{"id":478,"date":"2013-02-04T17:43:48","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T17:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/?p=478"},"modified":"2013-02-04T17:43:48","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T17:43:48","slug":"more-great-childcare-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/more-great-childcare-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"More Great Childcare II"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our first blog post<\/a> on the changes proposed by Liz Truss we focused on the changes to ratios. This second part is about the changes which relate to qualifications. To understand this one must first understand that Professor Cathy Nutbrown undertook a review, culminating last year in the report Foundations for Quality<\/em><\/a> which made a number of recommendations. More Great Childcare<\/em><\/a> is, amongst other things, the Governments response to that.<\/p>\n

Early Years Educators<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Liz Truss proposes a new standard \u2018Early Years Educator\u2019 badge for qualifications. As anyone who has looked into gaining a qualification over the last decade, or looked at employing someone, there is a huge array of qualifications, some of which are simply a rebranded NNEB and some of which are barely worth the paper they\u2019re written on. These were all slimmed down the the Diploma for the Children and Young People\u2019s Workforce, which was criticised by Nutbrown\u2019s review for being, amongst other things, too broad. Clarity here would probably be welcomed by everyone.<\/p>\n

Early years teachers<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

More Great Childcare <\/em>proposes a new status and training course for Early Years Teachers, a postgraduate qualification that will focus on teaching in the early years and have the same entry requirements (including the skills tests) as school teachers, but crucially stops shorts of giving Early Years Teachers the same Qualified Teacher Status that their primary and secondary colleagues have. Given that there is already Early Years Professional Status, which can be taken by professionals working in registered settings, the proposed change doesn\u2019t seem to go much further and is likely to be a source of discontent.<\/p>\n

GCSE Maths and English<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Nutbrown recommended that all entrants onto an early years qualification hold a level 2, with the reasoning that learners should be \u2018confident and capable in their literacy and numeracy\u2019. The Government has interpreted this as a grade C in Maths and English GCSE.<\/p>\n

This has been of particular interest to many on our Facebook page. It used to be a requirement of many colleges before entry, and some people seemed unaware that this policy had changed. Others appreciated the need for English to develop children\u2019s communication skills but questioned the need for maths. Still others placed a higher value on aptitude for working with children.<\/p>\n

Nannies in particular, who are not obliged to hold any qualifications, are uniquely affected by this recommendation. Parents can order their own priorities when hiring a nanny, but particularly for those with school aged children GCSEs and further educational qualifications are increasingly important. A quick random poll revealed that parents felt academic qualifications combined with a natural affinity for children actually outweighed the need for formal childcare training. What would Nutbrown or Liz Truss say to that?<\/p>\n

So how does this link back to ratios?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Nutbrown herself suggested that the Government explore <\/strong>whether qualified teachers could work with more three and four year olds. The Government re-examined ratios in a larger sense and suggested increased ratios possibly based upon:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Setting based criteria e.g. 70% of staff qualified to level 3; 100% of staff qualified to level 3; 100% of staff to have a C in Maths and English; at least one graduate plus 70% of staff qualified to level 3<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Practitioner based criteria e.g. only staff with a C in English and Maths to operate the higher ratio<\/p>\n

There is some sense in the second requirement, although we don\u2019t recall our GCSE (or O-level) certificates giving us extra eyes or arms, in that the paperwork is going to increase by 50% and strong literacy and numeracy skills will be essential to cope with that in a timely manner.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for people already working in early years?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

If you already have a qualification rest assured, that will be assessed against the criteria in place when they were awarded. If you are working, or wish to work, in a nursery and you don\u2019t meet the literacy and numeracy requirements you may find your prospects limited. If you don\u2019t have a qualification you may find that you need to brush up on your maths or English first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our first blog post on the changes proposed by Liz Truss we focused on the changes to ratios. This second part is about the changes which relate to qualifications. To understand this one must first understand that Professor Cathy Nutbrown undertook a review, culminating last year in the report Foundations for Quality which made … Continue reading “More Great Childcare II”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4,5,6,8,14,16,17,19],"tags":[96,193,244,291,299,353,356,357,406,410,501],"class_list":["post-478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agencies","category-au-pairs","category-babysitters","category-childcare","category-childminders","category-education","category-jobs","category-nannies","category-nurseries","category-parents","tag-childminder","tag-getting-nanny-job","tag-jobs-in-childcare","tag-more-great-childcare","tag-nanny","tag-nursery-employment","tag-nursery-work","tag-nutbrown","tag-qualifications","tag-ratios","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}