House of Commons - Foundation Years: Sure Start children's centres

Foundation Years: Sure Start children's centres - Education Committee Contents

6 Workforce and leadership

The workforce

138. Children's centres employ a range of staff, including early years specialists, family support workers and health and social care professionals. Although many issues were raised with us about the workforce, we recognise that some of these were specific to early years workers and not necessarily applicable to all staff in children's centres. The Minister was right to point out that early years qualifications in particular are "mainly an issue for the 96% of childcare that is not provided in children's centres".[290] Nevertheless, there are some wider lessons which can be drawn and which are directly applicable to children's centres.

139. Historically, the entry requirements to the early years sector have been very low, with many qualified only to NVQ level 2. As Susan Gregory of Ofsted told us, "you need a higher qualification at entry level to work with animals than you do to work with young children."[291] Linked to this, perhaps as both cause and effect, the status and pay of early years workers have also been low, a point acknowledged by the Government in its proposals on More Great Childcare.[292] To us, the Minister stressed that "we have the biggest gap in salaries between those who work in nurseries and those who work in schools of any country in Western Europe". She argued strongly that: "That is wrong, because we know that early education is at least as important as later-on education".[293] The impact of low status is felt beyond attracting high quality recruits into the profession: Naomi Eisenstadt described how the perceived low status of children's centre staff can create a barrier to successful multi-agency working, adding that "if you do not have status within the community and you ring the health agency, they are not going to ring you back."[294]

140. During the course of our inquiry, the Government set out its proposals to reduce the number of different early years qualifications, to improve the quality of training and to raise the status and quality of the workforce by replacing the current Early Years Professional Status qualification with a new grade of Early Years Teacher and Early Years Educator. Starting in 2013, Early Years Educators will train at level 3 (A level equivalent) and need to have good GCSEs in English and maths. Early Years Educators will act as assistants to Early Years Teachers and, over time, the Government expects that group childcare will "increasingly be delivered by Early Years Teachers and Early Years Educators". Early Years Teachers will be graduates and will need to meet the same entry requirements and pass the same skills tests as trainee school teachers, but will specialise in early childhood development. They will not, however, be accorded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), in the same way as primary and secondary teachers.[295]

141. A further development is Teach First for the Early Years which extends the model which has been successful in attracting high-achieving graduates into schools to the early years sector. There is currently a pilot in London involving 16 teachers but the Minister was keen to see it expand.[296] She saw the achievement of "a much greater status for early years teachers" as "the whole point of the Teach First for the early years programme".[297]

142. The Minister told us that Charlie Taylor, Chief Executive of the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), was working "to create a 0 to 18 teaching workforce".[298] She stressed that she wanted to see "a much greater consistency across the teaching workforce and much less of a silo between the early years and primary school".[299] On the other hand, she also stressed that the reason why early years teachers were not being offered QTS was because "to move that early years professional to being of teacher status would create a cadre of people whose terms and conditions and salary expectations would not fit with what we have got at the moment".[300] Instead, the policy was to move "towards teachers and early years teachers having the same status over a period of years".[301] Raising the level of qualification of early years teachers to the same level as primary school teachers was one of the "stepping stones" to this end:[302] "If we suddenly created QTS teachers who had the same terms and conditions as teachers, they simply would not be able to be employed in the PVI sector, so we defeat the object".[303]

143. Evidence from Ofsted inspections and from the EPPE longitudinal study shows a positive link between the qualification levels of staff and the quality of early education provided.[304] Under its new inspection framework, Ofsted will report on the qualifications of staff. The Minister regarded this as "very important" because it "will signal to parents that the quality of staff is a critical factor".[305]

144. The Government is right to want to increase qualifications of the workforce but difficulties remain with status and pay. The message that Early Years Teachers are not equal to teachers in schools is strong and unjust. It is not enough for the Minister to articulate a vision of equality with other teachers-she has to set out a course of action with milestones on the way to a position where equal pay attracts equal quality. We recommend that the Department for Education set out such a strategy. We also recommend that an evaluation of the impact of the introduction of Teach First to the early years sector be carried out before the programme is expanded beyond the current pilot.

Training and development

145. Professor Melhuish told us that "there is certainly strong evidence that better trained staff do provide better quality services, which have an impact on child outcomes".[306] Taken as a whole, staff in Sure Start centres are better qualified than in the PVI sector, with one in five in children's centre nurseries having a degree.[307] The value of this was underlined by the head of a children's centre in Corby where a number of staff had taken BA and MA courses. She described the "enormous" impact on the centre "in terms of research on us as a setting [...] because there is a reflective conversation and dialogue that takes place".[308]

146. The NCB recommended that children's centre staff should "undertake initial training and regular CPD [Continuing Professional Development] in parental and family engagement, particularly around disadvantaged and/or vulnerable families so that they have the skills and confidence to engage with parents and families".[309] Sue Owen explained that this should be backed by "training plans within every setting, in order to identify the skills that staff have and the career trajectories they want to engage in, and what the needs of that setting are in terms of the qualifications of their staff".[310] There are often training plans held by local authorities but, given that many centres are in the PVI sector, a new requirement on each centre to adopt a plan would have to be built into funding agreements.[311] Ben Thomas of Unison pointed to issues around limited access to CPD, including time-off from work, and the introduction of fees for first level qualifications in NVQ Level 2 and 3.[312]

