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The government could overhaul the early years training route to encourage “parity of esteem” for early years educators, it has announced today.

The Department for Education has proposed two options for redesigning early years training so that it leads to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

In its consultation , it has suggested that one possibility is phasing out Early Years Teacher Status.

The consultation process is part of the government’s cross-departmental review into early education and childcare support, which was first announced in last year’s autumn Budget.

Early years educators ‘undervalued’

The DfE says in the consultation that it wants to strengthen early years teaching qualifications to “improve consistency in practice”, “raise the professional status of the workforce”, and “support recruitment, retention, career progression and pathways”.

It adds that early years educators are “undervalued” for several reasons: less employment flexibility, a lack of understanding about early years practice, a “fragmented” career route, and less consistency in the content and expectations of training.

The government wants to recreate the “golden thread” - the aspiration of seamless CPD in school-based teaching over the course of a career - for the early years.

Limited flexibility with Early Years Teacher Status

Currently, there are two different graduate statuses an early years teacher can have.

Early Years Teacher Status is a specialist professional status for graduates who want to work with young children from birth to age 5 in early years settings.

Alternatively, the QTS is the professional status for primary and secondary teachers in England.

While those with QTS can teach in all school settings, as well as early years, those with Early Years Teacher Status cannot teach in maintained schools.

Early years could become part of QTS

The DfE consultation proposes two options.

The first is for those with early years initial teacher training to follow a bespoke early years core content framework, during which prospective teachers would demonstrate how they meet the early years teacher standards.

Secondary legislation would be needed to recognise early years teacher training as one of the routes to becoming a qualified teacher.

This could be “entirely tailored to the needs of early years pedagogy, with no need to be trained specifically to teach in later key stages”, the consultation advises.

However, the government also warns that this option would “not resolve issues around the lack of early years training for school teachers”, and that there may be “missed opportunities” to build on the established school teacher training system with an existing sector presence.

Under the proposals, having two routes to becoming an early years teacher - both the existing initial teacher training and early career framework and a new, separate early years framework - could perpetuate a two-tiered system, the DfE suggests.

Another concern is that the proposed early years framework may be at risk of “lacking recognition” in schools.

All teachers could have early years learning

The second option would be to create one qualification system to become an early years teacher.

All new teachers could have a level of understanding of early childhood development and pedagogy, “sending a clear signal that early years teaching carries equivalent status”.

This option could have a positive impact on primary teachers’ professional practice, the DfE says, specifically in supporting the transition to Reception and early identification of need.

However, for some initial teacher training (ITT) courses, this could mean that content on early childhood development and pedagogy would replace parts of the current curriculum that may be more relevant for the phase and subject that the trainee will teach.

The inclusion of early years content within the current ITT framework may prompt a review of the .

“More change in this space could challenge the ITT market, which has already been subject to a lot of change in recent years,” the DfE advises.

The consultation closes on 24 September.

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