Nursery World - Nursery Management: Policy: Onwards and upwards

Reviews are rife in the early years sector. Here Mary Evans provides an indispensable guide to what's under scrutiny and when change on the ground is expected to kick in.

It is all change - again! The EYFS, Ofsted inspection framework, early years qualifications and Code of Practice for the free nursery entitlement are undergoing reviews.

Some observers thought that after the election of the Coalition Government the early years sector would slip down the political agenda and enjoy a phase of relative stability - albeit with less funding. How wrong they were.

The tight timetable set for implementation of the reviews puts nurseries under pressure to keep track of the changes, especially in the light of recent spending cuts which mean there is unlikely to be much local authority support.

The EYFS review, led by Dame Clare Tickell, is the lynchpin. The sector, which had embraced the EYFS, broadly welcomed her appointment, as it was felt there were areas of the framework that needed tweaking.

The key changes in the revised EYFS, which will be mandatory for all early years providers, are:

The six areas of learning to be replaced with seven areas

Three prime areas: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development

Four specific areas: literacy, mathematics, expressive arts and design, understanding the world

The 69 Early Learning Goals covering the areas of learning reduced to 17

Early years practitioners to carry out a child development check with children between 24 and 36 months of age

Early Years Foundation Stage Profile to be 'slimmed down' to take account of changes to the number of Early Learning Goals

New safeguarding and welfare requirements to cut red tape.

INSPECTIONS

Changes to Ofsted's inspections were inevitable, given the EYFS review. According to Jean Humphrys, Ofsted's director of education and care, the changes will reassure parents there are robust systems and processes for regulating early years and childcare providers, which will prevent unsuitable people from having access to children, while simplifying inspection for providers.

The new inspections will include fewer judgments, with more focus on the progress children make in their learning and development. In line with the slimmer EYFS, there will be a reduction in areas that Ofsted will award grades for:

Outcomes for children in the EYFS

Quality and standards of early years provision, including the role of the practitioner in supporting children's learning and development, and the effectiveness of care practice in helping children to feel emotionally secure and develop independence

Leadership and management

Overall effectiveness of the setting in meeting children's needs.

Other proposals

New ways of dealing with complaints from parents. In minor cases which do not suggest any risks to children, Ofsted would pass this to the provider and ask it to take any action necessary to meet registration requirements. More serious complaints would warrant a full inspection.

New-style certificates of registration will not detail conditions of registration relating to numbers and ages of children that can be cared for, although this will still be verified by Ofsted. If settings wish to increase their numbers they will just need to check the EYFS allows them to do so.

Onus is on the provider, not Ofsted, to carry out CRB checks.

Childminders need to complete their training before they register with Ofsted.

QUALIFICATIONS

The Nutbrown review, headed by Cathy Nutbrown, professor of education and director for research at the School of Education, University of Sheffield, also arose from the EYFS review. This had urged the Government to retain the goal of a graduate-led early years workforce and argued that entry qualifications to early years should be of a high standard consistent with the NNEB qualification.

The review focuses on:

The content of early years and childcare qualifications and training courses to improve the skills, knowledge and experience of early years professionals

Career progression and motivation

The development of a range of qualifications for early years workers at every stage of their career

The high standards and quality that are needed to meet the needs of children, families, workers and employers in the early years sector

Raising the status of early education and childcare.

CODE OF PRACTICE

Finally, the review of the Code of Practice was launched as a result of the announcement by Chancellor George Osborne last autumn of plans to extend free early education to 40 per cent of two-year-olds by 2014-15. This was on top of the plan to offer nursery education to 140,000 of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds by next year.

Leading the review are the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, and children's minister Sarah Teather. The proposals include:

Making the free entitlement to 15 hours early education per week more flexible, so it can be taken between 7am and 7pm, and spread across two days instead of the current three days

Using criteria applied for free school meals to decide which disadvantaged two-year-olds should qualify for free early education

Include two-year-olds who are looked after by the state in the eligibility criteria for free early education

Slim down statutory guidance for local authorities from 100 pages to fewer than 20

Set a basket of eligibility quality criteria for providers.

Sector commentators

Laura Henry, managing director of Childcare Consultancy and former Ofsted inspector, on inspections:

'We have inspections to safeguard children and the majority of providers welcome inspections. But there needs to be clarity, fairness and transparency.

'I think there needs to be more of a link between local authority ratings and Ofsted judgements. Local authorities often use the RAG system - Red, Amber, Green - to rate settings, but these ratings can be very different from the Ofsted judgements, and that confuses settings.

'It is right that things should be updated and I think it is right that Ofsted are going to focus on good practice in terms of improving overall outcomes for children.

