The union’s analysis, which is based upon data from Coram Family and Childcare’s Childcare survey 2023, shows:
- Nearly all (95 per cent) English councils who responded to Coram’s survey said that childcare providers in their area are having difficulty recruiting childcare staff with the right skills and experience to do the job. Eight in ten local authorities described it as ‘very difficult’.
- Recruitment of early years staff is most difficult in the East of England, the West Midlands and the North-East, where 100 per cent of councils said childcare providers find it ‘very difficult’ to recruit sufficient staff with the right skills and experience.
The union body has also published new research into the wages of early years and social care staff. The data is based upon the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2022 and the Labour Force Survey Quarter 1 2023.
It reveals that more than three in five (62 per cent) early years assistants and practitioners earn less than the real Living Wage at £10.90 an hour.
Also, practitioners earn only 56 per cent of the median salary for all employees (£18,400).
Recommendations
The TUC has put forward a strategy to deliver a ‘world class cradle to grave service’, which includes the following proposals:
- To ensure worker voices are heard and valued through sectoral collective bargaining to agree pay and working conditions, and National Partnerships Forums in social care and childcare.
- ‘Decent’ pay and conditions for all care workers including a minimum wage of £15 per hour, sick pay, secure contracts and full payment for all time worked.
- Skills, training and progression pathways – with nationally negotiated training frameworks to ensure consistency and quality that make sure staff are fairly renumerated and can progress. This national framework should make sure training is accredited and qualifications are recognised and transferrable to new employers.
- Health, safety and wellbeing, including ensuring that staffing levels are based on care and education needs and not arbitrary ratios. A zero-tolerance approach to workplace abuse with comprehensive safeguarding and support, notably for staff who be at risk of experiencing abuse and harassment, including black and migrant workers.
The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said the Government need to recognise the recruitment crisis and make ‘meaningful investments’ if they want skilled staff in place for the expansion of the funded entitlement.
The Early Years Alliance welcomed the TUC’s call for better pay and conditions for the early years workforce.
'The overwhelmingly female workforce deserves decent pay and conditions.'
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said, ‘Childcare and social care must stop being Cinderella sectors. Demand for care is rising. Caring is skilled work, and the overwhelmingly female workforce deserves decent pay and conditions.
‘Ministers must urgently introduce a £15 an hour minimum wage for childcare and social care workers.
‘They also need to bring in sector collective bargaining and establish new sector partnership arrangements to sup skill care workers and stop the race to the bottom on pay and conditions. And ministers should require employers to end the use of zero-hours contracts and pay decent sick pay to all workers.’
