Cautious welcome for £1,000 childcare recruitment incentive

The tax-free incentive comes as part of a wider recruitment campaign launched by the Department for Education to “ensure providers are in the best position to deliver the places parents need from April and September this year and next”.

It also plans to “highlight the vast array of childcare career routes and progression opportunities offering on-the-job training and flexible hours”.

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Figures show that 102,480 children have been registered for places in the first phase of the expansion’s roll-out which will see eligible working families of two-year-olds receive 15 hours of funded childcare per week.

This is planned to increase to 30 hours for eligible working families of children from nine months old from September.

A survey of 2,045 UK adults, commissioned by DfE finds that two in five would be more likely to consider working with young children if they were given £1,000 cash after joining.

Sector leaders have cautiously welcomed the offer but have pointed out the incentive does not match incentive payments offered to new teachers or offer any support to providers struggling to retain experienced staff.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said: “The sector needs thousands more staff so we hope that the tax-free incentive will form part of a comprehensive workforce plan if the pilot is successful.  The amount is still not in line with teacher recruitment, so to attract highly-skilled and qualified staff the government must match these payments with teacher recruitment campaigns.”

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Association, added: “While a £1,000 cash incentive may encourage more people to join the early years in the short term, it does little – if anything at all - to retain both new and existing staff in the long-term. As such, if there is any chance of this campaign having a lasting impact, there must be just as much focus on staff retention.

“This means the government investing what is needed to allow providers to pay fair wages, establishing clear paths of career progression and, crucially, recognising that those working in the sector deliver not just ‘childcare’ but vital early education.”

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has also announced plans to introduce a window, expected to be eight-weeks, for local authorities to confirm childcare funding rates for providers from the day ministers announce rates each autumn.

This year, councils must confirm rates by the end of this month before they come into force on 1 April, she said.

Following the announcement, Keegan told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme that she cannot guarantee the government’s pledge to provide new free childcare hours will be met on time as she is “not in control of all the bits”.