Project overview
We are looking at ways we can offer improved support to early years managers to check staff qualifications and to provide clarity around qualification requirements so providers can recruit and onboard staff more quickly.
This project is part of the work DfE is doing to:
Support the expansion of the early years workforce by 40,000 by September 2025, which is needed to deliver on the budget commitment to expand childcare entitlement for working parents with children under the age of five.
Make sure that the early years workforce includes sufficient suitably qualified practitioners to meet ratio requirements, which is needed to keep every young child safe, and ensure all children have access to high-quality early education.
Early years is a regulated profession that requires a proportion of staff to hold suitable, ‘full and relevant’ qualifications to count in the staff to child ratios defined in the early years foundation stage statutory framework (EYFS). DfE sets the standards to allow staff to work in ratios at:
- level 2 (early years practitioner)
- level 3 (early years educator)
- level 6 (early years teacher)
Ratios determine how many staff are required in a setting and what qualifications those staff should hold.
DfE sets the criteria for qualifications to be approved as ‘full and relevant’ for working in the level 2, 3 and 6 staff to child ratios. Awarding Organisations submit their qualifications to DfE for approval against the criteria. Once a qualification is approved as ‘full and relevant’, it is added to the early years qualifications list (EYQL), which is published on GOV.UK as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Early years managers can then check qualifications against the spreadsheet, for example when someone is applying to work as a practitioner in their setting.
By simplifying the qualification checking process, we aim to support early years managers in recruiting and onboarding qualified staff more efficiently, ensuring every child receives the best start in life.
Opportunity areas
We ran an initial scoping piece of work (called a discovery) to understand the landscape and core user needs for this project.
This initial discovery phase identified three opportunity areas within the early years workforce space:
- Help early years practitioners and providers to check whether qualifications are full and relevant
- Increase understanding of early years qualifications and skills
- Increase the data available to DfE about the qualifications and skills of the early years workforce
Meeting the needs of early years managers and practitioners
During the alpha phase, we spoke to early years managers from a range of settings to understand what kind of service would be most useful to them. To help with these discussions, we created prototypes for how a potential service could work. During user research sessions, early years managers told us that:
they find it difficult to identify if an early years qualification is ‘full and relevant’
some practitioners applying for jobs are not aware of the ‘full and relevant’ requirement, and only become aware when their qualification is checked during the job application process
not holding a ‘full and relevant’ qualification can limit a practitioner's career opportunities, in some cases leading them to leave the profession altogether
some early years managers are also not aware that qualifications need to be ‘full and relevant’ for a practitioner to work in level 2, 3 or 6 staff to child ratios
the existing EYQL spreadsheet is difficult to navigate, does not always provide a definitive answer, and does not provide meaningful next steps when a qualification is found to be not ‘full and relevant’
the lack of clarity causes distress for both managers and practitioners
There is an opportunity for us to support early years managers with a better way to understand and assess whether qualifications are full and relevant. This will help us ensure that the early years workforce is qualified to deliver the best outcomes for the children in their care.
Our vision
To be the definitive, and trusted, source of information about early years qualifications
We will achieve this by:
- making it easier to check a qualification’s ‘full and relevant’ status
- giving key information in a way that is easy for users to find and understand
- making sure that the right information reaches users at the right time
- raising awareness of the importance of holding full and relevant qualifications
Testing ideas
We have created prototypes for how an online early years qualification checking service could work. We have tested these prototypes with early years managers and setting owners to gain their feedback and deepen our understanding of their needs. We have used their feedback to refine our prototypes to make sure that our service meets users’ needs.
We recognise that it’s important for users to get a clear, accurate result, and that the result they get has significant implications for their staff and for the staffing arrangements in their setting. Throughout the beta phase, we have made sure that we are testing both the most frequently checked qualifications and the most complex journeys.
Next steps
Our next step is to start a pilot phase with a larger group of users. We have planned our pilot phase so it is as representative as possible of the wider early years community. These users will use a version of the service to check qualifications in their settings. We will ask for their feedback both through feedback forms in the service and through regular check-ins. We have implemented Google Analytics in the service so we can get qualitative data on how the pilot users use the service. We will continue to iterate the design and functionality of the service based on their feedback.
Get involved
If you are interested in contributing to this project, email: general.EARLY-YEARS-QUALS@education.gov.uk
Notes for editors and readers
This page shares the ideas and thinking of the project team at DfE. Please be aware that we cannot respond to questions about the department, policy, or other services.
You can find out more about DfE’s priorities and policies on GOV.UK, along with how to raise enquiries with the department.