My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 3, 5, 11 and 23 regarding the quality of childcare to be delivered under the Bill, staff to child ratios, the workforce, and provision for children with special educational needs. I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Massey, Lady Tyler and Lady Pinnock, and the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, for highlighting the importance of high-quality childcare and, in particular, the skills and qualifications of the early years workforce, including for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
I reassure noble Lords that we all want childcare that meets the needs of working parents and their children, including those with special educational needs. I have listened carefully to the debate this evening and I completely agree with the points that have been made about the importance of the quality of childcare and its impact on child development. I reassure the House, and particularly all those who have contributed to this debate, that the quality of early education and childcare and the welfare of children remains paramount.
All childcare must be delivered in a safe, secure and welcoming way that contributes to a child’s welfare and their development. The Government believe that the extended entitlement needs to supplement and complement the current early education entitlement. It will need to provide positive and stimulating experiences for children, and staff will need to have the right skills and knowledge to deliver this care. There are a number of aspects to these amendments, each of which I will address in turn.
First, the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, seeks to extend the existing ratios for the current 15-hours early education entitlement to the 30-hours childcare entitlement and to set these out in primary legislation. All early years providers registered on the early years register must meet the early years
foundation stage framework requirements for welfare and well-being, including ratio and qualification requirements.
The English childcare system has some of the tightest adult-child ratios in the world. For three and four year-olds in group provision there must be one adult for every eight children. Or, where a person with a suitable level 6 qualification is working with the children, a 1:13 ratio can be used. The existing ratios have been set out in the EYFS since 2008 and we are committed to keeping them. I would like to place on record that there are no plans to change the ratios to deliver the new entitlement. I am very clear about this. The Government consider the current approach of using secondary legislation to be the right one for ratios, as was discussed in Committee. Ratios for all providers are already set out in secondary legislation, and this allows for a quick response if changes are needed to keep children safe and well cared for. I hope I have reassured noble Lords on this point and urge the noble Baroness to withdraw her amendment.
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I turn next to those parts of the noble Baroness’s amendments that seek a minimum level 3 qualification for all staff. We know that highly qualified staff lead to better outcomes for children. I am sure that noble Lords will welcome the Government’s commitment to wanting the sector to continue to attract highly qualified staff with a strong aptitude for working with young children and the right mix of knowledge and skills to deliver good-quality childcare.
The qualification level of the early years workforce has risen in recent years. Continuing this increase is a key aim of the Government’s workforce strategy, through the introduction of early years educator qualifications—these are equivalent to A-level standard—and early years initial teacher training. Research tells us that, in group daycare settings, 87% of the workforce has a relevant qualification at level 3. Indeed, many of the workforce are qualified beyond level 3. Since 2007, more than 16,000 individuals have achieved early years professional status and early years teacher status.
Over the summer, the Government, in partnership with the early years sector, made some key strategic changes to widen access to level 3 courses, allowing more individuals to begin their training. This included removing the requirement for new entrants to level 3 apprenticeships and level 3 stand-alone courses to hold GCSEs in English and maths at grade C or above on entry to their course. Now, those who do not already hold their GCSEs will be supported to gain them alongside their early years qualifications before entering the workforce at level 3. I hope that noble Lords will welcome this change.
The Government have made these changes in response to calls from the early years sector to simplify the route to early years qualifications. As a result of this collaborative approach, the changes have been warmly welcomed in the early years sector. I would like to quote Sue Robb, head of early years at 4Children, who said:
“We welcome the government’s decision that apprentices can work for their childcare qualifications at the same time as studying for their GCSEs in maths and English. This will encourage more apprentices into childcare and early years”.
It is through this collaborative approach that the work- force strategy will continue in 2016, when the Government will review progression routes within the sector to determine what more can be done to enable good-quality staff to maximise their potential and forge a successful career in early years.
We also know that it is not just the certificate that a member of staff holds that leads to benefits for young children but the proven ability of individuals to interact with children and care for them. This is what Ofsted focuses on when inspecting and making its judgments. Many members of the workforce qualified below level 3 provide the high-quality care that is needed. I believe it is important to recognise the excellent work that these people do; 44% of childminders, for example, come into this category, representing a significant part of the childcare workforce.
