Training Today: The latest moves to reform the early years workforce and qualifications

Despite several years of re-organisation and rationalisation in childcare qualifications, early years trainers and managers are bracing themselves for further changes in the months ahead.

Some observers hope that the revisions that will be brought in as a result of the raft of Government-sponsored reviews into the Foundation Years, which encompass professional qualifications, will provide some added value but leave the basic structures in place. Others think the reforms may go deeper. But whatever happens, the current uncertainty makes it hard to plan ahead at the moment.

Nicola Amies, director of early years at Bright Horizons, says, 'The best way to describe it is to say there is a tsunami across the early years landscape. There is so much change happening, it is as if we got dressed in the dark and can't see how everything is connected together. You have to get your head around what are recommendations, what is aspirational, and what are the actual requirements.'

WORK IN PROGRESS

Under the last Labour Government, the Children's Workforce Development Council spent considerable time, effort and money rationalising and reforming qualifications to make matters clearer for workers and employers, which resulted in the launch of the new Level 3 Diploma for the Children and Young People's Workforce.

Since the Coalition Government took office, the sector has had the Tickell review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, with recommendations on qualifications. There have also been the reviews by Labour MPs Frank Field and Graham Allen into poverty and early intervention - both of which refer to qualifications, and the Education Bill is currently going through the House of Lords.

There is also a specific review of early years qualifications headed by Professor Cathy Nutbrown, looking at how they can be strengthened following criticism of the new diploma, and how they can support career progression.

Meanwhile, the Workforce Co-Production Group led by Bernadette Duffy, head of the Thomas Coram Centre, and Jane Haywood, chief executive of CWDC, is looking at how the early years workforce can progress to achieve higher standards of professionalism and partnership working. At the same time, the CWDC and Training and Development Agency are being reformed.

The Diploma is being strengthened by awarding body CACHE, which has developed an extended two-year course designed as a gateway to university. So far it has not been awarded UCAS points due to an internal review of the UCAS points system.

The Level 2 and Level 3 Diploma for the Children and Young People's Workforce were designed to allow candidates the flexibility to progress or move their career sideways.

Sally Eaton, education director of the Childcare Company, has proof of this flexibility. 'It is much easier for people to move across the sector,' she says. 'We have set up a free school - Langley Academy Primary - from reception class up to the age of 11. We have some learners working in the reception class who are doing the diploma, which they are combining with units from qualifications on supporting teaching and learning. They can study units such as schools as organisations, running of schools and partnership with parents.'

APPRENTICES AT A DISADVANTAGE

The previous government had the aspiration of a graduate-led workforce by 2015, which was why Early Years Professional Status was launched. As Ms Amies points out, 'No-one has come along and said whether that has changed. If you read Supporting Families in the Foundation Years, there is no direct date for a graduate-led workforce.

'The only constant is that the EYFS still refers to a manager being at Level 3. Although the reformed EYFS has been out for consultation, there is no reference in it to changing the requirements on qualifications which is that the manager should be a Level 3 and at least 50 per cent of the staff qualified to Level 2 and above.'

An element of the consultation on the reformed EYFS which has raised alarm bells in some quarters is the mis-match between current policy and the Government's drive to keep 16-18-year-olds in full-time education or training.

Gill Mason, enterprise director for Vauxhall Neighbourhood Council, specialising in training and education for the children's workforce, says the consultation document suggests that for staff/child ratios, no-one under the age of 18 can be counted in the ratios. Currently, under the EYFS, the minimum age is 17.

'This has huge implications for apprenticeships,' she says. 'All the money coming into early years training is being pumped into apprenticeships but who is going to take on an apprentice aged 17 and pay them if they can't count them in the ratios?

'The push is on vocational training. But you can't be taken on for vocational training unless you are employed. It is like paying someone to be supernumary and that is not going to work in the current economic climate.'

Ms Mason says she hopes this is picked up and corrected. 'Hopefully it will be picked up in the review of the consultation which is currently going on, so it can be re-worded.

'No-one wants to leave school at 16, spend a year on an apprenticeship and get their Level 2 and then find they can't go on to their Level 3 and they can't get work because they are too young. They just can't afford to do that.'

