WRITTEN STATEMENT
BY
THE WELSH GOVERNMENT
TITLE
10 Year Early Years, Childcare and Play Workforce Plan
DATE
9 March 2016
Huw Lewis, Minister for Education and Skills
BY
Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty
In Building a Brighter Future: Early Years and Childcare Plan (2013)1, the Welsh
Government committed to consult on the right approach for the early years, childcare and
play workforce in Wales.
To help inform future development for the sector, we prepared and published a draft 10 year
workforce plan and a consultation was undertaken in the latter part of 2014. The draft plan
set out our goals for the early years, childcare and play workforce and how we intended to
support the delivery of our ambition.
Our ambition is to develop a highly skilled and bilingual early education, childcare and play
workforce, which is highly regarded as a career of choice.
Our consultation process covered the key principles of the draft 10 year workforce plan for
the early years, childcare and play workforce and set out these principles in more detail
under three themes:

Leadership

Attracting high-quality new entrants; and

Raising skills and standards in the existing workforce.
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Building a Brighter Future: Early Years and Childcare Plan
http://gov.wales/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/building-a-brighter-future-early-years-and-childcareplan/?lang=en
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The draft 10 year plan was circulated widely through a number of networks to the key
sectors and covered a range of organisations and individuals, including practitioners, local
authorities, higher education institutions and schools. The aspirations of the draft 10 year
plan were supported by the majority of those consulted.
A number of new policies have arisen in recent months and it is vitally important these
policies are fully considered and aligned, where necessary, in developing and delivering the
aspirations of the final 10 year plan. Some of the key areas under consideration are
outlined below.
Foundation Phase
A Foundation Phase Expert Group has been set up to develop and enhance Foundation
Phase practice and to improve the consistency of curriculum delivery for all schools and
settings across Wales. In March, we will be publishing the Expert Groups’ Foundation
Phase Action Plan. This plan will set high level actions to support and share learning on
effective practice and ongoing staff development and will be considered fully in developing
the final Early Years, Childcare and Play workforce plan.
Childcare and Play
Providing high quality, affordable and accessible childcare for all families in Wales who
require it, remains a key priority for Welsh Ministers. Childcare is an important factor in
tackling poverty as it enables parents to undertake training and enter or remain in
employment.
We already have a range of initiatives in place to provide additional childcare. For example,
all 3-4 year olds are entitled to a minimum of 10 hours free Foundation Phase early
education and in Flying Start areas, all 2-3 year olds are eligible for 12 ½ hours of free
childcare per week (39 weeks) and at least 15 sessions during school holidays. We have
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also provided £2.7 million of grant funding to local authorities in 2014/15 and an additional
£2.3 million this financial year to provide quality, affordable childcare to help families before
and after the school day. On top of this we are providing £4.3 million over a three year
period to third sector organisations to help us develop innovative flexible childcare solutions
to meet the needs of families.
Progress for Success
Increasing the skills of the early years and childcare workforce is a key ambition of the
workforce plan. In response to this, we are developing, with the support of the European
Social Fund, the Progress for Success (PfS) programme. The programme will provide
support to existing practitioners to up-skill in recognised sector qualifications at Levels 2 to
6, and we have recently secured £4.1 million European Funding, and provided an additional
£2.2 million for West Wales and the Valleys. We fully anticipate that similar support will be
made available for practitioners in East Wales.
Progress for Success will also support the aim of the Welsh Language Strategy to achieve
the ambition for Wales to become a country where Welsh medium education and training
are integral parts of the education infrastructure.
Independent Reviews
The recommendations of the Independent Review of Childcare and Early Education
Registration, Regulation and Inspection (the Graham Review), undertaken by Professor
Karen Graham were considered in the development of the draft 10 year plan. These will
also be a major consideration as we develop the final plan, alongside the policy
developments referred to above.
Next Steps
In finalising the 10 year plan, we recognise our proposals are ambitious, but essential if we
want to improve the quality of care we offer our children. As we look to fulfil our long-term
aspirations for the early years, childcare and play workforce in Wales, it is important we
recognise the challenging financial climate and, vitally important, we make informed
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decisions about how we can best invest our limited resources to ensure we take forward
and deliver on the aspirations of the 10 year plan. Our officials will, over the coming
months, continue to engage with interested stakeholders as we work to develop a final 10
year plan for the Early Years, Childcare and Play workforce in Wales.
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