Human Resource Developmentneeds for the Expanding Early Childhood Development Sector (Conception

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENTNEEDS FOR THE EXPANDING EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT SECTOR (CONCEPTION TO FOUR YEARS) IN SOUTH AFRICA – ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

INTRODUCTION

Policy developments in the last two years are providing clear direction for the scaling up of ECD provision. Government iscommitted tomaking ECD a public good and accelerating access to an Essential Package (of services)from conception to formal school going age.[1]This gives impetus toECD provisions in the National Development Plan and the Integrated ECD Programme of Action for Moving Ahead (2013-2018) and the ECD Policy and Programme currently in development.

Key to implementation on a population based scale will be sufficient qualified human resources for universal and equitable access to ECD services.Both size and diversity of the workforce will have to expand and capacity will need to be built for a qualified and skilled workforce to manage and deliver services. The HR objective of the draft ECD Policy is the development of appropriate cadres of ECD practitioners in sufficient numbers with sufficient skills to support the implementation of the ECD Policy.

Meeting this objective requires attention to several areas includingqualifications, training provision, professionalisation, and employment.Developing and delivering a coherent overall ECD strategy for long term sector requirements will depend on collaborationand participation of a range of stakeholders includingdifferent government departments responsible for training and service delivery, quality assurance councils, professional bodies and training providers.

The National Planning Commission together with partners from the sector are hosting a series of conversations with relevant stakeholders including government departments, public and private training providers, quality assurance bodies, professional associations and ECD civil society networks in order to

• Get a common understanding of what the key issues are;
• Develop a strategy for working to address these issues.

The first of the conversations, held on 12 November 2014, has been used as the basis for this discussion paper.

ISSUE 1:WHAT QUALIFCATIONS ARE NEEDED FOR DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF WORKERS?

As commitment to the Essential Package of ECD services has developed, the understanding that the ECD workforce must become much more diverse, straddling health, social development and education has grown.While ECD has been seen as an education pathway with qualifications for 0 - 4 located with the ETDP SETA, to implement the essential package means we now have to consider other cadres and their managing departments andstructuresin order to have a coherent HR strategy which also makes provision for intersectoral career pathing.

The Draft ECD Policy provides for the following categories of ECD workers:

• Mother and Child Community Workers to provide a combination of home visiting and community and clinic-based support groups for pregnant women and mothers of infants and young children up to the age of 2 years It is probable that the existing cadre of Community Health Workers would be increased and strengthened to perform this function
• ECD Practitioners for ECD Centres
• ECD Playgroup facilitators for community playgroups, toy librarians
• Supervisors to provide monitoring and support for all these categories.
• Remedial practitioners to support inclusion in early stimulation programmes and supporting health professionals (speech-, occupational-, physiotherapist; psychologists.[2])

ECD qualifications currently on offer or in development for those working directly with children under school going age are either occupational or vocational and are given in Fact Box 1 below. Degrees for this cadre are located in Education.

Training to deliver other components of the Essential Package is located in the Health sector. There is currently no training which allows for specialist capacity for the Essential Package as a whole. For example, Department of Social Development staff responsible for support and oversight of ECD programmes (ECD coordinators, ward social workers, social auxiliaries)do not have an ECD component in their training. Similarly community health workers, community care workers and others do not have grounding in the broader aspects of early child development.

FACT BOX 1 CURRENT ECD RELATED QUALIFICATIONS

Vocational: Funded by DHET and offered at TVET colleges
NCV Education and Development (Level 4) / NCV has an optional (elective) subject in ECD in the third year which qualifies graduates to act as ECD assistants.
National Diploma Educare (N4 – N6) / A NATED/Report 191 programme.Matric is the entry level.Three six-month semesters leading to an N4, N5 and N6 Certificate.18 months practical experience at a school/daycare centre, post N6 Certificate qualifies for National Diploma in Educare.
Occupational:Learnerships funded byprovincial education departments , ETDP SETA, HWSETA, NSF and offered by accredited public TVET colleges, NPOs and private for profit providers
Level 4 Further Education and Training Certificate: ECD
Level 5 Higher Certificate: ECD (120 credits)
National Diploma: ECD (240 credits) / These are ETDP SETA quality assured legacy qualifications which will be phased out
Level 1Child Care Worker qualification / Occupational qualification, scoped for QCTO but not yet developed
Level 4 ECD Practitioner Qualification / NewQCTO occupational qualificationin process of finalisation will replace legacy FETC: ECD when it expires

ECD is in the occupational stream even though we are talking about professionalising the sector. There is no professional (degree) qualification for ECD 0 – 4 years. DHET has done some preliminary work to understand qualifications at tertiary level for ECD and there is talk of professionalisation for the sector.For Grade R the Diploma in ECD has been introduced as an interim measure and will become a minimum requirement for Grade R teachers without the B Ed (Foundation Phase).

