Petition Keep Early Years Professional Status

Prospect Union's Early Years Professional members call on the government to reject the recommendation of Professor Cathy Nutbrown's final report on Early Education and Childcare which states that EYPS should be replaced by a new early years specialist route to QTS covering the years birth to 7.

There are 10,000 practitioners already trained as Early Years Professionals and delivering positive outcomes for children in a range of settings, with more currently in training. We believe that the resources required to develop a new qualification and to retrain these practitioners would be better spent raising the profile of Early Years Professional Status with multi-disciplinary professionals, teachers, parents and the wider community.

We believe that the existing Early Years Professional Status should be retained on an equal but different footing to teaching to reflect the unique skills required to nurture and develop very young children to their full potential.