Delivering high-quality care and education for babies and toddlers takes skill and expertise, meaning experience and qualifications among early years workers matter when it comes to the youngest children's development, new research by Ofsted shows.

The report highlights the importance of practitioner experience and qualifications, finding that those with greater experience and a higher level of qualifications had better knowledge of child development.  

The research also considered to what extent practitioners use the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework when educating and caring for toddlers and babies. It found that the 'key person' role is a strength of many providers, with early years practitioners recognising that this role is vital for babies and toddlers.    

Ofsted also found: 

most practitioners recognise the importance of positive relationships with parents in helping them support children more effectively 

communication and language, and personal, social and emotional development were well understood by practitioners, but they did not always understand how they could support physical development as well there is some work to do in understanding how routine times can be used for high-quality interactions, particularly where mixed ages are grouped together   

some survey responses reflected a misconception that babies and toddlers are too young to be taught anything  

some of the challenges considered in the research may be partly influenced by ongoing difficulties in recruiting and retaining experienced practitioners  

The report sets out a series of recommendations for practitioners, managers and policy-makers to achieve the best possible outcomes for babies and toddlers. Foremost is support for practitioners to take part in professional development specific to babies and toddlers to improve their qualifications and experience. 

Source: Gov.uk