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Stephen Edwards

The Children's Workforce Unit of the DfES are to revise their guidance on acceptable early years childcare qualifications, to make it clearer that the pre-1989 NNEB qualification is still recognized as a Level 3 qualification.

There have been some instances recently of practitioners being wrongly advised that these qualifications were invalid, and that they were required to re-train as NVQ qualified practitioners. Others have been told that their qualification was equivalent only to a level 2 award.

The DfES acknowledges the confusion over pre 1989 qualifications, and confirms that they are in the process of updating the guidance in their 'Acceptable List' of qualifications (the document is available from this DfES webpage ). In a letter to the Foundation Stage Forum, the Skills, Standards and Qualifications Strand write that:

There has been confusion amongst childcare staff who hold qualifications which pre-date the Children Act 1989 as these qualifications were previously identified in the guidance on the "Acceptable List" as equivalent to level 2 awards. We are currently in the process of revising this list and we will be advising practitioners that qualifications which were awarded prior to 1989 [at level 3] will continue to be recognised at the same level for regulatory purposes, that is they will be acceptable to Ofsted at point of inspection.

Practitioners, however, will need to be able to demonstrate to Ofsted that they have kept their training and experience up to date, and taken on board new developments in child protection, curriculum planning and other areas new to early years childcare since 1989. This is particularly important for those in management and supervisory positions, who:

may need to refresh and update their knowledge to ensure that they have the appropriate skills and ability to do their jobs as evidence of Continuous Professional Development and good practice.

For most practitioners working regularly in early years settings it will not be a problem to comply with this requirement, as regular short courses run by LEAs are intended to provide this ongoing support and development.

It's worth noting, however, that there are three NNEB qualifications in the acceptable list (see above link). Both the Diploma in Nursery Nursing and the Diploma in Post-Qualifying Studies were originally given a level 3 status, while the Preliminary Diploma in Nursery Nursing was a level 2 qualification. Since the clarification states that NNEBs will be recognised at the 'same' level, the Preliminary Diploma will remain at level 2.

The revised list of acceptable qualifications is expected to become available during the autumn.