The DCE has been hailed as the gold standard of childcare education, but is it at risk of losing its lustre? Mary Evans reports
The two-year Diploma in Childcare and Education is often hailed as the gold standard of childcare qualifications, but even though more students are enrolling on DCE courses this term, some observers wonder if they really are on to a winner.
Dr Richard Dorrance, chief executive of CACHE, the awarding body for the qualification, insists that they are. 'The DCE is the gold standard training course for people who want to work in any childcare setting. The diploma is going to be around for many years and will enable people to work in any setting. 'There is a common core for everyone working in children's services, with options that are setting specific. The idea is that if people change setting they wouldn't have to do the common core again. The DCE will reflect the new occupational standards. It will reflect the changes in the job role.'
Student numbers have risen steadily from 8,588 in 2000 to 9,212 at the start of the last academic year. CACHE is predicting a 12 per cent increase this term to 10,200.
Part of its popularity may be due to the academic standing that the qualification confers: it is equivalent to 3 A-levels, having been awarded a maximum of 360 UCAS tariff points, giving it Higher Education entry-level status.
Apart from being a route to university, the DCE can be a pathway to courses in general nursing training, midwifery, teaching and social work.
It equips a student to work as a nanny, nursery supervisor, pre-school leader, creche leader, special educational needs supporter or nursery nurse. 'It is still recognised by employers as an absolutely excellent course,' says Kate Beith, principal of The Chiltern College in Reading. 'It has kept pace with the Government changes, for example observational skills elements have been developed.
'The difference between DCE and NVQ is that an NVQ is only as good as the training provider delivering it and NVQ candidates can do all their placements at one setting. You have qualified tutors running DCE courses and students have five different placements.'
'Personally, I am much happier with the DCE than anything we have ever had,' says Helen Bishop, deputy head of early years care and education at Hertford College in Oxford. 'We have a programme that is superb. It is well taught, gives the students so much and has a bit of academic rigour about it and is popular.'
Lynette Lee, who represented the National Day Nurseries Association in the sector-wide consultation on the new occupational standards, says childcare employers view the DCE as 'the new NNEB'. 'This award is still the qualification which is most easily recognised by the sector,' she says.
Although employers have occasionally voiced concerns that some young, newly qualified DCE students lack practical experience, they still favour younger candidates with the DCE over those with an NVQ, says Ms Lee, 'given the sometimes negative reporting of the NVQ award, where the depth of knowledge held by candidates has sometimes been questioned'. But she adds, 'The more mature candidate who has life experience will be accepted with an NVQ.'
Although the NVQ 3 and DCE sit alongside each other on the National Qualification Framework, she says employers tend to rate the DCE more highly because of some negative experiences of the NVQ system and a lack of understanding about qualification structures and developments, and the occupational standards.
Maintained sector
The qualification is clearly highly regarded by private-sector employers, but does it carry a cachet in the maintained sector?
'It is my understanding that the DCE does attract a higher salary in schools,' says Dr Dorrance. This is disputed by Tricia Pritchard, professional officer at the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses (PANN), who says that even when schools recognise nursery nurses' qualifications they do not pay them accordingly.
'I have been with PANN for 20 years and the disillusionment has increased over the past two or three years. The biggest gripe is the lack of recognition from the employers and the fact that they are working alongside colleagues for whom they have a great deal of respect but who are less qualified, less experienced, but who are coming in on the same pay scale.
'The DCE is the gold standard? I think that might have been the case. But I don't think that is so much the case now, not with NVQs and the new Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs). It would be a mistake by CACHE if they sat back and thought the award is the be all and end all. That is probably no longer the case.'
The Government's commitment to easing the workload of teachers by giving greater responsibility to HLTAs makes the attainment of the DCE an attractive proposition, according to Bruni de la Motte, education officer for Unison. 'The Higher Level Teaching Assistant scheme has to carry more pay. We would not agree to anything other than that. A teachers' union is already complaining that some teaching assistants are getting more than newly qualified teachers.'
She says the people best placed to take advantage of the scheme when it comes into effect in September next year are experienced nursery nurses with the NNEB, or its successor qualification the DCE, as they will have been able to take the fast-track route to HLTA status.
'You won't automatically get more pay because you have gained HLTA status. You have to have a specific role in your school. Schools need to have a structure in place, and that is going to happen in the next year because of the national agreement on this.
'Quite a few changes are going to happen. Teachers will have guaranteed time out for preparation, planning and assessment, and schools will need to get HLTA status in place. There will be opportunities here, but only if you have recognised HLTA status will you get more.'
However, staff on higher pay scales could be more vulnerable if heads have to make spending cuts, says Dr Alan Marr, principal lecturer at London Metropolitan University.
'This September there is going to be a drop of 60,000 in the intake at primary school. NNEB posts in schools are better paid than other teaching assistants and nursery assistants - they have their own terms and conditions of service. But with budget constraints, one thing you find is these people are seen to be fairly vulnerable.
'In the jobs market most people who take this route are not going to be quite so fortunate as perhaps they think they are.'
They may be even more vulnerable because schools can also qualify for funding when employing people on the registered teacher programme, but there is no subsidy for NNEB- or DCE-qualified staff.
Under review
Inevitably, to keep in line with the new occupational standards the DCE will be reviewed, but Dr Dorrance says no firm decisions have yet been made on the extent or scope of any possible changes.
'The premise will not change that the DCE is the gold standard training course for people who want to work in any childcare setting. There are lots of optional units in the new occupational standards and we have to decide how to incorporate these into the diploma. If we put in lots of optional units, it loses its generic nature.'
Although CACHE does not set specific academic entry requirements for the diploma course, students need to be educated to sufficient standard to cope with the syllabus.
'The academic calibre of students is going up. We have people with four As at GCSE coming in,' says Helen Bishop. 'We have some joining us after doing their A-S levels who are disillusioned with school. In my first year cohort, four out of the 42 have got A-S levels.
'Those applying this year have got predicted GCSE grades of As and Bs, instead of just scraping Cs. They are coming in these days with much better predicted grades.'
'The diploma is still the main course that we do here,' says Kate Beith. 'There is a demand for it, but it is often from students who are going to use it as an alternative to the A-level route.
'Candidates have changed. Before they would have gone on to be good, solid nursery nurses, but now we are asking for five GCSEs, including one in English. They need to be at this level because the course is the equivalent of an A level, so it is very difficult for those who are not at this level.
'We probably get maybe 10 per cent go straight from here after finishing the DCE to do a further qualification. What increasingly is happening is they are leaving, getting work, and then after maybe two or three years working they are going on to further qualifications such as a teaching degree or paediatric nursing.'
