'Let's get real about reform'

The early years and childcare sector must have realistic expectations for reform of the children's workforce in responding to the current consultation, said Paul Ennals, chief executive of the National Children's Bureau, speaking at the National Day Nurseries Association conference last week. Mr Ennals, who was shadow chair of the Children's Workforce Development Council, said that the 'knotty issues' in moving to a joined-up workforce included whether graduate leaders should be teachers or pedagogues. Here, he argued, ideology had to be balanced with practice. 'We have a good infrastructure for training teachers. We could tweak it and get it rolling...