Children's minister
Beverley Hughes reveals the Government thinking behind the
draft of the EYFS.
These are exciting times for early years and
childcare. Implementation of the Government's ten-year strategy
has already begun to make a real difference. And a ground-breaking
Childcare Bill will continue to transform the early years
landscape. The Bill's focus is on improving children's life
chances reducing inequalities, improving information to
parents and ensuring sufficient childcare is available to
meet their needs. It speaks powerfully on quality and provides
for the creation of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
The EYFS has been designed to deliver the
quality children need and the confidence parents want in
childcare. It is designed to ensure that settings provide
a nurturing environment, that they are safe and that there
is a focus on every child's development. And the framework
goes with the grain of existing practice. It brings together
three currently separate elements: Birth to Three matters,
the Foundation Stage and the National Standards for daycare
and childminding. So, care, learning and development in
this earliest phase of a child's life will be brought together
in a single framework, bringing greater coherence and emphasising
continuity.
Alongside the statutory requirements, EYFS
will set out guidance and describe good practice to help
raise quality across the board. This is being developed
in partnership with the sector, so it reflects existing
effective practice in the very wide range of settings which
will delivery EYFS. The majority of the goals at the end
of EYFS will mirror those in the existing Foundation Stage.
One goal has been slightly altered in both the draft EYFS
and the renewed literacy framework, to take account of the
findings of the Rose Review into early reading.
We've seen a lot of nonsense in the press
that our proposals will force young children into formal
learning too soon. That is not the case. For staff, EYFS
will be rigorous. It will require effective planning, observation
and assessment - a systematic approach. It will require
practitioners to think hard about their teaching and their
support for children's learning. But the individual child's
experience will continue to be informal, spontaneous and
enjoyable.
Learning through play
Early education and care must be about using play to enhance
and develop children's experiences. Teaching and learning
take place through practitioners getting involved in children's
play - planning, supporting and extending it.
And play is, of course, an essential experience
in its own right, through which children not only learn
and develop their creativity and imagination, but enjoy
life, make friends and feel good about themselves and about
others. Babies will still play with 'gloop' or in the sandpit,
children will still explore, make mistakes and be adventurous.
Working in partnership with parents is an
integral part of EYFS, which providers will do as a matter
of course. Other partnerships with, for instance, speech
and language therapists, portage workers or specialist teachers,
will also be key. Collaboration between providers will be
essential if each child is to learn to the best of their
ability. For example, a child may start the day with a childminder
and go back to the childminder after playgroup, nursery
or school. The childminder might, for example, pursue a
'zoo' theme which a child had begun at nursery, through
everyday activities like feeding the rabbit.
Workforce and training
We all need to set our sights high and develop a truly world-class
workforce if we are to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities.
In driving up quality we must build on existing good practice
and improve qualifications, training and management.
Research has shown that children's outcomes
are better in settings where staff are highly qualified.
We have considered how best to encourage settings to employ
more highly qualified practitioners, without adversely affecting
affordability and sustainability. We have made £250 million
available for a Transformation Fund to improve qualification
levels, with training routes to a new, graduate level Early
Years Professional status, and better qualified staff at
all levels. The Fund is targeted towards private and voluntary
sector providers, who have such an important role in delivering
the Early Years Foundation Stage.
It will be vital that local authorities use
this funding to take the lead on the workforce agenda and
ensure that early years education and childcare workers
receive the appropriate learning and development to deliver
the EYFS well.
(Nursery World, 18.05.06)
The Vision
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is about improving
life chances for all children, by giving them the opportunity
to have the best possible start, regardless of their family
circumstances or the setting they attend. They EYFS will
be designed to deliver improved outcomes for all children,
across every area of learning and development. We know that
there are particular gains for disadvantaged children from
early access to high quality care and education and we will
focus on closing the achievement gap between those children
and others.
