It is important to give children the best start in life. This requires staff who are qualified and skilled at every level, committed to self assessment and keeping up to date with current best practice.
Qualifications are available across all levels ranging from Certificates to Early Years Professional Status. The 'Career Steps' diagram on this page details qualifications and progression routes available.
Relevant Qualifications
When employing staff please ensure the qualifications they hold are full and relevant by logging onto the online Qualification List database in the link on this page. This will tell you if the qualification they hold meets all of the mandatory and optional criteria. If it doesn’t it will suggest training and qualifications the practitioner can undertake to fill the gaps. It is only the mandatory requirements that have to be meet, although it’s good practice for the optional criteria to be met too.
Audit Tool
All staff members information will need to be input onto the Audit Tool and information on there kept up to date in relation to all staff. This information can then be presented to Ofsted as part of your inspection. It also helps us bid for funding and ensure funding received is responsive to the needs of the workforce.
Ratios
Please refer to page 31 of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to determine who in your setting should be qualified in relation to your ratios. Please note that the government is also still committed to a Graduate Led Workforce particularly in areas of deprivation.