The assurance was given last week by Richard Dorrance, chief executive of the Council for Awards in Children's Care and Education (CACHE), after some nursery nurses who qualified as NNEBs around 20 years ago had expressed concerns that they were being expected to re-take their qualification to bring them up to current Level 3 status.
Mr Dorrance sought to reassure childcarers that this was not the case. He said, 'In principle, any childcare qualification that pre-dates the current child protection legislation, children in special educational needs and the Foundation Stage in the national curriculum is obviously to an extent out of date.
'Both CACHE and Ofsted say that workers have to keep up to date with courses. We do not say that they have to have another Level 3 qualification, but because they are professionals they should be responsible for doing one-and two-day courses in order to keep their qualifications up to date.'
Mr Dorrance added that he knew of some childcarers who had qualified around 1985 but who had done no further training courses since then. He added, 'There is no truth in the rumour that they can't practise - if this was so the whole system would collapse - or that they need to do a new Level 3 qualification.'
CACHE is the accreditation body for the NNEB and the CACHE Diploma in Childcare and Education (DCE), an updated version of the NNEB designed to accommodate recent developments in childcare. The DCE was introduced three years ago and is the equivalent of three A-levels.
Anyone with concerns or questions about qualifications can contact CACHE's information department on 01727 847636.
