Nursery World - Diploma in Childcare and Education: Setting the standard

More status for employees, more confidence for employers. That's the promise of a new diploma for childcarers which finally lays the NNEB to rest. Patricia Slatcher reports

New Year has come early for the nation's soon-to-be nursery nurses. It was already out with the old and in with the new in September, when a new, improved diploma was introduced by CACHE (Council for Awards in Children's Care and Education). The Diploma in Childcare and Education (DCE) replaces the CACHE Diploma in Nursery Nursing (DNN), which has run since 1994 and was often referred to as the NNEB.

'The NNEB title always persisted because the National Nursery Examination Board which set it up had been around since 1945 and it became the industry standard,' says CACHE director Maureen Smith. 'However, the NNEB actually ceased to exist in 1994 when it merged with another organisation to form CACHE. 'So this new Diploma is the "next generation" and we feel it very much increases the reliability and the rigour of the qualification and will give employers even more confidence.'

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