VALUE-ADDED CHANGES

It is generally thought that there will be some clarity about the future shape of early years qualifications coming out of the Nutbrown review, which will feed into the Government's decision-making in the light of the responses to the EYFS review, and the recommendations about qualifications from Field and Allen.

The Department for Education will publish its response to the consultation on the reformed EYFS in January and the final version of the framework will be launched in the Spring - when perhaps we will also learn what it is to be called.

The new EYFS will be implemented in September 2012 but without the full-scale nationwide training and induction programme which heralded its initial implementation in 2008.

This is partly because there are no longer the staff in place in the local authorities to do the work.

It is not clear on this tight timetable how much can be done to tweak or change qualifications before next September given the long lead-in time required to make such changes.

Mrs Eaton is hoping that there will not be a root and branch reform of the qualifications. 'The Level 3 diploma is very thorough - if it is taught well. I hear from our assessors and learners how much they really like the diploma. The Level 2 is a good foundation for youngsters who have perhaps had no experience of childcare, but it does depend on how it is taught. If it is taught thoroughly there is no difference between it and the Children's Care, Learning and Development NVQ. It really does require a lot of testing of the learner's knowledge and understanding.'

Mrs Eaton believes there is real excitement about the ILM Level 5 in leadership and management, and hopes to see a new Level 4 early years qualification. 'A lot of people are still signing up for the NVQ Level 4 in Children's Care, Learning and Development before it expires in December, which shows it is very popular and obviously needed because people are funding it themselves.

'Obviously it is always worth asking if there is anything we can do to make qualifications better - but let's hope any changes to come are more about value-added additions rather than a complete re-write.'

Nicola Amies feels it is quite a messy landscape at the moment. 'How will all the recommendations from the reviews impact on the reformed EYFS? Will there be enough time to implement changes or will recommendations about qualifications and the workforce still be up for discussion under the new EYFS?

'The only thing that is clear and consistent is there in the EYFS. We know it is talking about minimum standards and we know that quality is always well above minimum and the aspiration is for a graduate-led workforce and Level 3 qualified staff. However, as it stands there is nothing that says staff should be qualified to x and the manager to y.' She adds, 'As to the impact of all this on the sector? I think a great many people are getting on doing the day job and hoping there will be some clarity.'

UNDERSTANDING QUALIFICATIONS CHANGE

The Statutory Framework for the EYFS sets out the requirements for staff:child ratios and the qualification levels that practitioners must hold. CWDC defines 'full and relevant' qualifications that practitioners included in the specified ratios must hold.

The Early Years Qualifications List is a searchable tool designed to help those delivering the EYFS to identify which qualifications are considered full and relevant. It also lists qualifications that, together with accredited additional learning, could enable a practitioner's package of accredited learning to be viewed as 'full and relevant'.

Since 2010, early years qualifications have been migrating from the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) to the new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). According to regulator Ofqual, the QCF is a new way of recognising skills and qualifications, by awarding credit for qualifications and units (small steps of learning).

QCF qualifications fall into three categories:

Award - 1-12 credits

Certificate - 13-36 credits

Diploma - 37+ credits

Registration on some NQF qualifications has been extended and for up-to-date information it is important to refer to CWDC's Qualifications List.

Go to http://qualificationslist.cwdcouncil.org.uk

or call the helpline on 0300 123 1033.

NEW PHASE FOR EYPS

A total of 1,700 funded places are available for the new Early Years Professional programme which kicks off in January 2012.During the programme's 2012-2015 lifetime there will be a total of 7,200 funded places and it is expected that there will be a large number of self-funded candidates.

Eight lead organisations have been confirmed by CWDC to deliver the training nationwide:

• Anglia Ruskin University (London, East of England, North East and North West)

• Best Practice Network (South East, London, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber and South West)

• Kingston University (London and South East)

• Manchester Metropolitan University (East Midlands, North West, Yorkshire and Humber, North East)

• Eastern Leadership Centre (East of England)

• University of Northampton (East Midlands)

• University of Chichester (London and South East)

• University of Worcester (South West and West Midlands)

There are plans for the content of the programme to be revised, but this will be aligned with the implementation of the revised EYFS next September.

Meanwhile, the number of pathways has been reduced from five to four (see page 13).

Candidates are now required to have GCSE grade C English and Maths on entry.

Further information at: www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/early-years/eypsproviders.