Early years organisations, experts and consultants are worried that Government proposals on changes to early years qualifications, outlined in a consultation launched today, could lower standards and ultimately, the quality of care.
The plans on changes to qualifications and ratios being consulted on include:
- Only requiring managers to hold a maths qualification rather than all Level 3 practitioners.
- Introducing an ‘experience based route’ to gain ‘approved status’ without having to do a qualification.
- Changing the percentage of Level 2 qualified staff required for staff: child ratios by altering the requirement that ‘at least half of all other staff must hold an approved Level 2 qualification’. The percentage could be changed to either 30 or 40 per cent to provide settings with ‘greater flexibility’.
