CYP Now - Would a licence to practise raise the bar?

Professor Cathy Nutbrown's interim report of early education and childcare qualifications states that despite unwavering evidence that good quality provision is vital for young children's development, the work of the early years sector is "widely seen as low status, low paid and low skilled".

She speaks of a "hair or care" stereotype where students with poor grades are steered towards a career in childcare, despite having no experience or desire to do so.

Prompted by responses to the review, Nutbrown says in the report out last month that further consideration of a licensing system, linked to qualifications, will be undertaken as an option for improving the status and standards of the profession.

Lyn Trodd, national chair of the Sector-Endorsed Foundation Degree in Early Years Network, believes a licence to practice is a necessary measure to boost standards and reward properly qualified practitioners.

"It will raise the status of people who work in early years because it will make the profession more exclusive," she says. "It will mean that some of the practitioners who are unqualified or unsuitable will not be working in early years settings. But who is unqualified and who is unsuitable will have to be thrashed out."

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