Consultation on Early Education and Childcare Staff Deployment:The Communication Trust response condensed

What qualifications do you think staff should have to allow them to operate with these more flexible arrangements?

/ The Communication Trust welcomes the drive for improving qualifications for the childcare workforce, but urges the government to ensure that they have a clear focus on how best to support children’s speech, language and communication development.
Qualifications need to include a clear focus on children’s speech, language and communication development
  • Communication and language is of the three prime areas in the new EYFS, and evidence shows the crucial role of language for children’s development. For example, language development at age 2 has been shown to strongly predict children’s performance on entry to primary school[1]and is also linked to outcomes into adulthood[2].
  • However, in his most recent Annual Report HM Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, found that too many children are still entering school without the basic skills they need to be ready to learn.
  • Indeed we know that 34% of all children are still not achieving adequately in CLL at the end of the foundation stage; and that in areas of social disadvantage around 50% of children are likely to have significantly delayed language (although many will not have been identified).[3]
  • The Ofsted report also highlighted that children from the poorest 20% of homes are 19 months behind children from the richest homes in terms of their use of vocabulary at the age of 5.
  • Additionally, evidence shows that many early years staff feel inadequately equipped to help children with language delay with over 60%[4] of teachers reporting they lacked confidence in their ability to meet children’s language needs.There is also a wealth of evidence, highlighting the significant and long term impacts on children’s literacy[5], attainment, behaviour, social and emotional development[6]
So the need for a workforce well-qualified to support children’s speech, language and communication is clear.
We endorse Professor Nutbrown’s recommendation that ‘level 3 qualifications should become the minimum standard for the workforce’ and welcome her view of the importance of language and communication. A number of level 3 units are already available on the QCF, developed by The Communication Trust which could easily be included within existing or new qualifications and a level 3 award Supporting children and young people’s speech, language and communicationis also available offering an accessible route to accreditation.
The relationship between improving qualifications and adult- child ratios
Clearly we support improved qualifications, particularly where they will reflect skills in speech, language and communication. However, we have concerns as to how effectively even qualified practitioners will be able to put into practice the key approaches to supporting children’s communication development within the context of higher adult-child ratios.
Evidence shows that it is the high quality of adult-child interactions which effectively supports children’s speech, language and communication development. Research has repeatedly shown that children need good quality AND quantity of language to develop these skills. This includes:
  • scaffolded interactions to develop understanding and expression of language
  • following the child’s lead, facilitating interactive and imaginative play activities and social interaction
  • staff knowing the children so they can talk about what they are interested in and move them on
  • having opportunities to build and expand vocabulary, to get involved in interactive story-telling, supporting behaviour regulation and emotional development through talk.
Whilst we welcome an increasingly qualified workforce, we feel that it is not merely being qualified which leads to better outcomes; it is practitioners being able to put their skills and knowledge gained through qualification effectively into practice - even the most skilled staff will not be able to consistently provide the experiences and support children need to effectively develop their speech, language and communication skills with these ratios.
Additionally, we have concerns that there seems to be little in the proposals in relation to children with SEN or disabilities, or the very many in some areas with delayed speech, language or communication. There are number of points to consider:
  • Ratios set out do not vary or take into account these children at all; where ratios are higher, children’s needs may go unmet
  • Many children’s needs are already going undetected and we would be concerned that this would increase, given that staff, even if better qualified, would have less time to observe and evaluate children’s language. Research evidence has shown that in some areas staff are under identifyingchildren’s SLCN at up to 50%.[7]
  • Early years staff need to be specifically trained in supporting children with SEN, many of whom have attention difficulties and behaviour needs, which can be health and safety risk for themselves and for other children.
  • We would have concerns as to how targeted interventions focusing on all components of speech, language and communication would be delivered within these ratios.
  • In some settings in areas of social disadvantage, the majority of children will have delayed speech, language and communication skills – this requires staff to be able to invest time in stimulating language development, and also in working with parents to support their children’s needs. In this area, in particular, there is a significant evidence base to demonstrate the importance of low ratios to support the additional needs of young children from disadvantaged areas, particularly around language development, that eligible two year olds are likely to need.

Summary
Improving qualifications, particularly with a focus on speech, language and communication is to be welcomed; however, it is our view that the proposed ratios will impact greatly on the ability of even well-qualified staff to:
  • identify and support children with SLCN
  • effectively deliver the 2 year old progress check to identify children with developmental needs
  • narrow the gap, particularly but not exclusively where there are large numbers of children with SEND or delayed language.
We therefore feel that if criteria are to be put in place in relation to qualifications needed to operate more flexible arrangements, then there should be specific consultation with reference to children with SEND and language delay.
The Trust would suggest that skills and knowledge clearly focusing on children’s speech, language and communication development is a key component of any robust qualification for early years educators, along with effective skills in identifying and supporting children with speech, language and communication needs.However, we have concerns over the practical implications for even well-qualified staff to have adequate opportunity throughout the day for the high quality interactions needed to support children’s language development within the ratios outlined in the document. Increased ratios will also impact on the time practitioners are able to access CPD opportunities and reflect on their learning.

