It is fair to say that the current challenges of recruiting and retaining staff have hit an unprecedented level. It is not only a problem in nurseries and pre-schools, but childminders are leaving the sector too.
At the same time, settings are facing substantial challenges: the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, rising levels of children with SEND and the expansion of early years entitlement. Just when early years settings are needing more staff, they are struggling.
In response to this, the Department for Education (DfE) is proposing reforms to the EYFS (see Guide, overleaf). The aims of these are to help manage the staffing shortage, build better-skilled teams and offer ‘flexibility’ to managers.
It begs the question whether the DfE changes will help nursery managers build better-skilled teams and meet the demands of the expanded entitlement. Or will the move away from working towards a graduate workforce likely help or hinder quality of practice in the EYFS?
At London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), CEO June O’Sullivan believes the sector will need to take ownership of the proposed changes.
‘This is because we have asked the DfE to help us recruit staff by widening the recruitment and delegation options. We will need to articulate a balanced response that ensures quality for children is not put at risk,’ she says.
She highlights that issues such as allowing staff who do not have an approved qualification to work outside peak hours, changing the balance of Level 2 staff and dropping the maths requirement for Level 3s all need careful consideration.
‘While there are some clear positives, there are also a large number of concerns which will need addressing,’ she says. ‘This will all require a powerful pedagogical conversation, well overdue.’
OVERALL STRATEGY NEEDED
As well as bearing the consequences of all of this, the sector is also facing the huge challenge of Covid recovery. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said last year, ‘Covid-19 has caused massive disruption to education, in particular for early years settings, which received substantially less support than schools.’
As a 2021 briefing for Parliament pointed out, ‘Negative impacts on children’s development and mental health … are more likely for disadvantaged children and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), as well as vulnerable children.’
To meet this higher level of need, a better-qualified workforce is required. But are the proposed changes a step in the right direction?
At the Early Years Alliance, Michael Freeston, director of Quality Improvement, says, ‘There is currently a welcome focus on the importance of workforce development. To ensure high-quality provision for young children, it is essential that the workforce is supported to keep knowledge and skills up to date. A coherent framework of qualifications to encourage career progression is also emerging with new or revised apprenticeships at Levels 2, 3 and 5.
‘However, training and development initiatives have to be part of an overall workforce development strategy. A strategy needs to consider the “how” of training as well as the “what”. Simply offering more training fails to recognise the emotional and physical exhaustion experienced by many. All too often staff cannot raise their vision from the day-to-day to consider their training needs and career path. As such, workforce development must be considered within the wider context of a sector that is under financial stress, suffering chronic underfunding and often without enough space to reflect, train and upskill.’
PASSIONATE INDIVIDUALS
At Kido Nurseries and Pre-schools, chief operations officer Catherine Stoneman says she would openly welcome a system which recognises the true strengths of passionate individuals and takes a more nuanced approach to recognising experience in defining what makes a suitable educator.
She says, ‘We have met countless fantastic people that have been practising in nurseries for years, who do not meet the current full and relevant criteria as defined by the DfE. It falls on us to let these individuals know that, despite their passion and experience, they are considered unqualified because of a technicality. It is heart-breaking and wholly counterproductive.
‘At Kido we run nurseries in other countries where none of the staff would be deemed qualified in the UK. And yet they are fantastic teachers, and the children thrive in their care.
‘We would love to hire people who are brimming over with enthusiasm and excitement for early years excellence and not have our hands so rigorously tied by arbitrary paper qualifications.’
EFFECTIVE LEADERS
Professor Eunice Lumsden, head of Childhood, Youth and Families, University of Northampton, believes that the sector should hold fast to an aspiration for a graduate-led workforce.
She says, ‘Research continually reinforces the importance of early childhood for lifelong outcomes and the need for a highly qualified workforce. We must learn the lessons from the last 25 years and never waiver our aspiration for a graduate-led workforce.
‘We need to ensure that working in the early years is seen as a positive and rewarding career choice – the narrative must change. Reducing qualifications needed at an earlier stage in the educational journey will impact those able to progressto graduate qualifications’.
At Best Practice Network, director of Early Years Sian Marsh sees the National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL) qualification as a great CPD opportunity for aspirant leaders across the rich variety of settings. ‘At Best Practice Network we are excited to welcome our third cohort of NPQEYL programme members this autumn,’ she says. ‘They will join a community of people with passion, valuable experience and a commitment to developing excellence in the early years and to lead with impact.
‘At the end of this recruitment cycle we will be working with more than 400 early years leaders across the country.’
She says feedback from its programme members has been ‘incredibly’ positive. ‘In their evaluations they have testified to the learning materials being an asset and said that they are able to implement what they have learnt to better support their teams. They also say they have learned a great deal from the online content and from the seminars with their facilitators.’