In addition to qualifications a quick route to support scale of ECD programmes and services proposed in the draft ECD Policy is to provide job specific short courses/skills programmes which could be credited towards qualifications at a later stage.[3]

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FORISSUE 1

• What qualification and skills programme levels are needed bearing in mind the different early childhood care and education jobs for those working with babiesto Grade R including supervisory posts?
• What sorts of training packages are needed to cater for the range of ECD needs including maternal and child health and nutrition; parental support and early stimulation.
• How do we address the low educational base of many practitioners and especially the fundamentals related to articulation and preparation and support for students in further studies?
• Is ECD best placed in the occupational stream and if so which occupations considering that occupational qualifications can be registered from Levels 1 - 6?How should these relate to professional qualifications (degrees etc.)?
• How do we facilitate collaboration betweenthe QCTO, DHET, DBE and other stakeholders on developing qualifications that clearly link toeach other, to further education opportunities and to meaningful career paths rather than working in parallel and separatequalifications
• Who should make decisions about qualifications?
• Should there be provision for ECD specialisations for health and various categories of social service practitioners (e.g. social workers and auxiliaries, community developers, community health workers, child and youth care workers) and if so how could this be facilitated?
• Quality programmes must be multi-dimensional, holistic development of children. What are we training the workforce for? How can the pre- and in-service training materials be aligned with the National Curriculum Framework 0 – 4 years?
• Should all cadres of worker be trained in all elements of the Essential Package?
• If the policy proposal forpractice related short courses is accepted, how can these bepart of a qualifications pathway

ISSUE 2:HOW CAN TRAINING BEST BE DELIVERED?

Accredited training capacity is limited especially considering the backlog of untrained or under-trained practitioners and the need for staffing of an expanding system. From a training supply perspective, the staffing need for universal access to ECD services of different kinds for children 0 – 4 years is estimated to be in the region of 100,000 ECD practitioners.[4]This number does not include orientation of community health workers for promotion of child development.

FACT BOX 2 ECD TRAINING SUPPLY AND REQUIREMENTS

Current ECD training supply will need to be expanded for a scaled up and quality ECD system.This is despite learnerships funded by provincial education departments (through the Expanded Public Works Programme) and SETAs to address historical backlogs in qualifications for the current ECD centre workforce.Training provision is unevenly spread,predominantlyurban at Level 4 and focused on staff in ECD centres.SAQA data for 2011 indicates 5285 Level 4 and 2271 Level 5 achievements.
In the past decade most ECD qualifications training was offered by the NPO and private sector but current policy directs that learnerships are offered by public FET providers (at times these may outsourced to NPOs).Irregular funding flows for learnerships to FET colleges havelimited the development of ECD units with ECD qualified lecturing staff.
FET Colleges offering ECD Qualifications 2013/2014
Colleges / Enrolled 2013
NCV / 15 / 2654
NATED / 12 / 1385
Level 4 / 20 / 2433
Level 5 / 13 / 1127
186 NPO and private providers were accredited to offer ECD qualifications in 2012.
NPOs enrolled some 5119 traineesin FETC between 2010 – 12, and 1367 in Level 5butonly 16 (of 47 accredited to offer Levels 4 and 5) had delivered learnerships in this period.
Few Higher Education Institutions offer ECD with a focus on pre-reception year and this is an urgent area for development.[5]

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR ISSUE 2

• How can different training providers contribute to training delivery and what should the respective roles be of TVET colleges; universities, accredited NGO trainingproviders and private for profit training providers?Which qualifications and other capacity building programmes should different providers offer?
• How best can the expertise and geographical spread of ECD RTO training networks be used to offer and support training and capacity building?
• The current learnershipis not working well in many TVET colleges which lack dedicated and experienced ECD staff, how can we develop new models for working in partnership with TVET colleges and networks of RTOs to make best use of available expertise?
• What are the obstacles to offering quality training / practitioner education? What needs to be done to overcome them?
• How should HR development be funded?

ISSUE 3:WHO IS THE EMPLOYER?

A critical hurdle for qualifications development linked to career pathing and progression is that there is uncertainty as to employment prospects.Qualifications pathways must be linked to career pathing and sustainable jobs.Job insecurity and poor working conditions in for those working with 0 – 4 year olds lead to attrition.While there is no professional degree there is also not clear employment pathway if there were such a degree and no HR proposals to support changes toward this. The lack of an employment structure means thatbursaries andstate subsidies are not likely to be offered which makesthe both offering of a qualification by a tertiary institution and take up by students less likely.

Make-work programmes like the EPWP and CWP have supported work opportunities in ECD HR provisioning but these have not resolved longer term employment issues. EPWP support for the practitioner ceases once the qualification is obtained and CWP provides for very part time work opportunities.

FACT BOX 3 ECD EMPLOYERS[6]

ECD services depend on human resources from a number of sectors, and each sector has its own structures.

• DSD funds posts for the delivery of social welfare services including oversight of ECD programmes and services, but it does not fund posts for the delivery of ECD programmes and centres (though programme and the ECD partial care subsidy contribute to these).

• The health sector has an established formal staffing structure with both differentiated professional levels and trained non-professional cadres (such as HIV counsellors, community health workers and clinic assistants).