We are proposing that, while not exceeding more than 6 children in total, childminders should have more flexibility to care for up to four children under the age of five, including no more than two children under 12 months.

5 What difference do you think this will make to the childminding profession and what benefits do you think parents will get?

/ All of the comments for question 4 also apply to childminders. The Trust is therefore concerned about the impact that staffing ratios may have on the language development of children and on the ability of childminding professionals to develop language skills.
Additionally, as the Ofsted annual report demonstrates that the quality of childminders, particularly in areas of social deprivation lags behind other providers, the need for qualifications to not only be robust and mandatory but flexible and accessiblegiven the working patterns needs to be taken into account.

6 Are there any other elements of our proposals that you wish to comment on specifically?

/ The Trust very much welcomes the statement included in the section on improving the regulatory regime which highlights that staff and inspectors should be allowed to ‘concentrate on the most important consideration: how well adults are interacting with children’. We would argue that inspectors and staff should be given the necessary resource, time and support to be able to do this and that by increasing ratios this will have a negative impact on this very aim.
Aligning early years educator requirements more closely to QTS
The Trust would also like to raise concerns that making early years training standards more closely related to Qualified Teacher Status will not guarantee that the early years workforce will indeed have the skills needed to effectively support speech, language and communication development, noting that a recent Ofsted Report documents that inspectors found variation in the quality of initial training and induction in teaching early language and literacy.[8]
Linking More Great Childcare to the Children and Families Bill
Early identification and support are key for children with communication needs to mitigate against impact of long term SLCN, such as behavioural, learning and mental health issues. There is no reference about the impact of the proposed changes, particularly in relation to ratios, on disabled children/children with additional needs.
Given the concurrent passage of the Children and Families Bill, Part 3, and its emphasis on early identification, it is concerning that there is no impact assessment of the proposed changes for disabled children and on their rights for equal access and opportunities in the early years.
  • It is therefore imperative that;
  • staff are trained appropriately in robust qualifications with a focus on communication
  • funding flows correctly through the system to incentivise schools to take a holistic, joined up hands-on approach
  • parents of children with SEN, including SLCN, can be confident of accessing appropriate provision in their community.
Increasing the role of HMIs in inspecting early years settings
In our view, it will be essential to ensure that HMIs have a full understanding of the role of speech, language and communication in the early years and effective ways of staff supporting children’s development in this area; for some HMIs, there will be specific professional development needs in this area.
Low expectations of literacy and numeracy
Within this section, we would like to highlight that whilst agreeing that ‘parents trust nurseries to help their children learn to speak’ it is not simply mastering ‘basic literacy’ that will achieve this – it is staff having skills and knowledge in how children develop speech, language and communication and how best to support this which will enable children to develop into effective communicators.
Summary
The Trust recognisesthat the involvement of well-qualified professionals is fundamental to achieving high quality early education and would like to ensure that any ‘full and relevant qualification’ fully recognises the importance of speech, language and communication in its learning outcomes.
The Trust also believes, that early years educators need to receive robust speech language and communication training to ensure they can support the 10% of children with SLCN and upwards of 50% of children with language delay, as well as supporting children with typical language development. However, it is clear that it is the quality of interactions between adults and children that leads children to develop good early skills and The Trust is thereby concerned that the quality of interactions between adults and children may be negatively affected by the proposal to increase staff ratios.

7 Please let us have your views on responding to this consultation (e.g. the number and type of questions, was it easy to find, understand, complete etc.)

/ Comments:
The Communication Trust is a coalition of 47 leading voluntary sector and community-based organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication. We work to offer a collective voice for the sector.
In order to provide a fully comprehensive response we spend time consulting with all members so their views are represented in our final response. Therefore we would urge that the 12 week timescales are kept to ensure this process is possible.

[1] Roulstone et al (2011), Investigating the role of language in Children’s Early educational outcomes Research report DFE – RR134

[2] Feinstein L (2003) Inequality in the Early Cognitive Development of British Children in the 1970 Economica vol 70

[3] Evidence in Lee, W., and Wagg. E,(2012) Talk of the Town evaluation report highlighted that over 50% of children across three nurseries in Manchester were starting school with speech, language and communication needs,. More more than a quarter of these 3-4 year olds had standardised scores below 70 – a level which would meet the criteria for a Statement of Special Educational Needs in many local authorities

[4] Grasping the Nettle: Early intervention for children, families and communities C4EO

[5]Boyer E (1991) Ready To Learn, Carnegie Foundation, New Jersey

[6] Hartshorne M, (2006) The Cost to the Nation I CAN

[7]Lee, W., and Wagg, E,. (2012) Talk of the Town evaluation report

[8] According to Ofsted just under half of the trainees it surveyed (47%) had good or better skills, while that ‘not enough new teachers had consistent high-quality training during initial teacher education and induction to ensure that they developed good teaching skills, underpinned by a deep understanding of language development and the acquisition of literacy skills.’ The report noted that 14 of the 44 new teachers (32%) did not have sufficiently in-depth training in assessing pupils’ skills and knowledge in language and literacy to be able to use their judgements effectively to plan lessons and decide how to give extra help. From training to teaching early language and literacy: The Effectiveness of training to teach language and literacy in primary schools (Ofsted, 2012)