‘Significant’ staffing challenges may be barrier to funded childcare expansion – UK Times

Nurseries may not have enough staff to deliver the Government’s expansion of free childcare, researchers have warned.

Workforce challenges must be addressed to ensure the early years sector can recruit and retain staff to meet the demands of the full rollout of the childcare expansion, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has said.

It comes as eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours a week of free childcare for children older than nine months from Monday.

While growth in staff numbers is currently “on track” to meet the Government’s estimated targets for the childcare expansion, the NFER report has warned that this “may not necessarily continue”.

It said: “The early years workforce has grown significantly in recent years, but providers still face significant staffing, recruitment and retention challenges.”

The Government estimated last year that the early years workforce would need to grow by 35,000 staff from December 2023 to September 2025 to deliver the full rollout of the expanded childcare funding entitlement.

But the NFER said early years providers have reported challenges with achieving growth so far and further growth “may be even more challenging”.

One of the challenges early years providers face in recruiting and retaining staff is pay is low compared with that in the general workforce, the report said.

Early years workers earned on average 36% less than similar workers in 2022/23, though the median hourly wage has increased relative to the minimum wage to £2 per hour more in 2023/24.

The NFER has called on the Government to continue increasing funding rates for early years providers to allow them to offer “competitive” wages and pay higher rates to staff with more experience and qualifications.

Staffing targets may be met at a national level, but there could be some discrepancies between regions that are not currently being measured by Government data, the report added.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said the Government must put “significant effort” into improving the status and pay of early years roles.

“For more childcare places to exist, more staff are needed, and, while recruitment efforts have been successful in the short term, more is urgently needed,” he said.

“As the report points out, staffing issues differ greatly across regions, and it is possible that the initial burst of recruitment will have reached a natural plateau.”

In July, the Government announced early years teachers would be offered a tax-free payment of £4,500 to work in nurseries in disadvantaged areas.

The expansion of funded childcare – which was first introduced by the Conservative government – began being rolled out in England in April 2024 for eligible working parents of two-year-olds.

Working parents of children older than nine months were able to access 15 hours of funded childcare a week during term time from September 2024, and the full rollout of 30 hours a week to all eligible families starts this month.

Jack Worth, NFER education workforce lead, said: “The early years landscape is undergoing significant changes and increasing pressures.

“It is critical that workforce challenges in the sector are addressed, so that it can be both attractive enough to recruit new staff and also retain a higher level of staff, to ensure it can meet the demands of the expanded free childcare entitlement.”

The NFER report concluded: “The early years workforce faces both quantity and quality challenges that require it to be both attractive enough to recruit and retain the staff numbers required to deliver the expanded childcare entitlement and highly skilled to improve children’s outcomes.”

A Department for Education spokesperson added: “From today, hundreds of thousands of families will start accessing 30 hours of Government-funded childcare, marking a significant milestone in this Government’s Plan for Change.

“This rollout would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the early years sector, with the latest stats showing tens of thousands more staff already enrolled and delivering the entitlements this year.

“Over the last year we have continued to support the sector to grow through our reinvigorated recruitment campaign and all-new training routes to join the sector. Our Best Start in Life strategy commits to continuing to raise the profile and improve the skills of early years educators with high-quality training programmes for all levels of staff.”