Transcript Early Years Quality Improvement Programme Slide 1

Early Years Quality
Improvement
December 2007
1
Contents
Slide Number
 Introduction and background
2–14
 Early Years Quality Improvement Programme
15
 Communicating quality
16–19
 Performance Management – driving quality through the system
20–27
– Local authorities
23–24
– Settings
25–27
 Supporting the workforce
28–29
 Conclusion
30
 Glossary and References
31–32
2
Early Years
Improving quality – the core priority
 The Children’s Plan published in December 2007 sets out a vision
for making this country the best place in the world for children and
young people to grow up
 Improving the quality of early years provision is at the heart of that
vision
 Achieving world-class standards and closing the gaps between the
lowest achieving and most disadvantaged children and the rest will
require system reform so that all providers are consistently
achieving at the level of the best
 The Early Years Quality Improvement Programme sets out a
framework for taking forward the vision for improvement set out in
the Children’s Plan
3
The importance of quality
 Early learning, along with the home learning environment, has a
significant impact on children’s social, emotional and cognitive
development, and contributes to better outcomes at school
 However, early learning provision must be of high quality – evidence
(EPPE) shows that poor quality early learning adds no value in the
long term
 High quality early learning has a number of essential characteristics
– but the quality of the workforce is one of the most important
 Developing high quality early learning is also the best way to ensure
that parents are fully involved in their children’s learning
4
The benefits – why invest in quality?
IF HIGH QUALITY…
4–6 months ahead in
pre-reading
2YO
3–4YO
EARLY YEARS
IF HIGH QUALITY:
better cognitive
outcomes esp. prelanguage – less easily
distracted/more task
oriented
5YO
Positive and significant
contribution to
attainment in
reading/maths
10YO
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Higher reading/maths scores at 5 and
10 YO associated with better selfregulation (independence,
concentration) when starting school
5
Quality also drives virtuous circles
CHILDREN’S
OUTCOMES
IMPROVE
Two potentially virtuous
circles…
CHILDREN
income
WORK
PARENTS’
OUTCOMES
IMPROVE
learning and
development
income
access to
childcare
EARLY
LEARNING
AND CARE
translating best of
practice to the home
PARENTS
…but only if provision is
high-quality
6
Quality in the market

The early years sector is a mixed market, with a large proportion of
provision delivered by Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) providers
(80%+)

The Government has regulated to set core standards for quality in early
learning, development and care from birth to five through the EYFS

But providers need to use these core standards as the basis for continuous
quality improvement, which should be a part of day-to-day practice

Both supply-side (funding, support) and demand-side incentives (fees from
parents) for providers to improve quality need to be used effectively to
deliver sustainable quality improvement alongside better access and
involvement for parents
7
Delivering quality in partnership
COMMON IDEA OF QUALITY
Tools (e.g. ECERS)
Research evidence
EYFS as starting point
Local
authority
SUPPORT &
CHALLENGE
PVI
Maintained
Hardest to reach…
Sharing best
practice at LA
level – National
QI Network
FACILITATE
SHARING
BEST
PRACTICE
SSCC
Easiest to reach…
Parents/children
Support for access…
8
Sustainable quality improvement
Communications and strategic leadership…
£
Local authorities
Central Government
 Demonstrable impact
on outcomes
Sustainable core of public funding: GLF, SSEYCG
PVI
Maintained
nurseries
and
schools
SSCCs
 Consistent basis for
quality improvement
and shared language
for describing it
 Sharing best practice
CULTURE – BETTER WAYS OF WORKING
9
Quality improvement –
understanding the issues
A review of the early years sector carried out in summer 2007
suggested that:

parents do not have a strong enough voice in the market or value quality as an
important part of choosing early learning for their child

the quality of early learning is not a strong enough priority for local authorities,
and many authorities do not have a strong vision or strategy for quality
improvement

the range of support available to providers to help improve the quality of the
workforce is not brought together in a coherent enough way and its quality is
variable

