Early learning support for deprived communities

We have been working with local authorities to ensure that nurseries in Scotland’s most deprived areas benefit from an equity and excellence lead (an additional graduate).

These are highly qualified posts, that can be either a teacher or early years graduate with or working towards, for example the BA in Childhood Practice. 

This commitment has created 435 new graduate level ELC posts across Scotland, supported by £21 million funding in 2018 to 2019.

Equity and excellence lead role

The role of equity and excellence lead is primarily focused on leading support for the most disadvantaged children to close the attainment gap.

This involves working directly with children and does not focus on managerial responsibilities e.g. administration and payroll.

Another key role is to lead and support pedagogy in a setting, upskilling fellow practitioners.

Leads are not tied to the settings' adult-child ratios like other staff and therefore have greater flexibility and reflection time for this purpose. Local authorities have been given freedom to utilise leads depending on their local needs and the leads experience, therefore the roles focus may differ across settings.

Recruitment of equity and excellence leads

The vast majority of posts are now in place. We have produced a series of recruitment marketing resources to raise awareness of the new role, including a video and career profile case study which have been distributed to relevant universities and local authorities.

This information can be found at https://childcarecareersscotland.scot/we-work-in-elc/equity-and-excellence-leads/.

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