At the private Canterbury House Nursery School in Ashford, Mr Brown hailed the progress of 19-year-old Sarah Cook from New Deal applicant to full-time nursery assistant at the setting.
But how many childcare positions are being filled by New Deal candidates is unclear. A spokeswoman at the Department for Work and Pensions said, 'While we have a breakdown of figures for sectors like construction, we do not have the same for childcare.'
Karen Walker, network co-ordinator at the National Day Nurseries Association, said she welcomed the possibility of people coming into childcare via the New Deal. But she said the Government should not lose sight of the aim to create 'a well-trained, well-qualified and well-motivated childcare workforce'.
Ms Walker said, 'The Government's plans to expand childcare provision are welcome, but are so huge that there is a worry that we won't find enough trained staff and that we won't be able to retain them by offering decent pay and reasonable career progression.'
She said the Government also needed to ensure that childcare was affordable to parents - a key factor, she said, since 'this sector is so staff-intensive that costs are bound to be high'.
The Government's plans to expand the childcare sector will require at least 150,000 trained and qualified staff in the next few years. But childcare employers are already suffering problems in recruitment and retention.
Stewart Pickering, chairman of private nursery chain Kids Unlimited, said companies were already finding it difficult to recruit and retain staff and provide continuity of care even before the Government's expansion plans for the sector are implemented.
He said, 'I believe that some key skills requirements may also be proving a barrier to entry into childcare. Perhaps we should ask whether it is necessary, for example, that someone should require GCSE maths at a high level.'
Samantha Tomlin, personnel manager at nursery chain Child Base, said that her company had difficulties recruiting staff for a new nursery in Chiswick, London. 'Some problems are due to regional differences. In London there is low unemployment, whereas we could have had a different response in Leicester or Nottingham,' Ms Tomlin said.
She said that Child Base had received New Deal applicants for its nursery in Newbury, Berkshire, 'but unfortunately none of the candidates were taken on'. She said she believes some New Deal applicants may not have sufficient qualifications or commitment to childcare, whereas those taken on as apprentices may have decided at an early stage to make it their career.