providers do not feel they have sufficient economic incentives to improve the
quality of the workforce, and PVI providers feel there is not a level playing field
in support available
10
Data on quality
GRADUATES
In 2007:
Nursery Schools 32%
Primary Schools 37%–45%
80
% holding at least a level 3 qualification
WORKFORCE
LEVEL 3
90
70
60
Full daycare
50
Sessional
Childminders
40
Nursery schools
30
20
10
0
2005
2006
2007
OUTCOMES
PRACTICE
Ofsted – POSITIVES
 Ofsted 2005–08 inspections: Quality of childcare
and early education has risen year-on-year
 97% of settings satisfactory or better at promoting
outcomes for children (54% are good or
outstanding)
 Settings offering outstanding or good early
education up from 54% 2005-06 to 70% 20072008
POSITIVES
 FSP scores: 1 percentage point rise in 2007
(moderation expected to have fully bedded down
by 2008)
 2010 target (PSA10/11): further 4 percentage
points increase in children achieving 78 points
and 3% narrowing of gap from 2008 baseline
FDC/sessional 4%
Childminders 3%
 At June 2008 over 3,000 Early Years Professionals –
1,900 with the Status and over 1,500 in training
 Aim for EYP in every full day care setting by 2015,
with 2 in disadvantaged areas
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
 Too many settings still only satisfactory (33% Ofsted
2007-2008)
 Although 93% of settings were offering at least
adequate quality of provision (mean total score of 3+
out of 7 on ITERS) only 23% offered at least good
quality (5+ score) – NNI study, 2007
 Although all sectors have improved language and
reasoning provision, there has been little improvement
in literacy and maths – MCS study, 2002–07
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
 FSP scores: no discernible narrowing of gap with
some groups of children still falling behind by age
5 (e.g. Pakistani/Bangladeshi children, children
from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities)
 Parents not sufficiently well-engaged as partners
in the learning process
11
Action to secure high quality

Early Years Foundation Stage – setting the national standards for learning
development and care from birth to five

Ofsted registration and inspection – ensuring minimum standards of
safety and quality are met and providing a basis for constructing strategies
for improvement

Early Years National Strategies – supporting LAs to improve children’s
outcomes, narrow gaps and engage parents as partners in children’s
learning; and providing CPD to professionals: CLLD, ECAT, SEAD, EAL,
Boys, IDP

Workforce development: £305m (2008–11) Graduate Leader Fund as a
sustainable direct investment to incentivise graduate training, recruitment
and retention; Level 3 as the standard for group care, with Sure Start, Early
Years and Childcare Grant to support training

National Quality Improvement Network – sharing best practice between
local authorities across the country in systems for improving quality in
settings
12
The ambition – where we need to be

Continuous quality improvement embedded in all settings, based on key
elements of quality underpinned by the right culture

Settings working together, facilitated by local authorities, to share best practice,
and working closely with schools and partners in health and employment to focus
on the needs of children and families

Leaders and managers who set a vision and lead a learning culture in settings,
with sustainable graduate leadership across the sector – all full daycare settings to
be led by a graduate by 2015, with two graduates in deprived communities

A highly qualified early years workforce – an ambition for all staff in group care
to have a minimum Level 3 qualification, and all childminders to achieve a minimum
Level 2 qualification over time

A universal recognition of the importance of high quality early education, a
consistent conception of what high quality looks like, and a shared language for
describing it, so that parents can drive quality improvement through exercising
choice, and settings can set the highest standards
13
Investing in higher quality – the gains

Investing in people is the right basis for improving quality – CPD and
qualifications (Level 3, graduate)

Potential gains outweigh the potential risks

Key gains are improved reach (more parents using a provider’s or
childminder’s services) and better outcomes for children (including by
working better with parents)

