Early Years Professional status: a new professional or a missed opportunity
type: CreativeWork
description: Prior to 1997, an integrated legislative and policy approach to meeting the educational and care needs of children and young people, in the English context, had been absent. Separatist rather than integrated models of service delivery prevailed. In the early years specifically, research findings have supported the growing recognition internationally about the importance of good quality Early Childhood Education and Care, both economically and for later life achievements. In England, the former Labour Government (1997-2010) began to address the issues through a raft of policy initiatives, including the Childcare Act 2006 which removed the distinction between education and care in the early years. This Act introduced the Early Years Foundation Stage and the Early Years Professional, a new inter-disciplinary professional status and role imposed at graduate level, rather than grown organically. This unprecedented step also took government involvement in the professions to a new dimension as it involved itself explicitly in orchestrating a new graduate level profession. The range of training routes to achieve Early Years Professional Status and the backgrounds of those being researched are complex and evolving. Therefore, the overarching aim of this research was to explore the development of professional identity through a critique of the concept, implementation and impact of Early Years Professional Status as a new professional role and status. Mixed methods were used to support a pragmatic, flexible approach to gathering the collective and individual perceptions of those who undertook the pilot in 2006 and those who commenced one of the four pathways to Early Years Professional Status in 2007. Questionnaires, interviews and a focus group were undertaken to gather insights at the start of the process, after the award of the status and a year later. The same methods were employed in two phases with stakeholders to add a further dimension to the research. The mixed method…
abstract: Prior to 1997, an integrated legislative and policy approach to meeting the educational and care needs of children and young people, in the English context, had been absent. Separatist rather than integrated models of service delivery prevailed. In the early years specifically, research findings have supported the growing recognition internationally about the importance of good quality Early Childhood Education and Care, both economically and for later life achievements. In England, the former Labour Government (1997-2010) began to address the issues through a raft of policy initiatives, including the Childcare Act 2006 which removed the distinction between education and care in the early years. This Act introduced the Early Years Foundation Stage and the Early Years Professional, a new inter-disciplinary professional status and role imposed at graduate level, rather than grown organically. This unprecedented step also took government involvement in the professions to a new dimension as it involved itself explicitly in orchestrating a new graduate level profession. The range of training routes to achieve Early Years Professional Status and the backgrounds of those being researched are complex and evolving. Therefore, the overarching aim of this research was to explore the development of professional identity through a critique of the concept, implementation and impact of Early Years Professional Status as a new professional role and status. Mixed methods were used to support a pragmatic, flexible approach to gathering the collective and individual perceptions of those who undertook the pilot in 2006 and those who commenced one of the four pathways to Early Years Professional Status in 2007. Questionnaires, interviews and a focus group were undertaken to gather insights at the start of the process, after the award of the status and a year later. The same methods were employed in two phases with stakeholders to add a further dimension to the research. The mixed method…
author: Lumsden, Eunice
language: eng
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:26:39Z
provider: University of Northampton
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Northampton