NEWS

The service – the development of which was announced in August 2024 – was received positively during the pilot stage and is now being scheduled for release later in the spring.

The pilot phase of the project ran in September and October 2024, with a large group of early years managers selected to be as representative as possible of the wider early years community.

Early stages of the project identified that early years managers and practitioners had a number of issues when assessing potential employees’ qualifications and suitability.

These include:

• difficulty identifying if an early years qualification is ‘full and relevant’.
  
• limited awareness around the need for ‘full and relevant’ qualifications for staff to count in Level 2, 3 or 6 staff:child ratios.
  
• a lack of clarity around “meaningful next steps” when a qualification is found to not be ‘full and relevant’.
  

The service is part of the DfE’s ongoing work to support the expansion of the early years workforce by 35,000 by September 2025 and ensure that this workforce includes sufficient suitably-qualified educators to meet ratio requirements.

A new Early Years Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (EYTDA) standard has been published by the government.

The EYTDA is a new, three-year undergraduate-level apprenticeship qualification open to all provider types that the government hopes will “bring new opportunities to early years educators and settings” while increasing the number of early years teachers.

The programme is aimed at school-leavers and existing early years staff qualified to Level 3 with GCSEs in mathematics, English and science, and will enable a trainee to obtain a full and relevant Level 6 qualification with an early years degree and Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS).

It has been designed to fit alongside the day-to-day work in early years settings. Employers that pay the apprenticeship levy will be eligible to use\ these payments for the EYTDA. Employers that are not eligible to make apprenticeship levy payments can co-fund the cost of the apprenticeship training, with the government contributing 95% of course costs.

The new apprenticeship qualification complements the Early Years Initial Teacher Training programme, which the Department for Education (DfE) said it will continue to support.

The EYTDA will be delivered through accredited Initial Teacher Training Providers who are registered on the Apprenticeship Provider and Assessment Register (APAR). The government expect training providers to offer the EYTDA from September 2026, though some may be ready earlier.

Interested staff, employers and training providers can register their interest at EYTDA.ENQUIRIES@education.gov.uk.

Commenting, early education minister Stephen Morgan said: “Having more members of staff with EYTS in the workforce will not only improve quality, but also help providers to operate in higher staff:child ratios for three- and four-year-olds (1:13).

“We are driving up quality through our Plan for Change, and these new training pathways are a vital step in delivering an early years system that works for parents and providers, making sure thousands more children start school ready to learn.”

and experience, and will decide whether they meet the criteria to work in the ratios at Level 3.

Eligible educators will be able to start the process of accessing the experience-based route from March 2025, though those who are successful in gaining experience-based route status would not be able to count in Level 3 ratios until the necessary changes have been made to the EYFS, expected from September 2025.

Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: "We know there are countless dedicated, skilled and experienced educators working in the sector who, despite being excellent at their jobs, are unable to progress due to a lack of formal qualifications. As such, at a time when the early years staffing crisis remains so severe, we hope the launch of the new experience-based route will encourage many more talented individuals to both join and remain in the early years.

"That said, we’re clear that working as an early educator is, and should be seen as, a highly-skilled profession. It is absolutely vital, therefore, that the rollout and impact of this policy is monitored closely, and this new route does not come at the expense of the quality of provision that children receive.

"What’s more, while this new route to counting in ratios is likely to offer some welcome respite to providers struggling in the face of the ongoing staffing crisis, this change can only ever be one small part of a much wider recruitment and retention strategy. Ultimately, if the government not only wants to attract new educators into the sector, but also ensure they stay in long term, it needs to ensure that those working in the sector get the respect – and, crucially, the pay – they so clearly deserve."

See here for more detail on the experience-based route.

Long waiting times for support and a lack of access to SEND expertise have undermined parents’ confidence in the system, according to the report, while a 140% increase in children’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans between 2015 and January 2024 has added further strain to what it calls a “struggling system”.

The report also highlighted other concerns, including:

• The DfE’s lack of data and targets, as well as a clear, costed plan, to help reform the system.
  
• No clear understanding in the DfE of what is meant by ‘inclusive education’, a core strand of its approach, or how it will be achieved.
  
• The lack of financial sustainability of the current system.
  

The Public Accounts Committee also provides a number of recommendations to address these concerns. A key recommendation is to increase the DfE’s cooperation with local authorities, the Department for Health and Social Care, and the Ministry of Justice to better understand the reasons behind increased demand for support and help identify SEND needs earlier.

Commenting, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “The immensity of this situation cannot be overstated. As a nation, we are failing countless children. We have been doing so for years. At the same time, we are creating an existential financial risk for some local authorities, caused by that same failing system.

