Nursery Management: CPD - On course

For Good and Outstanding nurseries, the availability of training for staff depends on where they are situated. This means these nurseries, which councils have no legal obligation to support, are now dependent on whether the local authorities’ head of service regards the early years as important.

Beatrice Merrick, chief executive of Early Education, says this ‘postcode lottery’ has ‘hugely different models operating’. While some local authorities still provide free or subsidised courses, others charge the full cost or are outsourcing to companies.

‘Our greatest concern is about the inconsistency,’ she says. ‘Providers have no guarantee that high-quality, reasonably priced training will be available in their area. As with any market, that tends to disadvantage the most vulnerable. We already know that the quality of PVI provision in disadvantaged areas is lower than in better-off areas, and those settings are least likely to be able to access and pay for the kind of CPD which would raise their standards. If they are barely scraping a Good Ofsted rating, they do not have a right to local authority training and support to help them improve further.’