• The education sector also has an established formal staffing structure, although Grade R training, qualifications and remuneration have still to be fully integrated into the education post structure.There is no provision for posts for those working pre-Grade R.

• Community development workers employed by the Department of Public Services and Administration and located in municipalities have some ECD specific responsibilities.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FORISSUE 3

• The workforce is diverse e.g.caregivers, ECD workers working with children and parents employed by government or individual parents or others (employers are also varied), committees overseeing programmes, local and district level social workers in communities, national and provincial officials, individuals supporting communities, monitoring personnel, practitioner educators / trainers of trainers, support workers for ECD centres. Who are/should be employersand remuneratorsof different ECD workers

• DoesECD fall within education or social services (or both) in terms of career pathing. Who should make decisions about the workforce?
• How do we make sure that ECD provides meaningful professional opportunities for young people coming into the sector?
• Should other workers who interface with young children such as Child and Youth Care Workers, Community Care Workers, Community Development Workers be linked to ECD programming?How?

• What role shouldlocal government take with regard to ECD human resources?

ISSUE 4:HOW CAN QUALITY BE IMPROVED?

Human resource development includes much more than training.There must also be provision for supervision, support and monitoring(performance management). There is a need for an overarching HRplan for departments which are responsible for ECD and management within and across departments to oversee its realisation. Professionalisation is seen as a route to improving the quality and status of the workforce and a regulatory body for ECD is an outcome for the ECD Programme of Action 2014- 2019.

FACT BOX 4 ECD, PROFESSIONALISATION AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

The IntegratedECD Programme of Action for moving ahead 2013 -2018has tasked the DBE with developing an Integrated professional registration system for ECD practitioners working with children birth to pre-gradeR by June 2015.
Why is professional/occupational registration important?
The primary function of a Professional body is to safeguard standards within the profession. It also raises the status of those working in the sector.Only registered persons may practice in the sector and registration requires specified professional qualifications, continuing professional education and adherence to a code of conduct.A professional body provides input about qualifications for the workforce and is critical for career pathing issues. Professionalisation requires a professional or tertiary qualification.
A Professional Home
Because ECD jobs are diverse there isoverlap in the roles and responsibilities between the Departments of Social Development and Basic Education with respect to the potential career paths for ECD Practitioners.
Grade R teachers register with theSouth African Council of Educators (SACE)which is a requirement for teachers.It has not provided for registration of Pre-Grade R practitioners as yet.
The Draft Social Service Practitioner Policy (SSPP) notes that while the “career path for ECD practitioners is located within the education sector” …. “They attain “professional status by becoming ‘educators’, yet an educational qualification is not a prerequisite to work as an ECD practitioner within the social development sector” (p. 57). “Funding for the ECD pre-Grade R sector in the form of subsidies for those working in ECD centres and programme funding for out of centre workers whowork with families as well as young childrencomes from DSD.Provision has therefore been made in theSSPP for ECD as an emerging occupation/profession.
The South African Council for Social Services Practitioners will be structured to have associations that monitor and regulate sector groupings. ECD sector is one of seven. ECD would need to participate in sitting on that statutory council, responsible for setting training standards, norms and requirements. It has far-reaching implications as SACSPP can determine qualifications. Do we need to have an association comprising employers, workers, under DSD and then register with SACE when you become a teacher?
NOTE: Quality does not only depend on qualifications,working conditions, professional registration it needs ongoing support and monitoring.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR ISSUE 4

•What does professionalisingmean? Who are we professionalising?

•There are at least two bodies where ECD workers (excluding health workers) might register. TheSACSSP (Council) outlined in the social service practitioner policy which provides for ECD as an emerging sector and SACE.What are the implications of registration with these bodies?

•Do we need to have an association – comprising employers, workersunder DSD and then register with SACE when becoming a teacher?

• What would be needed tofacilitate an integrated registration process for ECD practitioners?
• The sector is starting to get some recognition through the qualifications. How is quality going to be built and maintained at different levels?
• The system is struggling to provide support for practitioners.How can we think about providing practitioner support for quality?

ISSUE 5:WHAT ARE THE DATA AND RESEARCH NEEDS?

Data on staffing andtraining needs for the existing ECD workforce and projections for future needs is required to inform a comprehensive HR Development Plan for the ECD Sector. Planning for HR will depend on data projections on the numbers of children in need of ECD services disaggregated for the different services needed to deliver the Essential Package from conception to school going age. The NPC, Statistics South Africa and other agencies are currently looking at how best to secure this information.

The forthcoming Comprehensive ECD Policy and Programme will determine HR requirements for implementation and enable the development of a phased resourcing plan for service expansion.Currently we do not have reliable, consolidatedand up to date information on qualifications of staff in the ECD sector, who providing training, how many and which learners are funded, disaggregated to provincial level.[7]Information on the supply and capacity of accredited training providers is also critical. Mapping this is critical to inform planning.There is insufficient research capacity in the sector andneeds to be betterdissemination of what research there is.