About 40,000 extra staff are needed if the government is to fulfil its pledge to offer 30 free hours of childcare to all pre-school children by September next year. Sector leaders have questioned whether the plan is achievable.
Ministers want schools to set up in-house nurseries to help create some of the 85,000 places needed to meet the government’s promise to provide free childcare.
But in the UK, the number of childcare providers is falling, mainly because of childminders leaving the profession, although the number of childcare places remains stable, according to the Department for Education.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, questioned whether the government’s plans were achievable given the sector was still facing a “recruitment crisis”.
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Education secretary Gillian Keegan has said that almost 200,000 parents have signed up for the first wave of the scheme, which gives up to 15 hours a week free childcare for two-year-olds during term time.
But the sector is thought to require 85,000 more places and 40,000 extra staff if the government is to fulfil its pledge.
To increase capacity, the intention is to test creating places in unused school space. If successful, schools across the country could be encouraged to set up in-house nurseries in a scheme similar to that proposed by Labour.
Keegan told The Times that the government was providing up to £100m of funding to “remove any barriers” to new nurseries and said parents should be confident that places would be available.
“Parents of children who will be nine months old in September can register from next month and I would urge them to do so,” she said. “Despite all the noise the rollout is working and we are building the capacity to meet the demand.”
Officials in the education department have calculated that in order to hit the target they would need to create 15,000 nursery places outside existing providers by September and a further 70,000 the following year.
There will also be a need to hire and train an additional 40,000 staff by 2025 — both within existing nurseries and in the new childcare settings.
The government has begun offering sign-on payments of £1,000 for new entrants to the sector and have begun a nationwide recruitment campaign.
The government appears to be suffering from collective amnesia” – Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance
Keegan said that despite it being the “biggest expansion of childcare provision in history” she was confident everyone who wanted the new free hours would be able to get it.
Leitch said what the figures did not reveal “is whether families have been able to access all the days and sessions they need”.
He said: “A parent who has been given one day a week at their local setting – but needs five – may technically have a funded place, but not one that meets their needs.
“The government appears to be suffering from collective amnesia,” he added. “They want to talk about how many parents have taken up this offer, but how many of those have got the hours that they wanted and how many are being hit by additional charges. That’s what we don’t know.”
Leitch added that most of the 200,000 people who had taken up the offer were likely to have already had a child in a nursery, adding that the “big crunch” would take place in September.
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“The basic infrastructure hasn’t changed and the sector is still suffering from a recruitment crisis. It is going to be a real challenge.”
A spokesman for the National Partnership in Early Learning and Childcare said: “We welcome the government’s increased investment in early learning and childcare and have been pleased to work closely with those across the sector to ensure a smooth rollout of the April entitlement, so families can access this vital provision.”
