National Day Nurseries Association chairman Michael Thomp-son told a conference in London on day nurseries last week that he believed the Government wanted to expand childcare at the expense of standards. He said, 'It's like suggesting we'll get anyone with A-levels to teach.' This strategy might backfire, he warned, by failing to produce a movement of new recruits into the sector and prompting an exodus of practitioners qualified to NNEB or level 3 standard who felt disillusioned because their training had been devalued.
Instead, it was crucial for the Government to link the expansion of care to an expansion of trained and qualified childcarers. 'We are in danger of devaluing our finest asset, our staff, as has happened with the police and nursing,' Mr Thompson said. 'We should maintain the commitment to a level 3 qualification.'
He also warned of plans to cut central funding for NVQs with the introduction of the Learning and Skills Council in England in April. This applies, particulary, to funding for students aged 19 and over to reach NVQ level 3 via the modern apprenticeship, which has been halved, while the time allowed to finish the training has been cut from two or three years to 18 months.
He said these cuts could stop nursery groups from providing training. 'Four of the providers at a recent meeting of the NDNA had training centres, and all of them said they would be unlikely to continue providing NVQ training within six to 12 months,' Mr Thompson said.
The conference also looked at the extent to which the national standards for daycare will be enshrined in law. Some fear the national standards will amount to little more than a code of practice, with only minimal requirements given statutory force. The standards consist of 14 goals, or 'headline requirements', supported by detailed criteria.
Consultation documents on the standards, issued by the DfEE, explained that the headline requirements will be reflected in mandatory regulations to be made under the new Part XA of the Children Act. However, the underpinning criteria will not 'generally' be in regulations, although Ofsted will be directed to 'have regard' to them.
The issue came up when Dorian Bradley, director of Ofsted's early years programme, was asked if ratios and qualification requirements would be uniform across England. He said that if these standards were included in the regulations, there would be no variation; however, which standards went in the regulations was a 'ministerial decision' and the outcome was not yet clear. An Ofsted spokeswoman later confirmed that it was possible that qualification standards would be set outside the regulations.
Mr Bradley also revealed that a deal has been struck with the Inland Revenue to use their offices for meetings of childcare inspectors after September, when the majority begin to work from home. He said the directorate anticipated a shortfall of inspectors transferring and planned a recruitment drive for March.
