Rise in number of funded settings employing graduates
Seeta Bhardwa
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Just under half of all private and voluntary early years settings providing places for three-and four-year-olds employ graduate-level staff.
The latest Department for Education statistics show that more providers are employing staff with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) or Early Years Professional Status (EYPS).
The number of staff with QTS and EYPS who work directly with three-and- four-year-olds has risen to 49 per cent, up from 39 per cent in 2009.
The number of four-year-olds with access to some funded education has increased from last year to 98 per cent and is at its highest for the last five years. The proportion for three-year olds, while up from last year and at its five year high, remains slightly lower at 94 per cent.
The DfE said that research has found that some parents of three-year-olds consider that their child is too young to take up a funded place, choosing to wait until their child is older. Others choose to gradually increase the number of hours their child attends the setting per week over the year.
Lack of awareness of the different types of providers offering funded early education places may also be a factor that affects take up. For example some parents may not realise that they can have their funded place in a private nursery or with a child-minder. The position is different for four-year-olds as they are entitled to a place in a maintained school reception class from the September following their fourth birthday and the majority of parents chose this option for their child.
A Department for Education spokesperson said, ‘It is encouraging that four-fifths of three-and-four-year-olds are attending outstanding and good nurseries. This matters because we know that it is quality early education, which makes a difference to young children's lives and gets them ready for school, particularly those from poorer backgrounds.
‘We are introducing early years teachers and early years educators to improve the quality of early education further and to raise the status of the early years profession, and Teach First will expand into the early years later this year. We will continue to improve childcare quality by giving providers more flexibility and parents more choice.’
All four-year-olds have been entitled to a funded early education place since 1998 and in 2004 this was extended to all three-year-olds.