As quality improves, the cost of retaining staff with higher skills becomes
less than the cost of losing them, and the cost of improving skills is
outweighed by the benefits – because the sector becomes an even better
place to work:
– Culture – consistently learning, stimulating, challenging
– Opportunities for innovation and new practice
– Day-by-day improvements for children
14
Rising to the quality challenge
The Early Years Quality Improvement Programme responds to this
challenge through three key themes:
 Communicating quality
 Performance Management - driving quality improvement
through the system
 Supporting the workforce rise to the quality challenge
Underpinning this, we need to recognise that ‘turning the curve’
on quality is a shared challenge for all providers that depends
on sharing best practice
15
Early Years Quality Improvement
Programme
Communicating quality
Developing a universal understanding of the characteristics of high
quality early years provision and why it is important, that is shared by
everyone in the system
16
Communicating quality

Current perceptions of ‘what high quality looks like’ are uneven among both providers
and parents – despite the clear picture that research has painted

For providers, quality is often not seen as synonymous with qualifications – skills and
experience are considered more important

For parents, word of mouth is the main driver in choosing an early learning setting,
and personal recommendation, trust and convenience tend to be more important than
objective measures of quality – although some parents will check Ofsted reports

There are perceived (but not real) disconnects between:
– the aims of Government regulation (the EYFS and PSA targets) and what high
quality, play-based early learning looks like
– the Government’s aim to help parents into work and the key importance of the
home learning environment for young children
– raising access to childcare whilst improving quality – putting pressure on
sustainability in the PVI sector
17
Conception of high quality –
common threads

Commitment to improving outcomes for children, not just keeping them safe
and happy – and ways of demonstrating that this happens, including
through an 'early learning vision' (e.g. 'giving children more')

Skills and experience that not only meet minimum standards but are being
well used: are the staff happy and motivated?

Recognition that early learning that conforms with the high standards set out
in research (e.g. 'sustained shared thinking') works

Recognition both that the home learning environment can be influenced by
early learning provision, and that young children gain important social skills
from early learning environments that they may not get at home
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What quality looks like
Settings – what are the key elements of high quality
provision?
Graduate
leading practice, setting
vision, leading learning
culture
Level 3
as standard
for group care
& basis for
progression to
higher levels Workforce
CPD –
opportunities
for staff to gain
higher
qualifications &
improve skills
Clear
educational
goals
Meeting every
individual child’s
needs
Sustained
shared thinking
Practice
Content &
Environment
EYFS
staff : children
ratios
Safe &
stimulating
physical
EYFS
environment
challenging & playbased content
Warm responsive
relationships
between
adults/children
Parents
supported in
involvement in
children’s
learning
Back/Themes
Next/Conclusion
19
Early Years Quality Improvement
Programme
Performance Management – driving quality improvement
through the system
 Coherent local authority level QI processes delivered through Early
Years Consultants with intervention in inverse proportion to success
 Quality improvement processes at setting level using tools to
continually review and improve practice, driven by the Ofsted selfevaluation form
 Early Years National Strategies challenging and supporting local
authorities through training
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Performance Management – driving
quality improvement through the system
All those involved in the delivery of early years provision are focused on
quality improvement, underpinned by a consistent understanding of
quality

Early Years National Strategies – helping LAs to embed early years
quality improvement in their plans for children’s services, and training and
supporting Early Years Consultants

Local authorities – implementing systematic QI processes through EYCs
based on intervention in inverse proportion to success and sharing best
practice

Settings – continuous quality improvement processes, drawing on the full
range of tools available to support QI and driven by the Ofsted selfevaluation form
21
Driving quality through the system:
Early Years National Strategies support and training

Steering quality improvement activity in partnership with local authorities,
challenging where robust QI strategies have not been developed and
checking that:
–
support for QI is coherent and simple for providers to understand
–
inputs (workforce training) have been linked to outputs (measures of
children’s outcomes, including the FSP)
–
local authorities are sharing best practice – both across the local
market and with other LAs

Helping to strengthen the current early years advisory workforce in local
authorities by providing training in quality improvement tools and processes
– in line with the aim of establishing the role of Early Years Consultants as
being parallel to that of PNS Primary Consultants’