147. There is an under-utilised source of expertise and training within the sector in the form of outstanding and experienced practitioners in the centres. To explore how to make best use of this resource, Early Years Teaching Centres have been set up as a two year project, funded by the DfE, to use skilled practitioners in outstanding children's centres/nursery schools as trainers for staff in their own and other centres. The aim is to establish a network of "Early Years Teaching Schools" along the lines of the Teaching Schools developed by the school sector. The Minister told us that Charlie Taylor was looking at "the teaching-school model in early years".[313]

148. Others identified the need for a career structure within children's centres, not least to assist retention. Sue Egersdorff explained that "in terms of early years, it is very difficult to talk to a high calibre graduate about where they may be and how we can stop them being snaffled off into primary leadership [...] we need to retain some of them to be strong advocates and ambassadors for early years".[314] The Children's Society recommended creating a professional pathway specifically for children's centre staff who work with disadvantaged families, for example, an NVQ in family support and outreach, to raise the status of these workers with other professionals.[315] To attain the same end, the IPPR recommended a Royal College for early years practitioners which would be responsible for designing qualifications, commissioning training and accrediting workers.[316] Witnesses to our inquiry were generally supportive of the idea but differed on whether the proposed college should be part of a College of Teaching or a College of Early Years bringing in health professionals as well.[317] Ben Thomas of Unison considered that the discrepancy in pay between early years teachers and teachers in primary and secondary schools made a professional college of early years unlikely.[318] We agree. There needs to be significant development within the workforce of children's centres before it can be determined whether early years professionals should be admitted to a separate college or a college of teaching.

149. CPD is vital and should be encouraged by all centres. We recommend that the Ofsted inspection framework include checking that each centre has a training plan and that the plan is being implemented. We support the development of Early Years Teaching Centres as an effective way of passing on best practice and promoting workforce development. Nursery schools with children's centres should be at the centre of these hubs. The NCTL should take on a role in developing this and should also set out a career structure for children centre staff, including how the new qualifications and other CPD match to this pathway. The NCTL should also continue their work on systems leadership in early childhood education and their work on leadership standards in the early years.

Leadership

150. Dame Clare Tickell told us that "it is really important that we recognise the importance of leadership and a high quality of professional person who is running children's centres in order to have the kinds of conversations that we need to have".[319] In this she was supported by several other witnesses, including Naomi Eisenstadt who cautioned: "never underestimate the skills you need to run a Sure Start centre [...] we really underestimated the skills required and how complex it is",[320] and Caroline Sharp of NFER who described the role of children's centre leader as "a really difficult and demanding job to do well."[321]

151. There are no formal entry requirements for running a children's centre. The ECCE Strand 3 report found that "There was great variety in the leadership and management of centres"[322] but that "academic qualifications appear not to be [the] key ingredient" of leadership.[323] Caroline Sharp told us that centre leaders are "drawn from a diverse range of backgrounds which means that they will not necessarily have experience or formal training in child development and/or family support." She concluded that "leadership training is therefore of considerable importance".[324] Anne Longfield of 4Children also suggested that "There is development needed in terms of enabling people to be more entrepreneurial and enabling them to make partnerships with high status",[325] while Julie Longworth from Action for Children argued for "managers with skills in performance management and skills and experience in safeguarding".[326]

152. The DfE via the National College runs a National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL), designed for leaders of children's centres delivering integrated services. The qualification is currently under review and, in early September 2013, Brian Tytherleigh of the NCTL told us that the college was "waiting for a steer from policy colleagues to develop that review and the terms of that review and see where we go next".[327] We heard much concern about the review. Although it was generally accepted that the qualification needed updating, particularly given the change in structures of centres, it was clearly much valued. Some witnesses considered that it should be made mandatory.[328] There was also general agreement that it should include face to face meetings and exchanges, and not be delivered solely online. Caroline Sharp's research found that "centre leaders wanted to retain opportunities for reflection and professional exchange." She concluded that "there is a need to secure the future pipeline of highly skilled and well-prepared centre leaders."[329]

153. Barnardo's suggested that the National College was also well-placed to promote system leadership and that it "could promote and enable networks of national, regional and local leaders of integrated centre provision to reflect the parallel school leadership model endorsed by the College".[330] Vicky Lant explained that this would include enabling children's centre leaders going to see "terrific exemplars of good practice and [developing] that in their own provision".[331] Similarly, a recent report by Policy Exchange recommended that the NCTL "should develop leadership programmes for future Children's Centre managers, based on successful models employed in the school sector such as Teaching Leaders".[332]

154. The Minister told us that "the right person to manage a children's centre [...] will depend on the exact nature of the children's centre and how it is focused".[333] This points to the importance of recognising the changes that have occurred in the sector and the fact that different skills will be required in different types of centre. The NPQICL needs to be overhauled to reflect current practice in children's centres and then offered widely to new leaders. The course should retain the much valued elements of professional exchanges and time for reflection. It is vital that practitioners are involved in reviewing and designing the qualification.

155. The NCTL should take on the role of promoting locality leadership to spread best practice and encourage innovation, as it does in schools.

290 Q812 Back

291 Q299 Back

292 More Great Childcare: Raising quality and giving parents more choice, DfE (January 2013), p17 Back

293 Q797 Back

294 Q6 Back

295 More Great Childcare, pp22,29 Back

296 Q798 Back

297 Q798 Back

298 Q797 Back

299 Q798 Back

300 Q887 Back