She adds, ‘Our programme members tell us that their confidence has grown, and this is impacting on their settings.’
TIME FOR ACTION
Taking a broad view, Professor Dame Cathy Nutbrown, at the University of Sheffield and president of Early Education, laments thata lot of talking over the years has not resulted in an effective long-term strategy for the workforce.
‘When I think about all the people who make up the early years workforce, I wonder why we are still talking about qualification, remuneration, recruitment, retention and status,’ she says. ‘There has been so much talking over the decades and very little positive action.
‘Around the UK, the workforce is an issue of concern; for different reasons, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have work to do. Some of our four nations have made more progress than others to establish an effective, well-funded, long-term workforce strategy. But it is not hyperbole to say that, in England alone, we still face a deep crisis in the workforce; when settings struggle to recruit and retain appropriately qualified staff, children, their families and staff themselves suffer from a lack of continuity in effective working and learning relationships.
‘Enough talking – it’s time for long-term effective policy and meaningful, funded action. Young children deserve this right’.
Key developments in the EYFS
The extent of the staffing and recruitment crisis cannot be overstated.
The ‘Level 3 Early Years Educator Qualification Review’ (NCFE, 2022) provides a detailed report on this. It highlights:
- The decrease of qualifications in the sector: the proportion of staff in the sector without an early years qualification has risen from 17 per cent in 2020 to 21 per cent in 2023.
- Rapid staff turnover: this is put down to a lack of career coherence; pay inequalities; working conditions; and inadequate appreciation of the sector. The report states: ‘These have led to widespread feelings of educators being undervalued and discontented.’ This situation has been the case for some time but has gotten worse as funding (and demand) have expanded, yet wages have stagnated.
- Staff leaving the sector: of those who left the sector during the past year, 75 per cent said it was due to poor pay; 69 per cent said stress and burnout; and 18 per cent said poor career progression and workplace conditions.
- The lack of success of apprenticeships: in general, 47 per cent of individuals enrolled on apprenticeships drop out before their end-point assessment, so challenges in this respect are not unique to the early years.
Guide to changes
Key changes already made
- Ratio change: settings can now legally operate with a 1:5 ratio for children aged two to three years old, instead of the previous 1:4.
- Fully funded qualifications for SENCOs and the National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership.
Proposed changes
- Dropping the requirement for Level 3 EYEs to have a maths GCSE or equivalent. Only managers will need it.
- Changing the requirement that ‘at least half of all other staff must hold an approved Level 2 qualification’. The proposal is to reduce this to 30 or 40 per cent.
- Introducing an experience-based route. This will enable suitable staff who don’t hold an approved Level 3 qualification to have a pathway to gaining ‘approved status’ without having to do a new qualification. It would allow the practitioner to count within the Level 3 ratio, though it would not give them a formal qualification.
- Allowing staff who do not have an approved qualification to work outside peak hours. ‘While staff:child ratios, DBS, paediatric first aid and safety requirements would remain, staff would not need to hold an approved qualification outside of peak hours.’ (Search ‘Early Years Foundation Stage’ at consult.education.gov.uk).
- Providing a clearer summary of what Level 3 candidates must know. This includes how children learn and what they must be able to do. For example, plan activities to help children develop their communication and language.
- A clearer progression route for Level 3s who wish to develop their practice, for example, as SENCOs or managers.
- Introduce a group and school-based provider EYFS to ‘sit alongside’ a childminder-specific version of the framework, previously announced last year. (Search ‘draft for Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework’ at consult.education.gov.uk).
- Review the requirement for childminders to undertake pre-registration training.
- Allow childminder assistants to act as the key person in order to alleviate workloads for childminders.
The DfE aims to:
- offer providers more flexibility
- reduce known burdens
- enable practitioners to provide high-quality early education
- make it easier for practitioners to join the workforce and progress their careers.
CASE STUDY: Busy Bees Childcare, ‘influencing change’
Sandy Sylvester, customer service director, explains how the UK’s largest nursery group empowers staff with in-house training.
‘The core value of Busy Bees Nurseries is that all children receive the best start in life.
‘To help enable this, we provide our own training. This allows us to listen to our workforce and pursue what they require for their development.
‘We have invested in apprentices and have worked with our development coaches to create a curriculum that celebrates our core values.
‘Having our own training team enables us to influence changes within Government. Each apprenticeship standard has a trailblazer group – we are the lead on this group, so in a position to influence change.
‘Busy Bees has also invested in CPD trainers. We have five, all with at least 20 years of experience. We provide CPD for staff at all levels of experience.
‘Gathering views, assessing sector needs and undertaking research projects influences practice both locally and nationally.
‘We believe our workforce is empowered, and guides change.’
- Busy Bees offers a careers portal at busybeeschildcare.co.uk