Nurseries and early years settings all over the UK are struggling to recruit and retain staff.
Now a new report, led by the University of Plymouth, is calling for stronger action across all four UK nations to strengthen qualification requirements for the early years workforce (EYW) and to establish clear career progression routes with appropriate pay and status, in order to address the issue and drive up quality in the sector.
The recommendations form part of It is rocket science: professionalising the early childhood workforce in the UK, the final report from a comparative study of early years workforce policies across the four UK nations, commissioned by the Nuffield Foundation and managed by Early Education - a membership body of early years professionals across the UK. At its core, the report highlights the urgent need to improve the status and recognition of early childhood education staff.
What needs to happen?
- The report calls for minimum entrance requirements to work in early childhood education and, as a minimum, that staff who are unqualified when starting work in the sector should be on a pathway to achieve a qualification within a set period (this is already the case in Scotland).
- It also states that there should be minimum entry requirements for maths, English (and Welsh in Wales) to ensure practitioners have the necessary literacy and maths skills to match the demands of the job.
- It also highlights the need for the current fragmented and confusing array of qualifications in all four nations to be addressed to create clearer, high-quality pathways through a career in early childhood education, with well-defined progression routes, aligned to related sectors, including teaching in primary. It proposes linking these to national pay scales.
- Taken together with professional registration, the report identifies these measures as essential to improving the status and recognition of early childhood education professionals, tackling the current recruitment and retention crisis, and driving up quality across the sector.
Drawing together a review of the literature alongside interviews and focus groups with national stakeholders and interviews with international experts in early years education and childcare, the report includes insights from over 80 experts. The evidence highlights sustained challenges in recruitment, retention, remuneration, professional recognition, qualifications, and status for those working with young children.
The report concludes that in all four nations, a largely fragmented approach to workforce development, with a lack of a clear EYW strategy, has created a crisis that is not only felt daily by those working in early years education and care, but is also at risk of undermining the quality of early years services at the heart of providing children's foundations to learning, development, and life.
What the experts say
Principal Investigator,
[STAFFMEMBER]
Professor Verity Campbell Barr - P
"> Professor Verity Campbell Barr is currently working across the South West to ensure early-years provision is underpinned by strong research to ensure the workforce is informed and empowered, giving young children the best start they can.
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