How can we speak of 'careers' in childcare when the remuneration does not in many cases constitute a 'living'? Ms Perkins refers to the 'money you want', but I refer to the money we need. Practitioners who need their pay to be more than mere pocket money to supplement the income of the major wage earner struggle in today's economic climate.
Surely this is also partly to blame for the failure to attract more men into the childcare profession? I have known many excellent and experienced professionals who left for more lucrative non-childcare jobs when they found balancing the family budget made it impossible to continue. Why earn the minimum wage for such a responsible job, with all its pressure and paperwork, when you can be paid much more as a bank clerk, for instance, and leave your work behind at the end of the day?
Businesses such as Teddies Nurseries (Nursery Chains, summer 2002) should be applauded for their far-sighted approach to addressing the knock-on effect of relatively low salaries. The provision of subsidised housing must help many nursery staff to continue in the job for which they have been trained.
For those of us working in the pre-school sector, however, such incentives are a pipe dream. Few settings are able to offer their staff the viable financial option of more working hours. We must work to the same standards but rely on incomes other than our own to keep us in a job we love and to keep our families fed, clothed and housed at the same time.
Jane Harrison. Brympton, Yeovil, Somerset
