Childcare workforce development
The Government aims to have a world class children's workforce. However they cannot achieve this without the support and commitment of the people who work with children.
They need people who can make as much difference to children's life chances as possible.
Ten year strategy
'Choice for parents: the best start for children.'
This sets out the Government's ten year strategy to create a sustainable framework for high quality integrated early years and childcare services for all children and families
It provides guidance to Local Authorities who are responsible for writing a children's and young people's plan. It sets out the priorities and outlines how these will be achieved.
To improve the skills and competencies of their childcare workforce:
- Local Authorities have been provided with a workforce development budget
- local strategies have been developed
- targets have been set to support training.
For further information on the ten year strategy, please visit the Sure Start website.
For further information on the Liverpool children's and young people's plan, please visit our CYPP web page.
Childcare Act 2006
The new Childcare Act was passed by Parliament on 11 July 2006. It will help to transform childcare and early years services by taking forward key commitments of the ten year strategy.
The act will formalize the important strategic role that Local Authorities play through a new set of duties.
These will require Local Authorities to:
- improve the five Every Child Matters outcomes for pre-school children
- reduce inequalities in these outcomes
- secure sufficient childcare for working parents
- provide a better parental information service.
The act also:
- reforms and simplifies early years regulation and inspection arrangements
- provides for a new integrated education and care quality framework (pre-school children) and the new Ofsted Childcare Register.
For further information on the Childcare Act, please visit the Childcare Act section of the Sure Start website.
Graduate leader fund
Formerly the transformation fund, this was introduced by the Government to help deliver their commitment to improving the quality of childcare without increasing costs to parents. It is available to private, voluntary and independent (PVI) settings who provide childcare for 0 to 5 year olds.
The main elements are:
-
Quality premium
PVI settings can apply for the quality premium grant if they currently employ a graduate professional leader with a level 5 or 6 childcare qualification. They can also claim £5000 for their setting per year.
PVI settings employing a graduate level 5 or 6 childcare professional practice leader for the first time can apply for a further £3000 to support additional employment costs.
-
Home grown graduate incentive
This element is available for PVI settings who are unable to recruit a graduate level professional without causing disruption to their existing staff team, but a member of staff commits to working towards a level 5 or 6 qualification in childcare.
Graduate leader application form![(MS Word [319Kb] opens in new window)](/images/Word.gif)
Workforce development - training for staff at levels 5 and 6
Funding is available to the PVI sector for staff to access higher level qualifications. If your staff would like to achieve a level 3, 4, 5 or 6 qualification there is funding available through our workforce development budget.
The graduate leader fund may be able to support the cost of fees for a member of staff who wishes to access a level 5 or 6 qualification in childcare and will commit to moving onto an early years professional status pathway.
More information
For more information on workforce development and the graduate leader fund, please contact the childcare workforce development co-ordinator on 0151 225 6258 or email janet.bradley@liverpool.gov.uk