Analysis: 'Rethink Level 3 proposals'

- Under radical proposals from the Children's Workforce Development Council, Level 3 childcare qualifications will shift from full-time and part-time courses, delivered in further education colleges, to 'on-the-job' training, with substantially reduced teaching and training hours.

We believe that childcare workers need to be educated, and not simply 'trained'. Yet by our calculations, teaching hours under the proposed changes could be slashed from 1,100 hours at present to as low as 420 (see box). Such a change will be at best a mistake and at worst, positively dangerous for children.

The existing Edexcel and CACHE national childcare qualifications equip students with a thorough knowledge and understanding of children's developmental needs and how to meet them, together with the skills to be safe and effective practitioners.

A Level 3 qualification currently gives practitioners a licence to practise, to work unsupervised and to manage childcare settings.

Government programmes such as Flying Start and Sure Start are often managed by Level 3 staff, whose responsibilities include delivering the curriculum and providing guidance to parents/carers on many complex issues.

A work-based system, with reduced teaching hours, will fail to provide students with the broad knowledge, understanding or skills required to operate as safe and effective practitioners and managers.

Training in only one work setting, as proposed, can reinforce poor practice and fails to give students the benefits of wide and varied placements. We cannot assume that all settings adhere to good practice in top-priority areas such as child protection. Busy workplaces are also far from conducive to in-depth exploration of such sensitive issues, whereas a college-based education can provide such a learning environment.

It's worth noting, too, that while the existing qualifications provide students with options for career progression (by giving them recognised UCAS points), it is unclear how the proposed courses would allow students to progress to university.

BROAD EDUCATION

If we accept that teachers must be educated, then the case for educating early years workers is equally valid. Recent research from around the world suggests that good-quality care is integral to the successful education of children. It follows that staff who manage the care and curriculum needs of children from birth to age five themselves need high-quality education.

This was highlighted in the Government-funded EPPE report (2004) which found that: 'There was a significant relationship between the quality of the pre-school centre and improved child outcomes. There was also a positive relationship between the qualifications of staff and ratings of quality. Children made more progress in pre-school centres where staff had higher qualifications.'

These findings support the claim of childcare lecturers that there is a direct correlation between high-quality education of staff and high-quality provision. It is clear that staff need to be fully aware of care and educational needs, developmental sequence, nutritional requirements and a range of health and safety issues.

RATIONALE

It is unclear whether the changes are being driven by financial considerations or the needs of the child. The Government must explain the rationale behind the proposals and start a full consultation with all stakeholders - childcare practitioners, teachers, providers, unions and parents - before embarking on such a radical overhaul of training.

It is alarming that the new qualification looks set to replace existing courses as early as September 2010, and yet the CWDC does not intend to make public details of these new courses until December 2009 (Nursery World, 2 July 2009, p5). This is clearly insufficient time for any meaningful public debate.

We feel the Government should scrap these plans and think again. All those who care about high-quality childcare must join together and force the Government to rethink its plans before it is too late.

Guy Stoate and Shan Bowen are lecturers in childcare at the School of Care and Childhood Studies, Coleg Morgannwg, Rhondda Cynon Taff

MORE INFORMATION

Work Matters, Nursery World, 17 September 2009

Children's Workforce Development Council, www.cwdcouncil.org.uk

Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE), www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/research/keyresearch/eppe/eppe/

TEACHING HOURS

We deliver full-time courses in 1,100 taught hours over two years. and this year's CACHE Level 3 Candidate Handbook specifies a mandatory taught component of 1,009 hours plus practical placement of a recommended 750, giving a total of 1759 hours. However, the CACHE website states that the new course will comprise 36+ credits totalling 360 hours (1 credit equals ten hours), while the Edexcel website states it will have 'a credit value range of a minimum 25 credits to a maximum threshold of 70 credits', so 250 to 700 hours. (We have so far been unable to discover how these hours will be broken down regarding taught versus practical experience.)