Nurseries and early years organisations have questioned the role of a new nationwide electronic database – which will share nursery staff details and qualifications with local authorities – after one local authority threatened to pull nursery education grant funding if the information was not provided.
There is no legal requirement for early years settings to submit details, but local authorities can set local requirements to do so. The Early Years Workforce Qualifications Audit Tool, which went live on the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) website last week, will share data with local authorities, the DCSF and other government agencies.
But nursery owners claim it will duplicate information they already give to local authorities and question what the personal details of workers will be used for.
Chair of the Childcare Corporation, Alan Bentley, said, ‘I find some of the questions asked, especially regarding ethnicity and disability, not only unwarranted but beyond an acceptable limit. It makes me wonder what the purpose of the form is.’
Read more on NurseryWorld (UK)