dial on early years workforce challenges, including raising qualification levels, pay and status of the workforce. While each of the four UK nations is starting in a different place, and may need to work to different timescales, we believe that all four should have the same ultimate aim of a graduate-led workforce with no unqualified staff. In return for a commitment to upskilling, professionals in the sector should be confident that they will have the same pay, status and career progression opportunities as those working in primary teaching and related fields.”
Early Education’s Chief Executive, Beatrice Merrick, said:
“We know that policymakers in all four nations are looking at how best to address current recruitment and retention challenges and to raise the quality of early childhood education provision to maximise the effectiveness of investing in this phase. This is complex and demanding work which requires an accumulation of knowledge and experience to be done well, and pay and conditions must reflect that in order to attract and keep best people, and to give every child the start in life they need and deserve.”
Programme Head for Education at the Nuffield Foundation, Eleanor Ireland said:
“The challenges facing the early years workforce are well known, and similar issues are evident across the four UK nations. This important new study sets out not only what needs to be done to tackle these entrenched problems, but recognises that a phased approach is needed to improve the quality of early years provision and secure better working conditions for educators over the longer-term.”
Available for download:
NOTES
1. The Nuffield Foundation is an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance social well-being. It funds and undertakes rigorous research, encourages innovation and supports the use of sound evidence to inform social and economic policy, and improve people’s lives. The Nuffield Foundation is the founder and co-funder of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the Ada Lovelace Institute and the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. This project has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the Foundation. Find out more at: nuffieldfoundation.org Bluesky: @nuffieldfoundation.org LinkedIn: Nuffield Foundation
2. Early Education (The British Association for Early Childhood Education) is the leading independent national charity for early years practitioners and parents, campaigning for the right of all children to education of the highest quality. Founded in 1923, it has members in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and provides a national voice on matters that relate to effective early childhood education and care of young children from birth to eight. The organisation supports the professional development of practitioners through publications, training, conferences, seminars and access to a national and regional branch network. For more information on the work of Early Education visit www.early-education.org.uk
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