Early Years Professional Status: an Initiative in Search of a Strategy

Professor Denise Hevey,University of Northampton

17th EECERA Annual Conference, Prague, August 2007

Historical Context of ECEC in the UK

Low investment

8th out of 12 developed countries with 0.4%GDP (OECD 2006);

Separatist tradition

Part-time nursery education entitlement for 3-4 year olds. Compulsory schooling from 5

Mixed economy and variable quality

Private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector main provider

Current Policy

Childcare as part of anti-poverty strategy

Sure Start Unit 1997; 10 yr strategy for childcare (HMT 2004)

Workforce Reform/ upskilling

Children’s Workforce Development Council 2005; initial strategy published 2006

Integrated education & care services

Chidcare Act 2006: new Early Years Foundation Stage from birth to 5 statutory from 2008

Children’s Centres as Flagships for integrated Services

Parenting

FamilySupportGroups

SocialWork

HealthPromotion

Child Health Clinics

GP & Family Health

Services

EducationalPsychologist

SpecialistAssessment

Speech &

Language

EmploymentServices

Adult Basic Skills

Adult Ed.

Educare

On Site Services Off Site Services

Childminder Network

Homestart

Portage

Sitter Services

Health Visitors

Sure Start Outreach

Home-Carers Network

Developing the workforce

Integrated services require flexible, well-qualified staff:-

• influence of EPPE (Sylva et al. 2003)

• Graduate level curriculum leadership

• Multi-disciplinary teams

• A ‘Common Core’ of skills and knowledge

• National and local workforce development strategies

Early Years Professional Status (EYPS)

Graduate multi-disciplinary ‘curriculum’ leadership for 0-5 settings

Main purpose: change agent – raising standards

‘ lead practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), support and mentor other practitioners and model the skills and behaviours that safeguard and promote good outcomes for children’ (CWDC, 2007 p.4)

Targets: an EYP in every children’s centre by 2010 and every full day-care setting by 2015

Qualifications framework for Early Years

Level Qualification Role

7 NPQICL Children’s Centre Manager

6 EYPSBA Hons e.g. Early Childhood Studies

Curriculum leader across EYFS

5 Foundation Degree in EY

Senior EY Practitioner

4 OU Certificate in EY Practice

3 NVQ3; Nursery Nursing Diploma CACHE/Edexcel

Qualified Early Years Practitioner

EYPS: Outcomes of Regional Pilot

East Midlands pilot of EYPS national standards and validation methodology

Based on 48 candidates - broadly successful but:

Assessment flawed

Overly bureaucratic, little effective professional dialogue, no direct observation with children.

Levels and Expectations

Little evidence of depth of underpinning knowledge; threshold capability at leadership - beyond NQT.

(Hevey, Lumsden and Moxon 2007)

EYPS: National Evaluation

Evaluation of pilot by Henley Management College failed to identify significant issues

• Visited 4 out of 11 providers; telephone interviews with 23 candidates

• Judged validation process to be fit for purpose

‘Overall this is an excellent design, offering candidates a range of opportunities to show their skills and abilities and providing a fair and appropriate assessment model’.

(Williams, 2007 p.3)

Implementation of EYPS

• 35 Approved Training Providers nationally

• 4 ‘pathways’ to achieving EYPS

• All pathways fully funded by CWDC plus cover costs or bursary

• Centrally devised prospectus, national standards and guidance, candidate handbook

• Transformation Fund incentives

Alternative Routes to EYP status

1. Validation (assessment only) pathway (3 months)For ECS graduates who can meet all the standards

Candidates from all pathways must complete validation

2. EPD Short (3 months p/t plus validation)For other graduates with relevant experience.

3. EPD Long (12 months p/t plus validation)For Foundation Degree holders

4. Full training pathway (12 months full-time)For graduates with non-relevant degrees wishing to move into work with young children

Transformation Fund - £125m

Incentives for private, voluntary and independent sector

• Recruitment incentive of £3,000 per annum to employ graduate

• Quality premium of £5,000 per annum to support wider staff development

• Home Grown graduate scheme

Graduates to achieve EYPS within two years

What is going wrong?

• Disappointing recruitment to EYPS training

• Lack of clarity in relationship between EYPS and EY Foundation Stage

• Ineffectiveness of incentives (carrots) and regulatory requirements (sticks)

• A growing pool of resentment

Where is the Strategy?

Recruitment Issues

EYPS recruitment falling well short of targets

e.g. only 35% on Full-time Training Pathway for Sept. ‘07 (CWDC provider briefing Birmingham, July 07)

• >93% of Early Years workers do NOT meet EYPS eligibility requirements

• Absence of substantive national media campaign

• Restrictions exclude maintained schools - despite extended schools/ children’s centre policy.

• Failure to address low pay and terms and conditions of service

Relationship with EY Foundation Stage

Promise of a single integrated 0-5 framework across all settings undermined

• Lack of ‘read across’ between EYFS curriculum documents and EYPS standards (ECF 2007)

• Only qualified teachers (QTS) can lead practice in maintained schools (but not qualified in part of new curriculum)

• EYPS restricted to PVI sector (ghettoized in low pay area)

• Undermines principle of transferability of staff across Children’s Workforce

Problems with QTS

UK teacher training focuses on education and not on an holistic, multidisciplinary approach to the whole child

‘…the current training of early childhood teachers is no longer well suited to the multi-agency role of children’s centres, nor does it encompass the development and learning needs of children under three.’

(Pugh, 2006, p.17)

Incentives and regulation

Transformation fund incentivises EYPS in PVI sector while preventing fee increases (anti-poverty strategy) but take up is low (DCSF 2007)

• Complexity of administration.

• Sustainability of graduate employment when supply-side subsidy is short term.

• Demand-side subsidy through Tax Credits is not working

Regulatory requirements to include EYPS in all day care settings by 2015 but sector not convinced Ofsted will implement

A Growing Pool of Resentment

Failure to recognise the ‘grandmother principle’ when creating a new profession

• As yet, no fast-track alternative routes for those with experience but few academic qualifications

• Older, experienced staff feel undervalued – thrown on scrap heap

• Young graduates with little or no experience being brought in to fill, senior better paid curriculum leadership roles

Resentment can spill over on to EYPS students on placements

Importance of EYPS as an initiativeFor government

• Effective implementation of new EY Foundation Stage and raised standards across whole sector

For settings

• Better qualified staff and level playing field across maintained and PVI settings (1:13 ratio vs 1:8)

For individual practitioners

• Status and recognition – likely to lead to professional registration in future

For children

• Best practice in play, care and learning experiences - particularly for the youngest children.

An Initiative in Search of a Strategy

• Create a statutory, integrated ‘educare’ curriculum framework within which the EYP role is embedded

• Create a regulatory framework that applies equally to all settings offering the EYFS

• Establish a pay and conditions framework for the new multi-disciplinary professional role

• Challenge professional protectionism from pre-existing separate professions and develop top-up/ conversion courses in both directions

An Initiative in Search of a Strategy

• Establish common agreement on relevant academic and professional eligibility criteria

• Develop a rigorous validation process that is fit-for-purpose and has credibility in the field

• Provide alternative routes to EYPS for the ‘grandmothers’ of the profession

• Raise public awareness within and outside the sector with a major national media campaign

ConclusionOver-arching concern that a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’

opportunity for a new multi-disciplinary Early Years profession will be lost

• The best new graduates will still go into teaching

• Experienced practitioners will become alienated

• EYPs will become ghettoized in low paid jobs with few career prospects

• EYPS will never achieve equivalence in status with other professions

All aspects of the eight point strategy need to be addressed if EYPS is to be a success