Through the Childcare Bill, we seek to establish
a single coherent phase of development for all young children,
as announced in the 10 year strategy for childcare 'Choice
for parents, the best start for children'. We will provide
a flexible system that fosters and supports their development
from birth, where they will interact with adults that are
appropriately trained and experienced; in environments that
are safe, caring and loving. The approach of practitioners
will be age appropriate, ensuring that there are different
activities for children of different ages and at different
stages of their development. Through the EYFS parents can
feel secure knowing that all settings will allow children
to progress at a pace that's right for them as individuals,
taking account of any particular needs they may have.
For young children, care and learning are
indistinguishable. Care cannot be considered to be of good
quality unless it provides opportunities for children to
learn and develop. Learning cannot be considered to be of
good quality unless it is provided within an environment
where all children feel safe, secure and included. By applying
the same system to all providers we will ensure a level
of consistency and quality across all settings. The child's
needs do not change depending on the setting and nor should
the standards and quality experienced by the child.
Context
[.] The Childcare Bill provides for the creation of the
EYFS, to be launched in 2008 and to be compulsory for all
early years providers that have to register with Ofsted
as well as independent, maintained and non-maintained special
schools with provision for children from the age of three
to the end of the academic year in which they turn five.
This will help to create a level playing field between maintained,
voluntary and private sectors, ensuring a consistent, high
quality experience for all children, regardless of which
setting they attend.
The EYFS will bring together the current Birth
to three Framework, the Foundation Stage and elements of
the National Standards for under-eights daycare and childminding
into a single framework. It will cover children's development
and learning experiences from birth to 31 August following
a child's fifth birthday. The Childcare Bill will give EYFS
the same legal status as the Foundation Stage currently
has under the National Curriculum, whilst also removing
the Foundation Stage from the National Curriculum.
[.] The Childcare Bill specifies the areas
of learning and development for the EYFS. These are:
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Communication, language and literacy
- Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
- Knowledge and understanding of the world
- Physical development
- Creative development
(Extracted from Early Years
Foundation Stage, Direction of Travel Paper, February 2006)
The Daycare Trust has responded to the DfES
consultation on the Children's Workforce Strategy. It commended
the publication of the strategy, describing it as a 'fundamental
and important first step to support the needs of all young
children and their families'. However it expressed concerns
that the strategy was not ambitious enough in its long-term
goals and that it does not set targets for a highly skilled
and highly qualified workforce across the entire early years
sector.
Daycare Trust's vision is that educational
principles and a pedagogical approach should underpin the
reform of the early education and care sector. It sees the
need for a core professional trained at graduate level as
a pedagogue, with around 60% of the workforce having graduate-level
qualifications comparable to those of a primary school teacher,
with salary and benefits to match. The remaining 40% of
the workforce, assistant pedagogues, should have level 3
qualifications.
It points out that more funds are needed for
the development of a truly ambitious workforce strategy
and to address the strategic objectives of increasing the
number of staff, improving their qualifications and retaining
them in the workforce. Daycare Trust does not believe that
the Transformation Fund provides the necessary resources
to achieve the objectives of the strategy and that, in the
long-term, at least twice as much will be needed.
It recognises that the transition from the
current situation of low qualification and low pay of the
workforce to its vision of a pedagogical approach presents
challenges. However the current lack of a British pedagogical
tradition should not be considered an obstacle to developing
a pedagogical profession.
The full response paper can be downloaded
from www.daycaretrust.org.uk
(July 2005)
Support from the Start:
Lessons from International Early Years Policy, written
by Jenny North and published by The Maternity Alliance,
July 2005, examines what works in supporting pregnant women,
new parents and babies in the first year of life. It is
based on evidence from eight countries and provides recommendations
tailored to the UK.
When a child enters care outside the home, one of the key
responsibilities of the provider is to provide a stimulating
environment that will ensure the child's social and emotional
development is not impaired while she is away from her parents.
In some cases, childcare can offer a healthier, more stimulating
environment than that on offer at home. Daycare should allow
access to age-appropriate educational materials, supervised
socialisation with other children, and a high level of quality
interactions with a well-trained and committed carer.
