Earlier this month, Nursery World reported that the Department for Education (DfE) was looking for practitioners with degrees working in good and outstanding settings to apply to become either 'mentors', 'early years experts' or 'area leads' for its leadership support and mentoring programme.
The paid-for roles require those interested to gain approval from their manager to commit to four hours per fortnight, per term for mentors and six days per term for experts to support settings they are matched with. The job description for an area lead does not specify how much time applicants will need to dedicate to the programme.
Bruce Warnes, owner of Sunflowers Day Nursery in Harrogate, whose manager is considering applying for one of the roles, said it appeared that the ‘DfE is out of touch with the realities of trying to successfully operate an outstanding setting.’
He told Nursery World, ‘I think we all welcome any initiative aimed at improving quality in the early years and sharing our best practice to help improve outcomes for children. We really want to play our part in this, but it creates a real dilemma. On one hand, this is a massive opportunity to recognise our strongest early years educators; help them be proud of what they have achieved and encourage them to support others. On the other hand, it seems that the DfE is quite out of touch with the realities of trying to successfully operate an outstanding setting right now.
‘We’re in the middle of a massive recruitment crisis; our managers are spending so much of their time keeping things safe and Covid free; staff motivation has been seriously challenged over the last couple of years and our poor Government funding hinders our ability to be competitive in the recruitment market.’
'Mentoring programmes can put additional pressures on existing teams'
The NDNA shared his concerns and called for more support for staff covering those who partake in the DfE’s programme.
Director of quality and training Stella Ziolkowski said, ‘Mentoring is an effective method for supporting the ongoing development of staff in the early years workforce. However, the current pressures around recruiting and retaining staff in the sector at the moment mean these programmes can put additional pressure on existing teams.
‘At NDNA we have successfully run coaching programmes in London before and during the pandemic and know that these have to take account of the issues settings face day in, day out. We have already heard from nurseries who are temporarily closing due to their inability to recruit and hope the Department for Education will take this into consideration when approaching early years leaders to be mentors.
‘It is also important that we see more support for back-fill of staff when training and development opportunities are supported by Government. If staff absences can’t be covered within safe and legal ratios it is important that providers are supported with the cost of covering these.’
Other criticisms of the programme expressed by users of Nursery World’s Facebook group is that it overlooks experienced practitioners who don’t hold a degree.
The Department for Education was contacted for response but did not provide one.