Adding weight to growing support for pedagogues to lead the sector, the trust said 60 per cent of the childcare workforce should be trained to graduate level as pedagogues, with a salary and benefits matching those of primary school teachers. The remaining 40 per cent should be assistant pedagogues with level-3 qualifications.
The trust laid out its vision in its response to the DfES consultation on the Children's Workforce Strategy. Although it commended the publication of the strategy, it expressed concern that the plan 'is not ambitious enough in its longer-term goals and does not set targets for a highly skilled and highly qualified workforce across the entire early years sector'.
Beth Reid, campaigns and public affairs officer at the Daycare Trust, said, 'We need to look at a range of different models for the workforce. Pedagogy is one that is very helpful and is widely used in other countries.
'After a two-year phase of mapping and course development, the first graduate-level pedagogues could be trained in four years. We need to be ambitious and we feel this is a goal to work towards.'
The trust also raised concerns over the introduction of an Ofsted-run voluntary approval scheme for childcarers caring for children aged over five.
Ms Reid said, 'We are worried that the move would dilute the message that quality childcare is important. The system should be simple for parents to understand, but the development of a two-tier system could mean parents cannot distinguish between accredited and registered childcarers.'
The trust also said the proposed 125m a year Transformation Fund was not large enough. According to its accountants' calculations, the fund would need to double to about 210m-320m a year.
Download the full response from www.daycaretrust.org.uk.