National review of the Early years and Childcare Workforce

Penny Curtis, Early Education and Childcare Division, Scottish Executive

Everyone recognises the importance of giving children the best possible start in life. That’s why the Scottish Executive is committed to improving our already high quality childcare and early years provision.

Investing in Children’s Futures, the Executive’s response to the National Review of the Early Years and Childcare Workforce, is designed to improve the status, recognition and professional development of early years and childcare staff, allowing them to develop their expertise and build satisfying and rewarding careers which deliver consistently higher quality services.

Well qualified, professional workforce

High quality, flexible early years and childcare services are essential to ensure all our children fulfil their potential, to help them develop the social skills and attitudes which will stand them in good stead in later life, to provide the safe and stimulating care parents want for their children, and to enable parents to take up employment and training opportunities.

Evidence shows that the quality of provision determines how good these outcomes are. Only high quality services can deliver the benefits research has identified. Research also highlights that by far the most important factor in delivering the quality of services that will give children the best possible start in life is a well qualified professional workforce.

Ministers' key actions

The response sets out Ministers’ long-term vision of services which combine quality and flexibility, and of a truly professional workforce, respected for the quality and flexibility of the services it provides for children and families. It is also a vision where the workforce is no longer perceived as low skilled or low paid.

The key actions Ministers intend to take to start the process are:

• Developing leadership by creating a workforce that is led by SCQF level 9 (degree or a work-based equivalent) qualified professionals. The first managers will be able to start continuing professional development routes to the new professional leadership level by September 2008. Ministers will ask the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to amend their registration requirements from 2011 to require lead practitioner/managers to have attained this leadership level or to attain it within a specified period. 

• Creating a genuine career structure for the workforce where career progression and development is supported by a qualifications and professional development framework. Professionals who make the most of these opportunities to gain new qualifications will be rewarded for their efforts with clearer career prospects. The SSSC will develop a framework by September 2009 to support career pathways for the workforce, so that workers can clearly see the promotion and progression prospects within their chosen careers and children can continue to benefit from their skills and experience. 

• Supporting the private and voluntary sector providers of pre-school education to invest in their workforces by providing an additional £5 million each year to increase the ‘advisory floor’ established by the Scottish Executive to inform local authority decisions about the cost of providing pre-school places in the private and voluntary sectors.

Flexible services

Quality services also need to be flexible. Modern life means that parents need those services to help them juggle the often conflicting demands of career and family life. The response gives a clear lead to partners and stakeholders about what they need to do to deliver high quality flexible services: 

• Councils need to develop and support career pathways for their staff, so that staff are clear about routes for progression and have access to development opportunities which will allow them to work towards securing promoted posts and leadership positions. 

• Updated guidance will be provided to councils to require them to work more closely with their partner providers to ensure a high quality service is delivered to all children. Central to this will be greater equity in partnership arrangements and funding for pre-school education providers.

• Private and voluntary sector pre-school providers are advised to use the additional support to ensure that they can attract, train and retain staff, to ensure that they meet registration standards and support workers’ professional development.

• The SSSC has been asked to deliver a three-year programme to develop a qualifications and professional development framework, in partnership with key stakeholders including representatives of employers, the workforce and training providers.

• Ministers have set out the early action they intend to take to develop the professional workforce we need to deliver quality flexible services for children and families. It is a large and challenging programme of development work. It is not the end of the process, but the start of one to continue to develop a truly professional early years and childcare workforce in Scotland.