In 2022, we hosted design thinking workshops as part of a Nuffield Foundation project on advancing leadership development in the UK early years (EY) sector. Workshop participants asked us to do some research on the similarities and differences between the four nations. In a series of blogposts, we will discuss the key features of the leadership development landscape in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We aim to offer a snapshot of what each nation does when it comes to supporting leadership in EY and how they do it. While each nation refers to EY in their own ways, we use the term ‘EY’ throughout our blogposts in order to simplify the dialogue.

In this article, we consider three features of England’s EY leadership development landscape:

1. Qualifications required by EY leaders
2. Early Years Education Recovery Programme
3. National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL)

Qualifications required by EY leaders

The English government requires EY leaders to obtain a level 3 qualification in Early Years and have two years of experience working in an EY setting. The level 3 qualification, which is also required to be a qualified EY educator, primarily focuses on how to support young children’s learning and development. One of the most common routes to achieve the level 3 is through apprenticeship, which is when an EY professional works in a nursery as they pursue their qualification.

For EY leaders, obtaining a level 3 qualification means they will have pedagogical knowledge of working with young children, further strengthened by the two years of experience in the field.

Early Years Education Recovery Programme

Coming out of the pandemic, the Department for Education developed a suite of programmes under the title Early Years Education Recovery Programme. These programmes aim to support EY professionals in settings that were negatively impacted by the pandemic. Of the programmes available, the Experts and Mentors programme and Stronger Practice Hubs were specifically crafted with EY leaders in mind.

Launched in Autumn 2022, the Experts and Mentors programme offers mentoring for EY practitioners and coaching for EY leaders in settings that have been rated inadequate by Ofsted or that deliver the disadvantaged two-year-old offer. The programme provides tailored support to EY professionals with the goal of strengthening provision and supporting children who have fallen behind due to the pandemic.

Stronger Practice Hubs, also launched in Autumn 2022, focuses on cultivating local networks of EY professionals and leaders across England to improve the quality of setting provision through dialogues. The programme does this by encouraging practice sharing and professional learning across the sector.

For EY leaders, both of these programmes fill a need for tailored leadership development that centres relationships and reflection, empowering leaders to strengthen their skillset and support their settings.

National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL)

In addition to the above, the NPQEYL was launched in Autumn 2022 as part of the Department for Education recovery suite. This qualification is aimed at nursery managers, school-heads with nurseries and childminders with leadership responsibilities. It is expected that participants will have a level 3 or above in EY prior to participation.

This programme focuses specifically on developing the skillsets of current and aspiring leaders so they are equipped to lead an EY setting. It explores topics such as organisational management and developing a setting’s culture which are essential to leadership but not explored in a traditional level 3 qualification. This provides EY leaders with management-specific professional development that supports their leadership development journey.

Sharing learning

As we share learning across the four nations, we want to encourage your contributions in the comments below.

• Is this an accurate portrait of England?
• What have we captured well and what are we missing? How does England compare to your national context? What would you like to emulate or learn from?
• What are you taking away about leadership development?