Government scraps early years workforce strategy's graduate plans

Government proposals to grow the early years graduate workforce in poorer areas and to change the rules to allow those with Early Years Teacher Status or Early Years Professional Status to lead nursery classes in maintained settings have been abandoned.

The Department for Education’s decision not to go ahead with the plans was revealed in a letter from the children and  families minister Nadhim Zahawi to the chair of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon, following his appearance before the committee on 10 July as part of the Life Chances Inquiry.

Mr Zahawi said that the DfE would not now go ahead with its plan to carry out a a feasibility study into developing a programme to grow the graduate workforce in disadvantaged areas, to narrow the quality gap between settings in disadvantaged and more affluent areas.

Explaining the decision not to go ahead with the plans, the minister said that Ofsted data shows that the proportion of providers rated Good or Outstanding is now almost identical in the least and most deprived areas and that evidence from the SEED study shows that children in disadvantaged areas are now just as likely to be able to access high quality education as children more affluent areas. 

He added, ‘As I outlined at the hearing, it is clear that recruiting graduates into the PVI sector remains very challenging, despite significant investment by successive governments since 2006. In response, it is important we consider alternative but complementary approaches to continuing to improve professional development across the wider workforce to lead to rapid improvements in quality and children’s attainment.

‘With this in mind, I can confirm that after careful consideration we have decided not to proceed with the graduate feasibility study. Instead, as announced in the social mobility action plan, we will be investing £20 million in professional development activity focused on disadvantaged areas.’

Further details would be announced in due course and the Government remained committed to ensuring there were routes to graduate level qualifications in the early years sector.

Secondly, following consultation last year with Ofsted, unions, and school and college leaders, Mr Zahawi said that the DfE has decided not to amend the regulations to enable those with EYPS and EYTS to lead nursery classes in maintained settings.

While he said he realised this might cause disappointment for some in the sector amid concerns about the lack of parity between EYPS/EYTS and QTS, ‘amending the regulations would not in itself address this issue, as those with EYPS/EYTS would still not be subject to teacher pay and conditions.’

Sector response

Early years organisations expressed their disappointment with the DfE’s decisions, citing the need to bring pay and conditions for early years graduates in line with teachers in schools, and invest more funding overall in the sector.

Beatrice Merrick, chief executive of Early Education, said, ‘We regret that Government has made a U-turn on this important commitment. We know that Ofsted ratings are a not a measure of quality which correlates well with the kind of high quality provision which improves children’s outcomes in the early years.