Nursery World - Nursery nurses win support for upgrade

Nursery nurse members of the public service union Unison in Scotland have gathered 20,000 signatures - double their own number - in support of a petition calling on the Scottish Executive to set up a review of early years education and childcare similar to the McCrone inquiry into teaching. The petition says that the early years sector should be recognised as a separate profession within overall education provision. It calls for nursery nurses' qualifications to be standardised and for the Executive to identify a career progression route for them and launch a national inquiry with a view to producing a report and recommendations on the way forward.

The petition says that the early years sector should be recognised as a separate profession within overall education provision. It calls for nursery nurses' qualifications to be standardised and for the Executive to identify a career progression route for them and launch a national inquiry with a view to producing a report and recommendations on the way forward.

Carol Ball, chair of the union's nursery nurse working party, said Unison plans to submit the signatures to a meeting of the Scottish Parliament's public petitions committee shortly. The committee decides whether a public petition is admissible and what action should be taken about it.

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