Raising the bar: What next for the early childhood education and care workforce?

Raising the bar - What next for the early childhood education and care workforce?

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In ten years, since the publication of the 1998 National Childcare Strategy, early childhood education and care (ECEC) has become an increasingly important area of policy at national level. The Government has introduced a series of initiatives designed to expand the amount of ECEC provision and its availability, and raise the quality of the services offered. However, despite significantly increased state expenditure on ECEC and an emphasis on workforce development, the ECEC workforce remains among the most poorly qualified, lowest paid and least valued of all professions in the UK.

There is a longstanding Government commitment to tackling this. For example, as far back as 2004 the then Minister for Children, Margaret Hodge MP, stated:

'I'm absolutely determined that we're not going to allow childcare to expand with another low-paid workforce. Our children deserve much better.'

The following year the Children's Workforce Strategy consultation paper recognised the need:

'to ensure that providers across the [ECEC] sector have incentives to employ professional staff, including the means to pay the higher salaries that such workers command.'

and also that:

'...a better qualified workforce will mean rising levels of pay...'

Yet despite a wealth of research and analysis on the topic there have been few concrete moves to increase the pay and conditions of ECEC workers - particularly those working in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sectors - towards a level commensurate with professionals working in other children's services.

On 1 September 2008 a new integrated care and education framework for providers, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), was introduced. This is a first attempt to eradicate the distinction between what constitutes 'education' and what constitutes 'childcare' for the under-five age group. Traditional views identifying 'educator' as a more specialised role than 'carer' have contributed greatly to ECEC workers often feeling that they are the poorer cousins of the wider children's sector and that their work is undervalued. This view has been reinforced by inferior rates of pay and working conditions in comparison to other children's workforce professionals and the gendered nature of the workforce.

However, with the introduction of the EYFS, it is hard to see how these traditional boundaries governing pay and status can continue to be justified. This paper takes stock of the present state of the ECEC workforce and considers current Government measures aimed at improving the quality of ECEC staff on the ground. It then argues that in light of the increasing importance of the ECEC sector in improving quality and delivering positive outcomes for children, and the progress being made through initial steps to professionalise the ECEC workforce, more needs to be done to tackle the persistent problem of poor pay and working conditions for ECEC employees. This needs to be considered alongside the other rapid developments taking place in the sector, or the Government may find itself unable to deliver the best outcomes for children.

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