Speaking at the National Day Nurseries Association conference last week, childcare minister Sam Gyimah confirmed changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage to make first-aid training mandatory for newly-qualified level 2 and 3 staff if they are to count in ratios.
And to huge relief from nursery leaders, he announced that the GCSE requirements of grade C and above English and Maths for level 3 Early Years Educators would be reviewed.
It feels, however, as though a lot of pain and the decimation of recruitment to college courses and nurseries could have been saved if this had never been enforced, or at least had been revised sooner. We have reported the extent of the problems several times over quite a lengthy period, including in this issue’s exclusive coverage of the PACEY FE college survey (pp4-5).
The series of U-turns over level 3 and graduate qualifications – GCSEs needed on entry, on exit etc – pointed clearly to the fact that the early years sector would have a recruitment crisis on its hands, yet government appeared to believe that would be a price worth paying in its, laudable, attempt to raise standards.
Now the challenge is to come up with alternative requirements that still encourage better levels of literacy and numeracy, and high-quality practice, whether that is revamped Functional Skills, specialist GCSEs for maths in particular or on-the-job training.
It’s a shame it will be too late for this September’s intake.