Consultation on New Experience-based Route Qualification for Early Years Practitioners

Consultation on New Experience-based Route Qualification for Early Years Practitioners 

On 22nd April, the Department for Education launched a four-week consultation on plans to introduce a new experienced-based route for unqualified early years practitioners to gain approved status to work within staff to child ratios. The consultation is open until 20th May 2024, and can be found on the Department for Education website. 

The Department for Education first outlined proposed changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in May 2023, which included a new experienced-based route for early years practitioners to gain approved status to work within staff to child ratios. Based on the strong approval for this proposal from respondents, the Department for Education decided to proceed with formally introducing the experience-based route. 

There are many staff working in the early years sector who do not hold full qualifications but have demonstrated their experience, competence, and responsibility through working in the sector. The proposed experience-based route will give these individuals a path to gaining approved status without having to complete a new qualification. The proposed route will involve an assessment of the practitioner’s knowledge, skills, and experience as well as a period of supervised practise. This experience-based route is hoped to make progress towards the target of 9,000 staff that are estimated to be needed by September 2024. 

The results of the consultation will be available at Gov.uk this summer.