However, all too often, childcare is seen
primarily as a function of women's increased activity in
the labour market - a place for children to be while their
parents are at work. The average childcare worker in the
UK has had, at most, two years of post-16 training. The
average wage is less than £7,000 per annum, and high staff
turnover is common in most facilities. Childcare is a low
paid, low status job, and is rarely considered a career
(Daycare Trust, 2004). Childcare - particularly for the
under-threes - is not seen as an opportunity for children
to develop and grow outside the home.
Improving the provision (and, more recently,
quality) of childcare has been on the government's agenda
since 1997. Local authorities have been extremely successful
in providing free part-time places for every three and four
year old. Some areas are now piloting provision for two
year olds. However, there is, as yet, no theoretical framework
underlying childcare in the UK.
There are different frameworks to choose from.
Several Northern European countries have, over the last
30 years, developed universal provision that centres around
a conception of the infant and pre-school child as a responsive
individual, who is shaped by her experience in childcare.
This means that she deserves a highly skilled carer.
However, this conception of the child has
developed differently in different countries. For example,
the dominant theory of 'pedagogy' in Denmark is characterised
by concern for the whole child - her development in the
widest sense of the word. She is a 'citizen', and not yet
a 'pupil', although she is constantly learning. The pedagogue
responsible for her is neither a 'carer', nor a 'teacher'.
In Sweden - and, more recently, New Zealand
- the early years worker is a teacher, and a child's education
is a continuous spectrum from birth to nineteen. Each new
stage of learning depends on quality teaching and care in
the stage before. Both these models produce childcare and
early education that is sensitive, and responsive, to children's
needs.
It is vital that policymakers and practitioners
in the UK recognise the importance of developing a theoretical
framework for childcare - either modeled on one of the two
Northern European conceptions, or a new model which uses
elements of both. Without a clear understanding of how children
should be cared for, and a commitment to implementing this
model in all childcare settings, it is too likely that,
at least in some cases, childcare will not offer children
anything other than a place to be when their parents cannot
be with them.
This is a crucial element to improving the
quality of childcare in the UK. The other is improving the
qualifications of the workforce. The recent Ten Year Strategy
For Childcare accepts that 'key explanatory factors' for
better quality childcare are 'staff with higher qualifications.trained
teachers working alongside less qualified staff .[and] staff
with a good understanding of child development and learning'.
Despite this, the government has not committed to a workforce
qualification target.
This is in contrast to New Zealand, where
the childcare workforce will be entirely made up of trained
teachers by 2012. In Sweden, 60% of the workforce is educated
to degree level. Danish pedagogues must train for three
years. The only commitment Labour has made is to have one
graduate worker in each childcare setting. This is not enough
to make a difference. In addition, the 'Transformation Fund',
provided to improve the skills of the workforce, is £125
million over three years from 2006. This equates to just
£500 for every worker. This is not enough to fund training,
or raise salaries.
-
Ambitious targets should be set for
improving the qualifications of the childcare workforce.
In addition, more funding is needed to facilitate the
training of existing staff, and to increase salaries.
-
The Childcare Tax Credit should be phased
out, with the money being given direct to childcare
facilities to enable improvement of services, better
salaries for workers and more affordable fees
-
Childcare providers must involve parents
more - both in their decision making processes, and
by making parents feel more welcome in childcare facilities.
(Extracted from Support
from the Start: Lessons from International Early Years Policy,
written by Jenny North, published by The Maternity Alliance,
July 2005)
The Department for Education and Skills has
published its Children's Workforce Strategy, under a consultation
period that runs to 22 July 2005. The strategy document
outlines a vision for a single qualifications framework
and a common core of skills and knowledge within early years
and highlights the importance of having suitably qualified
early years teachers looking after daycare settings.
It states that it would be necessary to explore
fully the scope for teacher training and development to
be enhanced to incorporate the Birth to Three framework
and Common Core elements, such as child development, caring
skills, working with parents and multi-agency working. It
discusses the possibility of retraining existing teachers,
as well as options such as a pedagogue or new teacher model.
To view the consultation paper go to www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations
(April 2005)
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