There’s little doubt that the early years sector is facing a crisis in terms of both recruitment and retention, but there are likely to be multiple contributing factors involved. I want to begin by exploring some of these factors and sharing thoughts and considerations around emerging concerns in the workforce, and how best to approach them.
A recruitment and retention crisis leads to an inevitable skills gap in the workforce. With any large turnover of staff, there are implications for stability, and this may equate to vulnerabilities in leadership and management.
Put bluntly, staff joining are not staying. Where they are staying, they are taking up management and leadership positions with little post-qualification practice, whilst more experienced staff are the ones that leave.
Quality interactions with babies and young children are essential for their holistic health, development, and wellbeing, and this is reliant on strong pedagogical leadership and modelling. To reduce this leadership gap, the sector must take action to ensure it continues to appeal as an exciting and rewarding career with clear opportunities for progression.
As far back as 2004, Sylva et al conducted the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project. They concluded that effective pre-school provision settings that have staff with higher qualifications have better quality scores, and their children make more progress by the end of Key Stage 1.
Quality indicators included warm interactive relationships with children, having a trained teacher as a manager, and a good proportion of trained teachers as part of the staff. Where settings view educational and social development as complementary and equal in importance, children make better all-round progress.
Between 2007 and 2011, the proportion of full-time day care staff with at least a Level 3 qualification in early years increased from 72 per cent to 84 per cent. The proportion of staff holding a degree or higher qualification also increased from 4 per cent to 11 per cent.
In 2007, the Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) launched as a route for career progression within the sector and for talented, well-trained graduates to enter the profession. Statistics shared by the Department for Education (DfE) in 2013 identified 11,000 people holding Early Years Professional Status.
The DfE’s More Great Childcare report in 2013 also highlighted that Early Years Professionals were having a positive impact on the quality of early education and care for pre-school children. But that was all a decade ago, and I wonder where these leaders are now, and just how many are still in practice.
Despite the challenges, there have been signs for hope. When we compare early years to social care, for example, the skills gap over the last five years has not grown at anywhere near the speed we have seen in that sector.
More recently, in 2020, Dr Verity Campbell-Barr, from the University of Plymouth, and Dr Sara Bonetti, from the Education Policy Institute – funded by the Nuffield Foundation – undertook research to analyse the full range of early years degrees and the respective employment trajectories of graduates. It provided a rich understanding of early years degrees in England, as well as bringing forth a deeper understanding of the early years workforce in support of high-quality services.
October 2021 then saw the introduction of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) in early years leadership. These are prestigious professional qualifications that are already widely recognised by the school sector and are now available for early years practitioners, whether they work in private, voluntary or independent nurseries, school-based nurseries, or as childminders.
This programme intends to support practitioners, teachers, and leaders to develop expertise in leading high-quality education and care, as well as effective staff and organisational management. It will hopefully address some of the emerging gaps and support the workforce as they build and model strong leadership.
At NCFE, we’re always looking for ways to better support the workforce. Our Education and Childcare team will soon be launching a Professional Practice Framework (PPF) which will be a self-serving CPD tool, free at the point of access.
The PPF will cover all areas identified by the Early Years Statutory Framework, with CPD resources arranged into discreet starting points to include student, newly qualified, and experienced practitioners. By using the PPF, setting managers and regulatory bodies alike will be able to appreciate staff experience.
As well as making sure early years remains an exciting and rewarding career option, both for young learners starting out and those with transferable experience, we must do more to retain the most experienced and skilled staff we already have.
Early years continues to be an exciting, driven and highly motivating profession, where babies and children thrive and where families feel valued and respected. If we are to ensure its long-term success however, we need to continue the work to further professionalise the sector.