Efforts to boost the pay and status of early years workers must begin by raising the expectations of parents, employers and staff, the chair of the Children's Workforce Development Council has said.

Baroness Estelle Morris told a 4Children conference last week that therewas a need to "incentivise the system" and create higher expectationsfor staff to be well-qualified.

"There is not a huge cry from people who work in the sector or those whouse the sector to have a higher level of skills, qualifications andtraining," she said. "They're not battering at government's door saying'we want more qualifications and training'."

She believed that expectations were low because early years did not havea history of being a statutory sector.

Baroness Morris went on to highlight the complex tension betweenqualifications and pay levels, with some people who gain Early YearsFoundation Degrees unable to find work because of the higher salariesthey could command.

"What a lot of small organisations are saying to us is 'if we have topay extra salaries because of extra qualifications, we can't survive',"she revealed.

She agreed one way forward could be for the level of qualifications ofstaff in an early years setting to be taken into account in Ofstedinspections.

"Inspections are about quality and quality is about training," shesaid.

Meanwhile she said there was a need for more government cash fortraining to be released into the children's workforce. She added thatthe Learning and Skills Council had "a massive amount of money fortraining" and it could be spending more in the sector.