'I would also like to see annual inspections even for outstanding settings and especially for those judged satisfactory. In schools the satisfactory grade is being changed to Notice to Improve, but how will we know if the setting has improved if it is not inspected again for three to four years?

'The cuts in local authority budgets mean there is not the support there was, so how are these settings going to improve?

'I am all for reducing bureaucracy but I like clarity. The details of how many children a setting is registered for should be on its certificate, then there can be no doubts.

'The timetable for this is very tight and what we need to know is when will the new version of Conducting Early Years Inspections be available so we can see what the new inspection process will look like.'

Sue Meekings, director of childcare at the Childcare Corporation, feels passionately about raising the quality of training and professional development in the early years sector. She wants the Nutbrown review to set entry requirements for people starting training.

'Despite the overwhelming support for an age limit of 18 to be set for qualified practitioners, there has been no reference, so far, to this in the Nutbrown review and it has not been adopted by the EYFS review.

'The length of time needed for completion of training seems to be determined by the funding agencies rather than by an evaluation of the time needed for the student to fully learn new skills and knowledge and embed them in practice. There is a perception that while the public is prepared to support and wait for qualifications in areas such as nursing, teaching and the law to take appropriate time, early years qualifications can be rushed through at lightning speed.

'Current qualifications have an insufficient focus on child development, its underpinning theories and effective ways to observe and assess children's learning. They also lack some of the basics - housekeeping if you like - which are essential to the hygienic operation of a nursery. Some new staff don't even know how to use a mop - NNEBs did!

'There should be minimum standards of qualifications for tutors, trainers and assessors. They should at least be at the level above that which they are teaching so they can impart a deeper sense of knowledge and perspective.

'More emphasis is needed on supporting trainees in explaining the importance of their role and the impact they can have and helping them to develop the confidence to deal with parents.'

Leanne Henderson, manager, kidsunlimited 'Campus Kids', University of Surrey and Nursery World EYP of the year, on the revised EYFS:

'The framework has been embraced by practitioners to ensure children have the best possible outcomes. I am also pleased it has been slimmed down to ensure it is relevant and easier to use on a daily basis.

'The Tickell review's suggestion of three prime areas for particular focus with the under-twos is a very welcome move, but I am concerned some practitioners may struggle with knowing when they should be incorporating the other four specific areas into their planning for individual children. We would welcome specific guidance for the under-twos in terms of phases and stages of development, as this is something that has not been included in the draft consultation.

'The separate area for literacy development is a positive change, but there is scant reference to the importance of listening to stories, seeing print and writing for a purpose - opportunities to learn about literacy through play. The expectation that children will read and write sentences is very specific and will put huge pressure on children, parents and practitioners. The links between the EYFS Early Learning Goals and Key Stage 1 remain tenuous and are a "top down" approach, rather than being informed by what we know is realistic to expect from the "typical" four-year-old child.

'The idea of a formal assessment on all children between 24 and 36 months has both positive and negative impacts. Children of this age frame particularly develop at different rates. Although I agree it is essential to discover a child who is struggling, this assessment could label a child too soon.

'My concern regarding children with English as an additional language is, if we are assessing children's speech in English this will lead to many children being considered to have "language delay", as it does not assess their communication development overall.'

Natalie Adamson, operations director, Tops Day Nurseries, on the revised Code of Practice:

'Flexibility for families, consistency between local authorities and sustainability for settings are what the management team at Tops Day Nurseries want to see come out of the review of the Code of Practice.

'Working across borders between one authority and the next can be so difficult. We have families who can be claiming funding in two different areas because they use more than one nursery and it can be problematic with the grant applied differently in each area.

'Reducing the 100-page document to under 20 pages could be a Catch 22. Making it much shorter and achieving greater clarity could be difficult. What we need to know are the parameters the local authorities have been given.

'Currently, one LA area in which we have a setting doesn't fund the education grant after 4pm, while another where there is a setting serving NHS shift workers pays a supplement because it's open from 6.45 am to 7.30pm.'

Managing director Cheryl Hadland adds that sustainability is an issue that needs to be recognised in the revised code. 'It is more expensive to have a nursery open before 8am and after 6pm due to the staffing ratios compared with the numbers of children actually attending at these times of the day, so the amounts paid need to be adjusted. The funding needs to keep pace with inflation and rises in the minimum wage.'

TIMETABLE FOR CHANGE IN 2012

February to April: Piloting of new inspection arrangements

March: Interim report from Nutbrown review

End of March: Revised Early Years Foundation Stage published

April 6: Consultation on revised Ofsted frameworks for inspection and regulation closes

From April: DfE issues guidance supporting the revised EYFS, including: guidance on completing the EYFS Profile best practice models for presenting information from the two-year-old progress check a chart covering child development from birth to age five, covering both prime and specific areas of the early learning goals a summary of the EYFS for parents