New nursery staff to have good GCSE grades in English and Maths

The requirement for C or above in English and Maths should be scrapped

From September any new nursery recruits must have GCSE C or above in Engish and Maths, this new requirement will lead to catastrophic staff shortages.

According to Save our Early Years campaign employers are already feeling the recruitment crisis. The Government is not backing down on their statement that ‘Numeracy and Literacy skills are essential.’

For nurseries, the barrier they are going to have to overcome is that without GCSE C or above these new employees with not be counted in ratio. Many nurseries are supporting the Save Our Early year’s Campaign as they fear that recruiting new employees is going to be a huge issue

Carol Medcalf, the managing director of an award-winning nursery in north London, who supports the campaign, called the rule “a huge barrier.”

“I strongly feel, and this is backed up by experience, that the GCSE requirement, especially in maths, is a huge barrier for much wonderful staff entering the profession, and they become unemployable, which is crazy,” she said.

“I myself do not have maths GCSE – yet I have run a highly respected, multi-award winning, Ofsted outstanding nursery for over 25 years, and I manage to get the business figures right.”

With the introduction of the 30hrs of free childcare for 3 to 4 years olds next year, the recruitment crisis is only set to get worse.

Many people would like to see  “Functional Skills” qualifications reinstated to help with this crisis, these qualifications would be a suitable alternative to GCSE’s for childcare staff.

Turning away potential practitioners

If the early years sectors are to employ more practitioners to cope wth the early years free entitlement, then settings cannot afford to turn away potential practitioners, just because they dont have the grades on paper

A Department of Education spokesman did not directly address warnings of staff shortages but said strong numeracy and literacy skills were “essential” for staff working with young children.

“That is why we introduced GCSE requirements for those early years staff working for ‘level three early years educator’ status.

“We are continuing to look at what more can be done to encourage talented staff to forge a career in the early years.”