Education: Early Years

Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe Excerpts

Thursday 8th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, for bringing this vital subject back to the House. It provides us with an opportunity to consider some of the telling reports that have come out over the past year or so. As we have heard, early years care and education is an area that attracts strong views and debate.

We can all agree with Dame Clare Tickell when she observes in her report on the early years foundation stage that there are few things more important than making sure that all children are given the very best start in life. Indeed, the aim of doing so through improved childcare, early education, health and family support lay at the heart of the previous Government’s creation of Sure Start in 1998. These children’s centres are an excellent example of partnership between the maintained, private and voluntary sectors. Today, they offer the earliest help to more than 2.5 million children and families.

The Government have themselves said that the series of reviews over the past year have served to strengthen the arguments for investment and reform in the foundation years. I should like to focus my remarks on one report—on an aspect of the debate that I have raised before, but to which I make no apology for returning: the need for a properly qualified, well motivated workforce in the foundation years.

In her review of early education and childcare qualifications, Foundations for Quality, Professor Cathy Nutbrown says:

“The biggest influence on the quality of early education and care is its workforce. Those who engage with children, supporting their learning and interaction with their environment through play, can affect their wellbeing, development and achievements”.

I know that to be true. I should declare an interest here in that my sister is an early years professional, operating two nurseries in Nottingham and previously several in London. I take my cue from her when she says that it is crucial that staff working in the early years are highly trained, well managed and led; that continuing professional development is vital; and that early years practitioners should be appropriately qualified and rewarded. Needless to say, this is not the current state of affairs. However, I am encouraged by Professor Nutbrown’s review, whose final report came out in June this year. She recognises that progress has been made in skills, and notes examples of excellent practice across the sector, but makes detailed and specific recommendations for improvement. I look forward to the Government’s response, which I understand is imminent.

Dame Clare Tickell’s earlier review of the early years foundation stage recommended that the Government keep a focus on upskilling the workforce and,

“maintain the ambitions for a graduate-led sector”.

Professor Nutbrown picks up on many of Clare Tickell’s points. She recommends that level 3 qualifications become the minimum standard for the workforce, changing current requirements so that all staff, including childminders who work with the early years foundation stage framework, should be qualified at a minimum “full and relevant” level 3 by September 2022. She also wants to strengthen level 3 qualifications to focus on the birth-to-seven age range and to include more on child development and play, more on special educational needs and disability and more on inclusivity and diversity. More controversially among the early years community, she has called for the introduction of a new early years teaching qualification to replace the early years professional status, citing research which shows the huge positive impact of graduate leadership on areas such as early literacy and social development.

I wonder about this proposal. The previous Government invested huge sums, through the transformation and graduate leaders funds, to transform the early years profession by the introduction of the early years professional status for existing graduates, based on the pedagogical model so admired in the Scandinavian childcare system, and also by encouraging others to undertake graduate study through the early years foundation and early education degrees. The profession tells us that this has already had a huge positive impact on practice, particularly in the areas highlighted by Professor Nutbrown. Can the Minister tell us the Government’s response to this?

In their response to other reports, Supporting Families in the Foundation Years, the Government announced that they would set up a national network of early years teaching centres to raise standards and improve children’s outcomes. The idea is that nursery schools and children’s centres demonstrating outstanding practice will share their expertise and support with other early years settings in their region. Will the Minister indicate how the Government plan to share lessons learnt from this model and say whether there may be opportunities for expansion?

The Government’s response also pointed to the new workforce agency. The Teaching Agency, operational from April this year, is to take responsibility for early years workers, including supporting the drive for a more highly qualified workforce and an increase in graduate leadership. Can the Minister give us any insights into progress made by the Teaching Agency in these areas?

When we consider the quality of staff needed to give our children the best possible start in life, we need to consider their qualifications. The evidence suggests that those with a higher level of qualification, degree-level specialism in early childhood, have the greatest impact. Research has shown the benefits that graduate leaders, and particularly qualified teachers, bring to early years settings. They have positive impacts, both in terms of curriculum and pedagogical leadership and in terms of measurable improvement in children’s outcomes in early literacy, social development, mathematics and science.

However much we talk about improving qualifications, we must also talk about cost. Someone has to pay for this and in that context, will the Minister say whether the Government will monitor the impact of the loss of the early intervention grant so as not to jeopardise other early years programmes, as the LGA fears? At the moment the major providers of childcare and education, the private and voluntary sectors, are almost totally dependent on the fees paid by parents and carers who need assistance. The early years education grant, paid by local authorities directly to providers for the support of two, three and four year-olds, is a reliable model, but the rate needs to be increased to enable providers to continue to offer it. The tax credit system accessed directly by parents is complicated, confused and easily open to fraudulent or mistaken claims. Will the Government bite the bullet and finally look at a system by which early years childcare and education becomes jointly funded by parents and the state, with all payments being made directly to providers who are highly regulated, constantly inspected and more easily accountable?

We have been told that high quality early education is one of the most important determinants of every child’s life chances. It is clear that we need to raise our expectations of what it means to work with young children and attract the best people into the workforce. We must not lose sight of the fact that investing in early years is investing in all our futures.