For these reasons, I believe that it is unnecessary, and would indeed be unnecessarily disruptive, to require all staff, including many in the private, voluntary and independent sectors, to have a level 3 qualification. I therefore urge that the amendment be withdrawn. I am in no doubt that the early years workforce will continue to be central to ensuring benefits for children across all types of settings.
I will next respond to the amendments relating to staff skills and qualifications in order to deliver the appropriate care to disabled children and those with special educational needs. It is the Government’s intention to ensure that the safety and care of all children is met, and we recognise that staff need to have the right skills and knowledge to deliver this care.
I would like to take this opportunity to restate something that I said in Committee: the law is very clear that this entitlement and the existing entitlement must be available for every eligible child who wishes to access it. A child with SEN or a disability not being able to find quality childcare in their area is not acceptable. It is not right and nor is it the responsibility of the parent of a child with SEN or a disability to have to scour the local area to find a place. Local government and providers who wish to deliver the entitlements need to work together to improve this situation. The early years foundation stage already requires providers to ensure that the necessary arrangements are in place to support children with SEN or disabilities. It also requires providers delivering funded places to have regard to the SEN code of practice.
Individuals gaining early years teacher status through early years initial teacher training routes must meet the teacher standards on early years to qualify and work as early years teachers. It is a requirement for them to adapt the education and care they provide to respond to the needs of all children. This means that they must demonstrate a clear understanding of those with special educational needs and disabilities, and be able to use and evaluate distinctive approaches to engage and support them.
I hope that noble Lords are reassured that the Government continue to support the development of the early years sector within a broader, self-improving education system. The Government have invested £5.3 million in voluntary and community sector
organisations this year, many of which focus on upskilling the workforce by offering training and development. A number of these programmes are delivering specific SEN and disabilities training to the early years workforce. In particular, the National Day Nurseries Association’s current SEND champions grant has proven very popular among the workforce and has been oversubscribed three times.
Local authorities also have a role to play. SEN and disability reforms within the Children and Families Act set out how local authorities, early years settings and schools must meet the needs of children with SEN and disabilities. Local authorities are expected to ensure that there is sufficient expertise and experience among local early years providers to support children with SEN. In many local authorities, they are doing this by having an area SENCO. A recent local authority implementation survey, which received responses from 104 local authorities, indicated that 78% already have an area SENCO for early years providers to access. We are confident that this number will continue to grow as the reforms become embedded.
It is clear that the early years workforce has an important part to play to ensure that children with SEN and disabilities are suitably cared for. However, the market is diverse—the majority is made up of private and voluntary institutions—and it would be very challenging to require every provider to have a suitably qualified member of staff or a SENCO. This would be a particularly challenging requirement to place on childminders, who make up 52% of the sector. As I have previously explained, every provider delivering the early years foundation stage, regardless of their size, must ensure that arrangements are in place to support children with SEN and disabilities.
I recognise that the amendment allows the Government to set a prescribed size, but I would be concerned about the potential perverse incentives with this; for example, a provider not taking more than 49 children if at 50 children the regulations would be more burdensome. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to look at ways in which we can learn from local authorities with area SENCOs and encourage other areas to follow them, building on the model of local authorities that we heard from in our recent survey.
From September 2016, we will roll out the 30 hours’ extended entitlement in certain areas to test market innovation and flexibility of provision, including the access available to those children with SEN and disabilities. One of the criteria we will set for local authorities which want to become early implementers is that they must clearly demonstrate how they will meet the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities. While SENCOs are already a valued part of the landscape, we want to develop and test other innovative ways of meeting the needs of children with SEN and disabilities. We do not want to prejudge the learning that we will gain from the early implementers and I hope that noble Lords will understand why we do not want to close down other potential options by settling on a single solution now.
Finally, but by no means least, I turn to Amendments 3 and 5, which seek to ensure that the childcare provided under this Bill is “high-quality”, including making it a
requirement for every child to be assigned a “key person”. I assure all noble Lords, as did my noble friend Lady Evans in Committee, that children are at the centre of our thinking. The Government are committed to ensuring that the entitlement delivers quality childcare that supports early development and is flexible and affordable for parents.