Delivering leadership training for managers in settings, focused on the
change management and leadership skills required to deliver a continuously
improving service in a mixed market
22
Driving quality through the system:
Local authority support and challenge
The Childcare Act 2006 formalised local authorities’ market management
(sufficiency and access) role in relation to the early years sector
Local authorities need to:
•
develop an integrated strategy for improving children’s outcomes and reducing inequalities
between them, which binds together quality improvement, raising access and involving parents
– in delivering the S1 outcomes duty
•
allocate funding and support in a way that best incentivises quality improvement across the local
market, and which is perceived as coherent by providers – in delivering the S6 sufficiency duty
and S13 training duty
•
raise awareness among parents of the importance of quality and what high quality looks like –
in delivering the S12 information duty
This requires a vision and processes for quality improvement which are securely embedded within the
local authority’s wider children’s services plan, and which should:
•
embrace the whole market – PVI, maintained, SSCCs and schools – with ownership across
providers and a commitment to sharing best practice
•
ideally be based on an 'audit and improvement' cycle taking into account Ofsted judgements
with teams of Early Years Consultants providing support to providers
•
set clear expectations for sustainable high quality and continuous quality improvement
23
Driving quality through the system:
Local authority support and challenge
Key
EYC – Early Years Consultants
PC – Primary Consultant
SIP – School Improvement Partner
PVI – Private, Voluntary and Independent
SSCC – Sure Start Children’s Centre
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Driving quality through the system:
Settings – continuous quality improvement

Meeting the requirements of the EYFS

Using the Ofsted self-evaluation form as the basis for continuous quality
improvement

Focusing on both characteristics of effective pedagogy from birth to five and
cultural characteristics of setting (e.g. a learning culture)

Drawing on the full range of QI tools available as required, steered by local
authority QI processes – including:
– Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS – E and A)
– Key Elements of Effective Practice (PNS)
– Babies’ Effective Early Learning (BEEL)
– Leuven scale of children’s well-being and involvement
25
Driving quality through the system:
Settings – characteristics of effective practice, from birth to five

Adult/child interactions: sustained shared thinking and open-ended questioning
to help extend children’s learning

Equal balance between adult-led and child-initiated activities in which formative
feedback is provided to children

Knowledge and understanding of the curriculum and how young children learn

Use of observational assessment to understand each child’s development and inform
their next learning steps

Skilled staff with qualifications and training

Encouraging parental involvement in children’s learning, especially by encouraging
shared educational aims with parents, providing regular reporting to parents and
discussing children’s progress

Clear policy for managing discipline and behaviour

Cognitive/social development seen as complementary

Play in which the baby or child takes the lead and makes choices; imaginative and
creative activity
Sources: Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (2007);
'Birth to Three Matters' Guidance, Sure Start
26
Driving quality through the system:
Cultural characteristics of a high quality setting

Leadership capable of inspiring and managing change

'Whole setting' approach with clear educational vision

Shared ownership of vision and quality improvement processes by
leaders/staff

High aspirations for every child – a strong commitment to making a
difference to children’s (and parents’) lives and recognition of how quality
improvement can help achieve this

