Important Changes for Childcare Students in England

Important changes are being made to childcare courses in England, and it is essential that students who wish to study childcare courses after September 2014 are fully aware of them.

The Government asked Professor Cathy Nutbrown to review the quality of both early education and childcare qualification, and to make recommendations to the government about any change that should be considered. The recommendations made by the Nutbrown review have been published by Professor Nutbrown in a report titled, "Foundation for Quality".

On the 29th January 2013 the Department of Education published their reply to the Nutbrown Review in a report titled, "More great Childcare: Raising quality and giving parents more choice".

Amongst the key changes arising from this report is that some changes will have to be made to current childcare courses so that they meet the standards required in these reports.  The major childcare awarding bodies Edexcel (BTEC) and CACHE have already started to work towards making changes to their courses to fulfil these high standards.  Both of the awarding bodies expect to have the changes to their courses in place by September 2014.


Edexcel (BTEC) intends to meet the requirements of the reports through their BTEC Level 3 National Certificate and Diploma in Children's Play, Learning and Development.

CACHE intends to meet the requirements of the reports through their CACHE Level 3 Diploma in Education and Care (Early Years Educator), although the course title has yet to be confirmed.

Students entering these courses post-September 2014 must have achieved at least a grade C in GCSE Mathematics and English. It is therefore essential that students in England wishing to study these childcare courses after September 2014 must ensure that they make every effort to study and achieve a minimum of grade C in GCSE Mathematics and English, to avoid the possibility of being disappointed because they do not meet the necessary criteria for being accepted on these childcare courses.

Whilst at this time the changes only affect students studying childcare in England, it is possible that these recommendations might in the future be implemented elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

Should you have any questions or concerns about how these changes may affect your studies, please feel free to contact Margaret Cronin at DaC Childcare Training.