A new piece of research has been published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Mapping professional development and support programmes in the early years sector. The research was carried out with setting managers and leaders in school-based settings, PVI settings and childminders in England through a survey and interviews. Coram PACEY also supported this work by contributing insights into childminder engagement with CPD.

Access and availability of programmes

Two thirds of respondents said they were satisfied with the availability of high-quality programmes and there was a feeling that the early years CPD offering has generally improved in recent years. While programmes addressing communication and language were most common, there was less availability for programmes addressing PSED, mental health and wellbeing, self-regulation and executive function. Training on PSED was particularly requested by settings in the most deprived areas.

Going forward, the review team made suggestions to improve access and engagement with early years professional development and support programmes including a focus on developing and testing high-quality and research-led programmes addressing identified areas of need and improve engagement with childminders and overcome barriers.

Childminder challenges

The research highlights specific barriers experienced by childminders. Access to the programmes was particularly difficult with only 5 of the 160 professional development and support programmes mentioning childminders as part of the target audience. High quality training in certain areas – including specific training for childminders – was found to be lacking.

Most common barriers for childminders were:

• Lack of budget to pay for professional development programmes (63%). This was a key issue for all setting types, but notable for childminders. The majority of childminders said they’d only consider spending under £200 on a programme.
• Participants having sufficient time to take part (58%). Access to programmes was particularly difficult for childminders, where sessions were run during working hours with little flexibility. It is much harder for a childminder to step away from the setting to attend training during working hours.
• Lack of availability in professional development programmes covering areas they want training in (26%)

The research also found that childminders – who often work alone – particularly value the opportunity to network and share ideas and knowledge. They also prefer ‘dip in, dip out’ style training for accessibility.

Helen Donohoe, Head of Coram PACEY comments:

“The findings of this research strongly resonate with us at Coram PACEY as too often we see childminders miss out on CPD opportunities because of high costs, inconvenient timings or simply not being invited to participate.

“These barriers disproportionately affect childminders, who play a vital role in supporting children with SEND and those who flourish in a smaller, home-based setting. Despite their value, childminders have limited opportunities for career progression. To grow the childminding workforce and help them continue to provide high quality education and care for children, we need to see their inclusion central in early years professional development and training schemes, not just as an afterthought.”

Free training from Coram PACEY

Coram PACEY members can explore a range of free training resources in MyPACEY. We understand the unique challenges childminders face and we have designed over 50 bite-size CPD courses available for you to complete on your laptop, computer or mobile phone. If you prefer a video format, our webinars with expert speakers are available for you to watch back at a time that suits you. Our certificate of reflection will help you review and evaluate your learning and put it into practice. You can find all this and more in our Learning Hub.