Reflective practice, both individually and together amongst staff

CPD-enabling: time and space for discussion and development

Environments designed to facilitate high quality learning and development
Source: Leadership in EY Settings (2007); supported by DCSF case studies
Back/Themes
Next/Conclusion
27
Early Years Quality Improvement
Programme
Supporting the workforce to rise to the quality challenge
Providing sustainable funding to improve the quality of the
workforce, focusing on:
 Graduate recruitment/retention
 CPD for all staff
 Coherence, shared purpose and mutual support of the schools and early years
workforces
 Leadership skills
28
Supporting the workforce
The Government is investing in the quality of early learning through the
SureStart, Early Years and Childcare Grant. Namely:
 the Graduate Leader Fund, sustained through to 2015 and positively targeted on the
PVI sector, to incentivise the employment of graduates by: contributing to salary costs
for newly employed graduates; providing further CPD for graduates to support
retention; and providing graduate training for existing staff in settings
 an expanded programme of CPD – delivered by EYNS – focused on supporting
particular aspects of children’s learning and development which are key to their later
achievement, such as the development of speaking and listening skills, as well as on
particular approaches to gap narrowing
 funding for LAs to flex the boundaries between the schools and EY workforces to
share knowledge and practice by building on the Early Years Professional (EYP)
practice-sharing networks being established by the CWDC. Support for networking and
the exchange of leadership practice, including through 'buddying' arrangements and
other joint work
Back/Themes
Next/Conclusion
29
Conclusion
The Children’s Plan has positioned quality improvement as an
imperative for the early years sector, and a shared challenge for local
authorities and all providers in the market
Developing a common conception of high quality and language to
describe it, and sharing best practice, are vital
The Early Years Quality Improvement Programme underpins the next stage of
development of the sector by providing a coherent framework of policy for
quality improvement and funding to support it through:
 Communicating quality: a common perception of quality and its
importance that is shared by everyone in the system
 Performance Management – driving quality improvement through
the system: the roles of EYNS, LAs and settings, which are reinforcing
 Supporting the workforce to rise to the quality challenge:
sustainable funding for quality improvement, focusing on graduates,
CPD, exchange of practice with schools, and leadership
30
Glossary
‘Boys’
Confident, capable & creative : supporting boys’ achievements programme
CLLD
Communication, language and literacy development programme
CPD
Continuous professional development
CWDC
Children’s Workforce Development Council
EAL
English as an additional language
EPPE
The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project
ECAT
Every Child a Talker programme
EYC
Early Years Consultant
EYFS
Early Years Foundation Stage
EYNS
Early Years National Strategies
EYP
Early Years Professional
FSP
Foundation Stage Profile
IDP
Inclusion Development Programme
ITERS
Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scales
LA
Local authority
MCS
Millennium Cohort Study
NNI
Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative
Ofsted
Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
PNS
Primary National Strategies
PSA
Public Service Agreement
PVI
Private, voluntary, independent
QI
Quality improvement
SEAD
Social & emotional aspects of development programme
Settings
Any out of school provider of early years provision for children from birth to five including
childminders, local authority nurseries, nursery or early years centres, children’s centres, playgroups, pre-schools, schools in
the independent, private and voluntary sectors and maintained schools
SSCC
Sure Start Children’s Centre
31
References
The Childcare Act 2006
The Act may be viewed in full online at: www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/pdf/ukpga_20060021_en.pdf
Below are brief outlines of sections 1, 6, 12 & 13
Part 1, Section 1 General duties of English local authorities in relation to the well-being of young children
An English local authority must:
(a) improve the well-being of young children in their area, and
(b) reduce inequalities between young children in their area in relation to:
–
physical and mental health and emotional well-being
–
protection from harm and neglect
–
education, training and recreation
Part 1, Section 6 Duty to secure sufficient childcare for working parents
An English local authority must secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the provision of childcare (whether or not by them) is sufficient
to meet the requirements of parents in their area who require childcare in order to enable them:
(a) to take up, or remain in, work, or
(b) to undertake education or training which could reasonably be expected to assist them to obtain work...
Part 1, Section 12 Duty to provide information, advice and assistance
An English local authority must establish and maintain a service providing information, advice and assistance in accordance with this
section. The service must provide to parents or prospective parents information which is of a prescribed description and relates to any of
the following:
(a) the provision of childcare in the area of the local authority;
(b) any other services or facilities, or any publications, which may be of benefit to parents or prospective parents in their area;
(c) any other services or facilities, or any publications, which may be of benefit to children or young persons in their area…
Part 1, Section 13 Duty to provide information, advice and training to childcare providers
An English local authority must, in accordance with regulations, secure the provision of information, advice and training to persons providing
childcare in their area and other persons specified in the Act.
The Children’s Plan
Department for Children, Schools and Families: The Children’s Plan, Building brighter futures.
Published December 2007.Cm7280.
32