Workforce Strategy, Part 2: Level 3 - Levelled out

Want to work in the early years? Well, according to a recent classified ad for a Level 3 practitioner, you don’t just get minimum wage salary, you also get a ‘free DBS check’ and ‘uniform provided’ as perks. Tempted? As Sophie Haylock, consultant at Early Years HR, says, ‘Some providers are facing such a financial challenge that they ask candidates to fund these things themselves. But it really doesn’t reflect well on the sector when essential criteria are listed as benefits.’

There has long been talk of a crisis when it comes to recruitment and retention of Level 3 practitioners. The necessity for early years practitioners at Level 3 to hold GCSEs in English and maths at C or above was part of the reason, and the decision to finally scrap this requirement felt like the most significant part of March’s Workforce Strategy.

But by then, the damage had been done. The number of students finishing Level 3 courses halved between 2014 and 2016, falling from 35,275 to just 17,530, according to analysis of Ofqual figures by awarding body CACHE for Nursery World. The GCSE requirement was introduced in September 2016. Looking at those who completed Level 3 courses in the third quarter of each year (when the majority of certificates are awarded for completed courses) shows an even more staggering drop of around 55 per cent, from 18,000 in 2014 to 8,050 in 2016.

Since April this year, Level 3 practitioners can have Level 2 functional skills qualifications in maths and English instead of GCSEs. Colleges and other training providers are still free to set their own requirements though, as are early years settings. Either can insist on Level 3 staff holding GCSEs if they wish.

‘The main positive impact of the Workforce Strategy for us, both as training providers and as a group of nurseries, is the introduction of functional skills as an alternative to GCSEs,’ says Julia Mason, operations director at Children 1st nursery group. ‘The impact of the GCSE requirement was we had a smaller pool to choose from when it came to recruitment. We recruit for attitude, manner and passion, as we can train people on the job.’

Last year’s NDNA workforce survey found that the percentage of Level 3-qualified staff had dropped from 83 per cent in 2015 to 75 per cent in 2016. Applicants’ lack of the required GCSEs was the main recruitment difficulty.

Functional skills

Functional skills qualifications at Level 2 are broadly equivalent to GCSE grade C and above, but they are seen as being practical rather than academic. For example, English is more about communication in everyday situations than characterisation or use of hyperbole, while maths will tackle problems in the home and workplace, such as calculating the amount of wallpaper needed for a room, rather than dealing with abstract notions such as simultaneous equations.

Plus, there is the assessment. ‘The key difference in assessment is the flexibility,’ says Sue Southwood, head of maths and English at the Education & Training Foundation. ‘GCSEs have a November resit window but in general have to be taken in June, whereas functional skills can be assessed throughout the year. That’s more suitable for the workplace.’ And unlike GCSEs, functional skills can be assessed online.

While the reintroduction of functional skills has been broadly welcomed, not everyone thinks it is a good idea. ‘I differ from colleagues who think the mistake the Government made when it introduced the GCSE requirement was in setting the bar too high, because I believe if you can obtain a functional skills qualification, you can obtain a GCSE at grade C,’ says Ross Midgely, who recently retired as owner and chief executive of PBD Training, which offers GCSEs in English and maths. ‘The problem was the availability of courses, and of places to sit the exam. There is no provision for GCSEs to be taken out of schools in significant numbers.’

Mr Midgely believes the problem with functional skills qualifications lies not in their content but in their assessment. ‘However difficult it is to sit a GCSE exam logistically, they are a fair, robust, objective test of someone’s ability,’ he says. ‘From a testing point of view, functional skills are largely a joke, with testing often done in the workplace on a laptop, supervised by the training provider or manager. If we are serious about a standard of maths and English for early years, there has to be a robust testing process.’

Functional skills qualifications are being reformed. The Education and Training Foundation led a consultation programme on the steps needed to make the qualifications more robust and credible, and delivered recommendations to the Government last October. However, the changing political landscape could mean the original 2019 deadline may not be met.

The Government intends to open a second consultation in September, led by the Department for Education and Ofqual. ‘Revising qualifications doesn’t happen very often,’ says Ms Southwood. ‘If functional skills qualifications are important to your staff or your learners, I’d urge you to get involved in the consultation.’ The Education and Training Foundation is developing new resources for functional skills trainers through its English and Maths Pipeline, as learning materials have not been updated for some time.

Retention

While the removal of the GCSE requirement has the potential to encourage more Level 2 practitioners to progress to Level 3, it could also help with retaining Level 3 staff. ‘Some settings are so short-staffed that staff are working longer hours, alongside agency staff who may change from day to day,’ says Ms Haylock. ‘An increase in Level 3s coming in will potentially ease some of the pressure existing Level 3s face, giving them more time to go on training, take holidays and feel happier.’

However, the issue of low pay remains. A recent government survey found that children’s care apprentices were the second most likely group to be paid below the minimum wage, and another found childcare employees have the second highest rate of underpayment of the national minimum wage of all the low-pay sectors. Beset by insufficient government funding, and the impact of higher business rates, settings struggle to offer Level 3 staff a fair wage, something that the Workforce Strategy does not tackle. ‘I would put the emphasis on creating a working environment where people want to stay – and that includes pay – as well as supporting them to keep their practice up to date,’ concludes Michael Freeston, director of quality improvement at the Pre-school Learning Alliance.

Education & Training Foundation resources, www.et-foundation.co.uk/supporting/support-practitioners/maths-and-english-pipeline

RETAINING STAFF

Sophie Haylock, consultant at Early Years HR, gives her top tips:

1. Understand staff’s motivation. Why do people join? Why do they stay? We tend to focus on why people leave, with exit interviews, but it would be great to see more ‘stay interviews’.

2. Draw on research from other sectors. There has been so much research done in other sectors on employee engagement, but this was not mentioned in the Workforce Strategy.

3. Listen to employees. It’s no good nursery owners introducing a policy if staff have had no input – it may be the last thing they want.

4. Keep an open mind regarding job sharing and flexible hours.

5. Identify career paths for Level 3s who might be interested in areas such as safeguarding, training or nutrition.

6. Make sure training covers workplace issues such as leadership and teambuilding as well as child-centred training.

7. Consider introducing an employee discount scheme, which can be cheaper to operate than giving a pay rise.

8. Make sure staff can put their training into practice. Some nurseries are quick to send staff on training but then don’t let them do anything with their new skills.

9. Allow staff to buy additional holiday. I have seen staff leave because they can’t cover summer holiday childcare.

For the rest of the articles in this series, see our Workforce Strategy Management Guide