Early years minister tells sector 'exam grades not only proof of quality'

The minister also spoke about the 30-hour delivery plans and said that she did not want to ‘break’ the sector.

In her first major speech since she took on the role in July, Ms Dinenage spoke about the department’s decision to look again at the GCSE requirements, and plans to deliver 30 hour hours of free childcare.

She said that while exam grades are important, they were not the only proof of quality in the sector, and that one of the most pressing issues that early years providers have asked her about, was to look again at the GCSE maths and English requirements for Level 3 qualifications.

‘I’m under no illusions that our early years workforce is one of our greatest assets and quality for me is absolutely vital,’ she said.

‘I’m very clear that exam grades while important are not the only proof of quality in this sector and I very much look forward to hearing your views, your experience on the ground on what numeracy and literacy skills are needed to enable staff to perform their level 3 roles effectively.’

The minister said she was also ‘very mindful of the need to help staff gain the transferable skills and the qualifications that enable them to progress in their careers more broadly.

‘I’m aware that for many people childcare is a vocation, but it must be a career, and not a job,' she said. 'We must enable, must make sure there are the right workplace developments, there are the right opportunities for people to progress in this career and that we get a qualification system that supports people to do that.’

Ms Dinenage said that she would respond to the consultation as part of a wider workforce strategy, which will set out the Government’s wider vision, an early years workforce plan.

She said that the strategy would have to improve what already exists, ‘because the early years workforce is already a huge asset to us. But we need to be able to attract, to recruit and to retain the very best possible people and that includes more men.’

On why the Government was consulting, rather than just changing the rules, she said that, ‘I know that there have been some very high profile campaigns of that nature in recent months, but one of the things I learned quite early on as an MP is that there are always two sides to every story and in some cases they are both right. But I’m very keen to listen to the sector and make sure this is a decision that we get 100 per cent right.’

Of the 1,500 responses received so far, she said that she had been surprised that these responses ‘were in no way unanimous’.

She urged delegates to get involved in the conversation and to continue to give her feedback.

30 hours

Talking about the Government’s response to the 30-hour delivery consultation, published on Saturday, she said that more than 1,300 responses had been received and that overall the response had been positive.

Yesterday Ms Dinenage laid the regulations for the delivery of the 30-hour offer in Parliament.

She said that while she wanted to help working parents with more affordable childcare she did not want to do that ‘off the backs of breaking the childcare sector’.

To maximise the flexibility for working parents, hours will be funded from 6am to 8pm for a maximum of ten hours a day, and with no minimum session length to fund short-term wraparound provision through breakfast and after-school clubs.

Parents will be able to split their provision at a maximum of two providers a day.

Providers will not have to offer the entitlement in a particular pattern.

The DfE has developed a toolkit with the Family and Childcare Trust to help providers with new, innovative ways of offering flexible provision, which will be published on the FCT website soon.

Regarding the grace period – the amount of time a parent can be out of work before losing their entitlement - there will be a national grace period policy, that is ‘consistent and fair’ to ensure stability for children, parents and providers and avoid disruption to businesses if a parent’s employment status changes.

There will be consultation with local authorities and providers on the length of time for the grace period, which will be decided later this year.

There will be a fully digital eligibility checking system that will automatically calculate the grace period for local authorities and providers.

In future, local authorities will also be required to publish information about childcare available in their area, via electronic means and to update this a minimum of termly.

In the response and statutory guidance for local authorities providers will be able to charge for consumables, such as meals and nappies, as long as places are not made conditional on parents paying for them.

In response to concerns about prompt payment, particularly from childminders unable to deliver the places because they have not been paid fast enough, the minister also said that by September 2018 there will be an expectation that all providers will be paid monthly, unless they wish otherwise.

There will also be a standard model agreement that will be developed by an expert stakeholder group made up of local authorities, providers and early years organisations, which will be set up in December.

Ms Dinenage said that providers should expect parental demand for the 30-hour offer to be high, and that 3,500 children had so far taken up places in the early implementer areas.