“This report must serve as a line in the sand for Government. Every day that goes by for families not receiving the right support is another day closer to a lost generation of young people.”

Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: “The Public Accounts Committee is absolutely right to call on the government to take urgent action to improve the SEND system. However, if the severe challenges highlighted in this report are to truly to be addressed, we’re clear that a focus on the early years must be at the heart of any reforms.

“Early educators are extremely committed to supporting children with SEND, but they continue to face a system that is underfunded, overly complex and, frankly, entirely unfit for purpose. As a result, many providers warn of being unable to sustainably deliver provision, meaning that families are losing out on much-needed targeted support.

“We know that the earlier a child is able to receive the additional support they need, the greater the impact this will have on their learning and development. With the government naming SEND as a key priority for 2025, it is critical that the early years plays a central role in this. As it stands, the situation that children, families and providers are faced with is entirely unacceptable."

The government is potentially underestimating the full impact of National Insurance (NI) changes on the early years sector, the Early Years Alliance has warned.

This is due to what the organisation describes as a ‘mistaken’ belief among ministers that many providers will be able to claim Employment Allowance, which the Alliance argues is not necessarily the case for settings.

From April 2025, employer NI Contributions will increase from 13.8% to 15%, while the per-employee threshold at which employers start to pay NI will be reduced from £9,100 to £5,000 per year.

The government has sought to mitigate the impact of these changes by increasing the amount that employers can deduct from their NI bill through the Employment Alliance scheme from £5,000 to £10,500. It has also removed the £100,000 threshold for eligibility for the Employment Alliance scheme, expanding it to all eligible employers with NI bills.

However, although the government has responded to concerns about the impact of NI changes on the early years sector by claiming that "it is likely that many childcare providers will be able to access” Employment Allowance, the Alliance is warning that, in many cases, this won’t be possible due to the eligibility criteria for this support.

Under current Employment Allowance eligibility guidance, if more than 50% of a non-charitable organisation’s work is deemed ‘public work’, and more than 50% of their income is public funding, they are designated as a ‘public body’ and cannot claim Employment Allowance (unless they are a charity).

This, the Alliance has warned, is likely to apply to a growing number of early years providers as the expansion of the early entitlement offer continues and government-funded places make up a growing proportion of the services that settings provide.

While it has been confirmed that public sectors, such as schools and the NHS, will be protected from the impact of NI increases, the same does not apply to organisations deemed to be ‘public bodies’ under the Employment Allowance schemes.

The government has confirmed that it currently has no estimate of how many early years providers will be eligible for Employment Allowance when the National Insurance changes are introduced in April.

Research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has concluded that despite recent increases in early years funding, providers are set to continue to face significant financial pressures.

The IFS’ Annual Report on spending in England highlighted that while early years spending has doubled in real-terms since 2010, it does not go far enough to offset the range of costs providers face, especially when considering the upcoming increases to the national living and minimum wages and to employer National Insurance contributions.

The IFS also noted that funding uplifts have been primarily directed to younger children. As a result, funding for the three-and four-year-old entitlements have continued to fall short of rising provider costs, with the average funding rate for this age category worth around 15% less in 2024/25 than in 2012/13 once cost rises have been factored in.

The report also said that several locations risk being unable to meet demand amid the rollout of the early entitlement expansion, which – by September – will see eligible working families able to access 30-hours of early education and care from nine months onwards. It highlighted that while national government figures imply demand will be met, many local authorities are set to struggle to provide enough places, with the upcoming expansion of school-based provision unlikely to go far enough to meet demand.

The funding announcement arrives on the heels of the £69 million allocated for the 400-strong network of family hubs in England in the Budget.

The government has stated that £57 million of the £126 million funding will go to 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation in 2025-26, providing a raft of support via the NHS’ Start for Life services.

This £57 million will consist of:

• £36.5 million to improve mental health support for families and promote positive early relationships between babies and caregivers.
  
• £18.5 million to improve infant feeding services and provide support with breastfeeding.
  
• £2 million to ensure families can access and understand their local Start for Life services, and support parents and carers to bring their valuable insight into service design.
  

The family hubs and Start for Life programme are jointly run by the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and aim to improve support from pregnancy onwards, “breaking down barriers to opportunity” and setting “every child up for the best start in life”.

Commenting, minister for children and families Janet Daby said: “Investment in these crucial services will break down barriers to opportunity, support families and get a record proportion of children ready for school.

"Through our Plan for Change, we’ll ensure tens of thousands more children are hitting key early learning goals on personal, social and physical development as well as communication, literacy and maths. That’s because children growing up in our country deserve the best start in life – nothing less.”