The government has finally held up its hands and admitted that it had made a mistake in 2014 when it announced employees in childcare settings would need to have grade C or above GCSEs in English and maths as part of their Early Years Educator (EYE) qualification when "functional skills" had also previously been acceptable.
In the Department for Education's Early Years Workforce Strategy, published this month, the government observed that "parts of the sector have raised concerns about the impact of the GCSE requirement on the recruitment of [EYE] level 2 and level 3 staff". The truth is that we have been witnessing a full-blown recruitment crisis over the past two years, with nearly half of all nurseries struggling to recruit level 3 staff because of the misguided policy.
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