Staff retention across the early years and out-of-school care workforces has been an abiding issue, often linked with unequal pay and conditions across the sectors.
It is critical to focus on children's entitlement to high-quality early learning and care. They and their families are central to what the workforce does and could do, and this is the main thrust of the review. The current need to review the workforce is predicated on the belief that it is the prime agent for change and Scotland's main tool for ensuring that policy becomes practice.
There is evidence that improved training and higher qualifications benefit the workforce, and that a more developed workforce improves children's experiences and developmental processes. There is, however, still a lack of data in Scotland on the impact of those qualifications on children's outcomes.
Scotland should be proud of the ambition it has set for children in the early years and later life. The realisation of the ambition is not without tension, however, as historically parts of the sector remain fragmented, have many stakeholders and have traditionally been under less policy scrutiny, and subject to lower levels of funding, than other sectors of public education.
The recommendations are:
- From the child's perspective, the integration of early learning and care is inseparable: this is now enshrined in many Government policy documents and the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act (2014). The review recognises the strength of this integrated focus, but notes the uneven realisation of the aim and calls for a particular emphasis on appropriate, core training in early learning across the sector to improve children's outcomes and transitions.
- The nature of working with young children requires complex skills around supporting their development and working with carers/parents. The review recognises the integrated working required of early learning and childcare and out-of-school care staff, and stresses the need for good data, well-educated and responsive staff and multi-agency working.
- While recognising and valuing the diversity of the workforce, the review stresses the importance of, and calls for, greater coherence in career progression, better conditions and more advancement of the workforce through an entitlement to appropriate on-going professional development, initial and higher qualifications; and greater parity of remuneration and service conditions.
This is an extract from the review's executive summary.
