Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 23
23
Rejected
Reintroduce a Leadership Quality Fund for diverse early years professional qualifications.
Recommendation
The Government has acknowledged the importance of graduate leadership in the ECEC sector. It should now listen to sector-wide calls for an equivalent of the Graduate Leader’s Fund to be reintroduced. We recommend that this is given a broader name, such as the ‘Leadership Quality Fund’, and that it can accommodate a wide variety of professional ECEC qualifications. (Paragraph 125) Careers for the Early Years Workforce
Government Response Summary
The government does not commit to reintroducing a fund equivalent to the Graduate Leader’s Fund, stating it no longer exists. Instead, it highlights existing and alternative support mechanisms for the early years workforce, including increased entitlement funding, a national recruitment campaign, EYITT funding, and the National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership, while also considering new apprenticeship routes.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
Supporting the early years workforce continues to be a priority for this Government. The Graduate Leader Fund was designed to support all full day care PVI sector providers in employing a graduate or early years professional by 2015 to lead practise across the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Whilst the Graduate Leader Fund no longer exists, we remain committed to ensuring there are routes to graduate level qualifications in the early years sector alongside wider professional development activity. DfE is working with the sector to support and grow staff to deliver the transformative reforms announced by the Chancellor in the Spring Budget. By increasing entitlement funding (£204 million of additional funding in 2023–24, increasing to £288 million by 2024–25 to deliver the existing entitlement offer) providers will be more able to recruit and retain the staff they need. We will also launch a new national recruitment campaign early next year to support the recruitment and retention of talented staff. DfE also supports graduates into the early years sector through funding the early years initial teacher training (EYITT) programme. This includes funding bursaries of up to £5,000 based on the level of degree a candidate has, and an employer incentive payment of £7,000 per trainee. Employer incentive payments can be used to pay for trainee travel costs, support release time for trainee mentoring and help towards other associated costs such as training materials. This funding ensures that future leaders are attracted to and supported to have a career in the Early Years profession. As well as EYITT, DfE funds the National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership. This has been designed to support early years leaders to develop expertise in leading high-quality education and care, as well as increase their expertise in effective staff and organisational management. We are also considering new accelerated apprenticeship and degree apprenticeship routes, so that everyone from junior staff to senior leaders can easily move into a career in the sector. These apprenticeships will specifically support future early years leaders to earn whilst they learn.