By Allan Presland
It was fantastic to receive
the formal notification
from Skills for Care
on December 9 that the
Government is looking
to change the rules around
GCSE’s for Level 3 practitioners.
Common sense has finally prevailed and the insanity of the current SASE requirements which insisted that those who took their GSCE’s more than 5 years ago would have to retake GCSE Maths and English to complete their Level 3 qualification (unless they had Grade A’s) is set to be overturned.
The impact on our sector of this poorly thought-out policy is significant. I have spoken to several other large childcare training providers who have seen reductions in learner starts in the range of between 50% and 80%. At Parenta alone, we have seen the number of Level 3 starts plummet by nearly 80%.
The proposed amendment, whilst welcome, would not solve the huge reductions in the number of apprentices in childcare, and will not solve the crisis which is looming.
Irrespective of the GCSE grade “A” debacle, I fear we will still see a profound reduction in the number of apprentices qualifying into our sector in the next academic year.
The debate about GCSE’s as an entry or even exit requirement for L3 qualifications, as opposed to functional skills, has been raging since it was first muted by the former Childcare Minister, Liz Truss.
Her view was that, given that there is a provable link between results for children later in life and their experiences before they are 5 years old, all childcare providers at L3 should have GCSE’s in English and Maths.
However, I think she fundamentally missed the point, and regrettably, her successor Sam Gyimah has continued with the same thought process.
It seems however that Nick Boles, the Skills Minister, is taking a more logical view and is at least discussing the need for a Functional Skills alternative to GCSE’s within education as a whole. His view would allow us to revert to the proven and successful Function Skills route for those who are not academically gifted, but who would still would make exceptional childcarers.
On my blog I have written repeatedly about the consequences of continuing with the current requirements for L3s to have GCSE’s in Maths and English, and the consequences on the supply of apprentices to the sector.
My concern is that this huge reduction in newly qualified staff will lead to providers being unable to find suitably qualified staff. As a consequence, I expect to see staff wage inflation, followed by pressure on childcare costs.
I have written to Sam Gyimah about the matter on a couple of occasions. Sam’s response was disappointing. His doesn’t agree with my conclusions, given the number of staff already qualified in the sector.
This is one of those occasions when I really hope I am wrong, and that our Childcare Minister is right. Unfortunately, I don’t think I am, and I am genuinely concerned that we will start to see a skills shortage very soon.
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The new GCSE policy change is a welcome move, but our sector is still in trouble...