Early Years and the Teaching Agency

Early years and the Teaching Agency

From 1 April, the Teaching Agency will take on key functions currently carried out by the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC), the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), General Teacher Council (GTCE) and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA).

Main focus

The agency will be accountable for three key areas:

1.      Supply and, with others, retention of the workforce
2.      The quality of the workforce
3.      Regulation of teacher conduct

The agency will support:

• Teachers
• All early years workers
• Classroom based school support staff
• Special education needs co-ordinators (SENCOs)
• Educational psychologists

• Examination officers

Supporting the early years sector

The agency will aim to increase the quality of the early years workforce by supporting recruitment and retention. This will continue to build upon the work that CWDC has undertaken to date. It will include:

• Working with others to promote graduate leadership so that the number of Early Years Professionals (EYPs) employed and deployed in full daycare and other settings continues to increase.
• Managing the New Leaders in Early Years programme and evaluating this pilot.
• Supporting settings to be responsible for the development of their own workforce.
• Inheriting responsibility for consulting on standards, qualifications and informing apprenticeships for the early years sector.
• Producing accurate information about the sector and maintaining labour market intelligence.

Your questions answered

We have developed some specific questions and answers which relate to the Teaching Agency. We hope these help to answer some of the immediate thoughts you may have.