The Department for Education has unveiled plans to pilot incentive payments for new early years workers across 20 local authorities, to encourage more people into the profession ahead of the upcoming expansion of funded childcare hours.
The £1,000 tax-free incentive payment is available for up to 3,000 new or returning staff, with the pilot set to run between April to December 2024. Local authorities involved include Birmingham, Doncaster, Wirral and Islington. Pilot sites have been selected based on areas of greatest need for staff.
Under government plans, all two-year-olds from working families – each parent must work at least 16 hours a week and earn less than £100,000 a year – will be eligible to receive 15 hours of funded childcare a week from April. More than 100,000 children have been registered already. The 15 hours of support will then be extended to working parents of children aged between nine months and three years from September. This is planned to increase to 30 hours for eligible working families of children from nine months old in September 2025.
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