I hope that noble Lords have recognised the Government’s commitment to quality childcare in my response to the other amendments in this group. We have committed to keeping the current ratios. An effective strategy is in place to develop further the early years workforce, which has been welcomed by the sector. We are committed to getting high-quality provision in place for children with SEN and disabilities, and testing the best way to secure that.
The required quality of provision for funded childcare places is set out in regulations, and providers are held to account for the quality of the service they provide through a strong accountability framework. The noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, mentioned Ofsted. The current Ofsted framework gives a strong focus on the quality of adult interactions with children, with outcomes for children improving as a result. The combination of regulation and accountability has produced a childcare offer in which 85% of providers are now judged “good” or “outstanding” by Ofsted, compared to less than 70% five years ago.
In addition, it is vital that parents understand what to look for in high-quality provision. I am grateful to the noble Lords who emphasised this when we met yesterday and I would be very happy to write to the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, to set it out in more detail. Ofsted is already taking steps to make its inspection reports simpler and clearer for parents, and I am pleased to say that, in addition, the Minister for Childcare and Education will take forward work to develop easy-to-use guides and questions for parents to use when choosing a childcare provider. This will build on the recently published and hugely popular What to Expect, When? guide for parents, which shows parents what their children should be able to do as they progress and develop through their early years, providing tips for parents on how they can help their children reach those milestones. The new, easy-to-use guides will refer to key workers.
While there is of course always more to be done, the approach that we are taking is working. As the early years foundation stage profile data published yesterday reveal, an increasing proportion of children are achieving a good level of development at age 5: 66% in 2015 compared with 52% in 2013.
There have also been improvements in provision for disadvantaged children, for whom high-quality childcare can help to mitigate the risk of falling behind early and staying behind. As the quality of providers in disadvantaged areas has improved—78% are now judged “good” or “outstanding”, compared with 59% five years ago—so, too, have outcomes for lower-attaining children. The newly published data reveal that the gap between the lowest-attaining 20% achieving a good level of development and the rest continues to close, from 37% in 2013 to 32% in 2015.
We know that the quality of childcare makes a difference to outcomes, particularly for the most disadvantaged, and as such government will make sure that the regulations and the accountability framework that underpin the system continue to drive quality delivery. Section 7 of the Childcare Act 2006 places a duty on local authorities to secure prescribed early years provision free of charge. The details of how this provision is delivered, including various aspects of its quality and safety, are set out in regulations. We intend to use the same approach for the extended entitlement and will consult next year on those regulations.
I turn to Amendment 5, on key workers. All registered early years providers must meet a comprehensive set of safeguarding and welfare requirements. The requirements already cover child protection, ensuring that those who care for our youngest children are suitable to do so, promoting children’s good health, ensuring that premises are safe, and preventing accidents and injuries as far as possible. To strengthen these requirements even further, the Government are already introducing new measures outside the Bill significantly to increase the number of staff with paediatric first aid training. Providers are already required to assign every child a “key person”. Key persons have an important role to play, helping to ensure that every child’s learning and care is tailored to meet their individual needs. The key person is a familiar figure who is accessible and available as a point of contact for parents, too.
The key person system is already well established, as required under the EYFS. The safeguarding and welfare requirements for registered early years providers are comprehensive, as is absolutely right. Parents want to be reassured that when they leave their child, or, indeed, grandchild, all aspects of their safety and welfare will be addressed.
I do not believe that we should single out any individual requirements in order to given them prominence in primary legislation. It seems odd to stipulate that regulations setting out what is meant by “high-quality” childcare must require that each child is allocated a key worker, but not mention the other requirements around safeguarding and welfare. In saying this, I am not downplaying the valuable role that the key person plays but I do not see a case for singling out their role in primary legislation. I think we are in agreement that secondary legislation is the right place for us to set out the comprehensive suite of requirements, but I did enjoy the noble Earl’s comments about Mrs Everest, aka “Woomany”.
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that high-quality childcare, delivered by staff with the right skills and qualifications, which meets the needs of children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, is a vital principle for this Government. I hope the noble Baronesses and the noble Earl have been reassured by my responses and I urge them to withdraw their amendments.
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