Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of new nursery staff in (a) Burnley and (b) Lancashire who will be affected by the new requirements for staff taking a Level 3 in childcare.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The requirements have been in effect since 2014 for individuals taking the level 3 Early Years Educator qualifications.

The requirement for level 3 Early Years Educator staff to hold a GCSE Maths and English at grade C or above was introduced to make sure that new entrants to the workforce have the numeracy and literacy skills they need to operate in a level 3 role. Staff working in level 3 roles can have a range of responsibilities, all of which require them to be highly skilled and well-qualified. Level 3 staff are likely to work directly with children, and many will have additional responsibility as room leaders and some will lead and manage an entire childcare setting.

The department holds national data on level 3 staff in the early years sector. We know excellent progress has been made over the past few years in which qualification levels have continued to rise. Between 2008 and 2013, the proportion of the 233,200 full day care staff with at least a level 3 qualification grew from 75% to 87%[1]. We are continuing to collect data on level 3 staff through the Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey this year, and will collect data from 2016 in the Early Years Census.

We have been talking to childcare employers and training organisations about early years qualifications. We want to continue to work with the sector to understand the challenges faced, and find ways to tackle these whilst ensuring a quality workforce remains.

[1] Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey 2013