High-qualified early years workforce will benefit all

Taken together, her recommendations offer a vision of an early years workforce with a strong professional identity that people aspire to be part of and, that most crucial of all, is equipped to give children the best start in life.

Chief among these are measures to raise the bar to enter the workforce. The report proposes that every single early years worker should have at least a Level 3 qualification by 2022, while all those taking a childcare qualification would need at least a Level 2 in English or Maths (equivalent to an A* to C at GCSE). This is surely a must. For instance, practitioners ought to be able to write Early Years Foundation Stage reports for parents that are free from spelling errors. Few parents would feel comfortable sending their child to a school where teachers were innumerate or illiterate, so there is no reason why this should be more tolerated in early years settings. As one observer has put it, such a requirement would also help ensure the early years sector is not used as an “exit route” for those who might struggle to obtain GCSEs. Professional development is also crucial, and Professor Nutbrown wants all new practitioners in their first six months of employment to benefit from some sort of mentoring.

But a fourth C hovers above the ambitions of the report like a huge stubborn cloud: it is, as ever, cost. A higher qualifications threshold requires money to fund training that is more thorough and takes longer to deliver and complete; and a higher qualified workforce will rightly expect rewards in the form of better pay, with a clear career path and salary structure. But the sector is in a state of financial crisis. Local authority budgets have resulted in cuts and closures to Sure Start centres and other settings, and many are struggling to provide the free childcare entitlement. And for too many parents, childcare is simply unaffordable.

That said, implementing the recommendations of the Nutbrown review would be a sound and smart investment in young children. It would reap benefits that would considerably outweigh the costs. She recommends that childcare qualifications should be “strengthened to include more child development and play, more on special educational needs and disability, and more on inclusivity and diversity.” An early years workforce that is able to serve children’s care and learning needs in the round would doubtless save enormous resource in later years. That is why Nutbrown’s report is a recipe for producing a robust early intervention system for children and families.

The prize of an early years workforce that is universally well qualified, motivated and rewarded to get the best for under-fives is too great to let cost get in the way.

Nutbrown was greeted with rapturous applause in presenting her recommendations to a conference of early years practitioners last week. It is clear that the passionate and dedicated people in the sector buy into her vision. Let us just hope that the government has the courage of its convictions, and does so too.

ravi.chandiramani@markallengroup.com