Raising The Bar: what next for the early education and care workforce?

Raising The Bar: what next for the early education and care workforce?

Joe CaluoriDaycare [email protected] 840 3350

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

Why highlight this issue?

• Introduction of EYFS merging education and care• Progress on increasing qualifications in the sector• The proven impact of staff on improving quality• Universally recognised issue – staff, providers, parents, Government: all agree workers deserve better pay and conditions.•DCSF Workforce Strategy & ‘Next Steps’ report.

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

The links to quality:

• Melhuish (2004) – ‘process’ aspects of care• EPPE Project (2004)• NNI Evaluation (2007) • Millennium Cohort Study (2007)

All identify the quality of staff as a principal factor in determining quality of care in ECEC settings

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

Government strategy development:• National Childcare Strategy (1998)• Ten Year Strategy for Childcare (2004) • Children’s Workforce Strategy (2005)• Children’s Plan (2007)• Children’s Workforce Development Council• Transformation Fund/Graduate Leader Fund

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

The ECEC Workforce: Demographics

• Workforce overwhelmingly female (98%)• High proportion of part-time workers

Many factors in common with other low pay sectors

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

The ECEC Workforce: Pay & Conditions• Average pay for all staff in Full Day Care £6.90 per hour and in Sessional care £7.00 per hour• This compares to £9.30 per hour for Full Day Care in Children’s Centres and £13.00 per hour in Nursery Schools• Similar disparities occur at all levels of the workforce between PVI and Maintained provision

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

The ECEC Workforce: Pay & Conditions• Traditional justification for these rates is differentiation between ‘carer’ and ‘educator’• Now eliminated by introduction of EYFS• Where are incentives to gaining qualifications?• Nearly 1/3 of staff paid at National Minimum Wage or below• Low pay can mean some workers experience low self esteem and de-motivation at work

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

The ECEC Workforce: Recruitment and Retention• Settings in the PVI sector have double the staff turnover rates of the maintained sector• This is likely to be linked to poor pay and conditions• ECEC must be seen as a proper career path and not a route for those with lower skill levels who may have ‘failed’ elsewhere

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

The ECEC Workforce: Qualifications• Government has made great progress in up-skilling the ECEC workforce• Over half the ECEC workforce are now qualified to level 3 or higher (excluding childminders)• Early Years Professional Status introduced• Worries that poor pay and conditions may dent these initial gains• Routes to accessing work in the sector must be kept flexible to accommodate all potential workers

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

The ECEC Workforce: Status• ECEC services now much more closely integrated with other services for children (e.g. health, local authority childrens services)• Other professionals often paid more. ECEC often perceived as “poor relations” of the sector• Local authority tendering process – negative effects• Unionisation

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

Key findings:• The majority of the ECEC workforce are very poorly paid • The introduction of the EYFS means now little justification for ECEC workers to be paid so poorly• Raising pay and conditions has a key role to play in improving quality

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

Key findings (cont):• Qualifications in the sector are improving rapidly• Status and ‘career path’ also improving – particularly with the introduction of EYP status• However, problems with pay and conditions likely to stunt progress in these areas • It is unlikely pay and conditions can be improved without intervention with clear pay scales and additional funding.

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

Recommendations:• Social Partnership Group to investigate effects of poor pay and conditions• Government to set new standards for pay and conditions • ECEC providers to supply details of staff pay and conditions as part of Ofsted Inspections• Half of all childminders to reach level 3 by 2011• Pressure on local authorities to always commission services to be withdrawn

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

Early success?

“The Government will consider, with partners whether a representative body for early years workers would add real value to the sector and, if so, how we might encourage the creation of such a body.”

DCSF, ‘Next Steps for Early Learning and Childcare - Building on the 10-Year Strategy’, 2009, Page 45 Section 4.5.

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

Refreshed Childcare Strategy 2009•Continue to provide financial support to ensure every setting employs a graduate through the Graduate Leader Fund.•Ensure that everyone working in early learning and childcare has a full and relevant qualification•of at least level 3 (equivalent to A-level) and consider making this a requirement from 2015;•Consider making it a legal requirement that every full daycare setting has a graduate from 2015

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

•Pilot a programme to attract top graduates into the workforce.•develop career pathways and reward commitment and excellence across the workforce•Promote a training and development framework and create an annual training expectation or ‘entitlement’ for all practitioners up to graduate level•Help highest quality settings share good practice

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

•Explore creating an ‘Advanced Skills’ graduate professional role in disadvantaged areas to allow graduates to progress in the sector without moving into management roles•Expand Every Child a Talker in the most disadvantaged areas, teaching practitioners the best ways of promoting children’s language skills.

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

Our response to the Workforce 2020 Consultation•Improve pay of staff at all levels •EYP level welcome, but need for qualified management staff, especially in PVI sector so EYPs can concentrate on education and care.•Recruit men: only 2% are men, despite 2005 target of 6%.•NVQ training is not always fit-for-purpose; further support and quality control for NVQ training and assessors so training meets quality standards

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

•There is confusion about the role of EYPs, as Early Years Professional Status is not attached to a pay scale•Clarification needed on the relationship between EYPS and QTS•Agree there needs to be a Level 3 requirement for ECEC staff

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

Discussion points:•Do you agree with our policy recommendations?•What if anything would you add to the DCSF Workforce Strategy?•What if anything would you take out?•Who should be responsible for ensuring the ECEC workforce are adequately paid?•How do you incentivise settings to invest in their workforce and yet remain sustainable?

Raising the bar: What next for the ECEC workforce?

•Should there be a minimum qualification for the ECEC workforce, and if so what should it be?•How can the ECEC workforce be organised so collective bargaining is possible?•What can Trade Unions offer ECEC workers?•How can we change perceptions of the ECEC workforce in the general public and the media?•How can more men be encouraged to work in childcare?