Analysis: Early Years Professionals - Towards a brighter future?

The next steps in the drive to extend the skills of the early years workforce and forge it into a graduate-led profession have now been mapped out by the Government.

Building Brighter Futures: Next Steps for the Children's Workforce explains the Government's plans for the children's workforce and how it will meet the goal of the Children's Plan to make the UK the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up (see box).

Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, has set up an expert group from across the children's workforce to help develop a long-term strategy. It will report in the autumn.

The priority over the next three years is to professionalise and make rapid progress towards the aim of at least one graduate Early Years Professional in every full daycare setting by 2015.

Already, 1,365 practitioners have attained EYP status and a further 2,072 people are en route, but the Children's Workforce Development Council says there need to be 20,000 EYPs to meet the goal.

The first cohort of EYPs were experienced practitioners, often the owners of settings, who took the validation pathway. The test of whether EYPS will prove an attractive career option will come as people complete the longer pathways.

Trade unions want a career structure and pay framework for EYPs, to ensure they gain recognition and remuneration commensurate with their status and responsibilities.

'We were recently contacted by one member in a private nursery who said she would only get an extra 10p per hour (from £6.50 to £6.60) for achieving EYPS,' says Ben Thomas, Unison's National Officer for Children's Services.

'The nursery selected her because she already had a degree and could go through the validation pathway, as this made it easier for the nursery to meet its requirements under the EYFS, but her work was not expected to change.

'In other cases, EYPs are retaining the pay and conditions of teachers and are paid substantially more than other staff.'

National framework

Unison is working with the DCSF to develop a new national framework for the pay and conditions of all school staff - in which it wants to include EYPs - and so create a national pay benchmark.

'As with all professional roles, a key element is how people are remunerated,' says John Chowcat, General Secretary of Aspect, who is serving on the expert group. 'People do not distinguish between the importance of their professional role on paper and the money that goes into their pay packet.

'The role of the Early Years Professional as curriculum guide for the new Early Years Foundation Stage is a major responsibility, as is constantly being underlined by the CWDC and the Government.

'The Government is strongly committed to the EYFS, but there is a real risk that if EYPs are not in place across settings the EYFS could falter.'

Along with campaigning for a national pay framework for EYPs, Aspect is also working for the establishment of genuine equivalence between EYP and Qualified Teacher Status, across the early years sector.

The CWDC has no current data on the impact of EYPS on individual's pay and conditions, as it is still at such an early stage, but a spokesman says the Graduate Leader Fund has been allocated to help employers meet the demands of a graduate workforce.

'It is expected that this funding will contribute towards the salaries of Early Years Professionals. The Government has given an in-principle commitment to make this funding available until 2015, to underpin its ambitions of graduate leadership in the early years.

'This is an unprecedented long-term public-funding commitment,' the spokesman added.

Beneficial impact

Even if many of the validated EYPs have seen little change in pay and conditions, the experience has had a beneficial impact on their work.

'I am undertaking research on the impact of gaining EYPS,' says Delyth Mathieson, early years project manager at Edge Hill University, Lancashire. 'One says the impact on her work has been phenomenal. It has improved her practice because of the way she is reflecting on what she is doing.

'It is also impacting on her team, as she has encouraged one of her staff to attain EYPS, giving a boost to that person's self-esteem and confidence, as well as her pay. She is now focusing more on the professional development of all her staff.

'People say that attaining EYPS is energising them and giving them a fresh look at their work. Of our first cohort on the full training pathway, all but one found a job before they had even achieved the status.

'Many of them were offered jobs in the settings where they were doing their final placements, and as part of their training with us had to take on a leadership role and implement change.'

One of these students, Jenny Turner, now leads the Foundation Stage room at the Gingerbread Cottage Pre-School, Fazakerley, Liverpool. She originally took a degree in childhood studies but joined the civil service because she could not find her way into early years leadership. 'When I saw the course advertised, I knew that this was what I wanted. This is just the best job.'

The course equipped her well for assuming a leadership role. 'There is such a good support system from the tutors that you don't feel out of your depth.'

Scant rewards

The Nursery World online forum has featured complaints about the scant rewards for attaining EYPS, as well as gripes that people with little background in early years are gaining senior positions on attainment of EYPS.

'We should be embracing and celebrating the changes and not quibbling over who has what and who is better qualified than whom,' says early years consultant and trainer, Eileen Blezard, director of Childcare Consultancy Management Services.

'For many years, the sector did not have a graduate element but we do now and that raises the status of early years. Because of people like Professor Kathy Sylva we know so much about how young children learn, so we can put in programmes to support learning.

'People have been crying out about the low status of childcare and saying they want to be recognised as professionals. Now we have the opportunity to do that with graduates and EYP. It is time for people to stop moaning about this or that qualification.

'We are talking about expanding the workforce, but we need to get the people to staff it. The current workforce is getting older and who is going to replace us?

'If we do not make early years a welcoming place to be, how are we going to get in new people? New people will bring in innovation, creativity and new ideas.'

A BRIGHTER FUTURE?

Building Brighter Futures: Next Steps for the Children's Workforce is downloadable from www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications

The Government's priorities for early years are to:

- Continue to up-skill and professionalise the workforce, focusing on the PVI sector.

- Intervene strategically to boost the market to establish a cadre of graduate Early Years Professionals and a strong culture of continuous professional development.

The Government plans to:

- Make progress over the next three years towards its aim of at least one EYP in every full daycare setting by 2015 - and two in settings in the most disadvantaged areas.

- Invest £305m over the next three years through the Graduate Leader Fund, with a commitment in principle to continue funding until at least 2015.

- Via the CWDC, which is funding fees and support packages for EYP student on the existing pathways, from September to trial extra routes to enable people with Level 3 qualifications to achieve EYPS. The work is out to tender. One pilot is for experienced practitioners and the other for new entrants to early years.

- Via CDWC, from this summer, run local promotions of the EYP as a career choice, followed later by a national campaign.

- CWDC is working on a new qualifications list for the Early Years Register to ensure staff with Level 2 and 3 qualifications have the skills to deliver the EYFS.

- Make Level 3 the minimum level qualification; CWDC is producing an action plan to raise the proportion of the workforce with a full Level 3 qualification.

- Ensure funding for supply cover, announced in the Children's Plan, will be available to PVI settings from September, so they can benefit from the programme of professional development being rolled out by National Strategies.

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