Exclusive: Children's minister David Johnston – 'trying to ease the pressure'

New childminders registering with Ofsted or agencies will soon be able to apply for the Government’s start-up grants. Given the closure of the biggest agency, Rutland, and another no longer accepting members, where does it leave agencies?

With Rutland, we monitored the situation incredibly closely. We wanted to make sure that the individuals who were registered with Rutland were reassured and had options to remain in the profession. By working collaboratively, we were able to create a bit of breathing space. We’ve seen quite a number of childminders transfer over to either a different childminder agency (CMA) or to Ofsted.

Following Rutland’s ‘ineffective’ Ofsted grade and the announcement of its closure, we have made sure that we have the right contingency plans in place should this happen again. We hope it doesn’t, but if it does, there are certain things in place, including making sure that local authorities don’t cut off funding right away, but wait until an agency’s reinspection.

There are fears among the sector that removing the Level 2 maths requirement for practitioners to count in Level 3 ratios means workforce qualifications are being ‘watered down’ and this will impact quality. Also, by moving the requirement to managers, it could prevent career progression. Do you have any concerns?

Most of what we have announced was supported by the sector in our consultation.

From the consultation feedback we got, along with internal modelling, it’s clear there are significant numbers of people who have joined the workforce that have experience and the English skills they need, but they just don’t have their maths. Providers have been saying tous they want to be able to access this pool. And because the kind of maths that we want in early years, counting and numbers, is not the kind of maths that you learn at GCSE, we felt this was a positive thing we could do for the sector, which would not compromise quality.

On your managers’ point, this will not apply to managers currently in the post. For those that join afterwards, they are going to have a two-year grace period to be able to gain the qualification, so we’re confident it should be manageable.

The capital funding for early years settings to increase space to meet demand for the expanded 30 hours – are there any restrictions on how the money can be spent?

In general, the feeling is this will help support providers’ expansion of buildings or create new places. It might cover IT systems as well.

A criticism of the capital funding is that it doesn’t solve the issue of not having enough staff to deliver the places. An NCFE report also highlighted a widening skills gap in the early years workforce, which could pose a greater risk to children. Does the DfE have any plans to solve this?

Safety is of course our number-one priority. Of course you gain more experience the longer you’ve spent in any profession, but everybody is required to adhere to the safeguarding requirements that we have within the EYFS. Just because you’re a younger member of staff, or you have fewer years of experience, that has no bearing on what the EYFS says about how you must keep children safe and promote their welfare. The framework means that our qualified staff should all be reaching a certain level when it comes to safeguarding and welfare.

Are there any specific plans for increasing recruitment and retention?

We are doing a number of things simultaneously.

We’ve obviously got this huge expansion coming, beginning in April. We increased funding rates this autumn – it really is quite a significant rise in the rate for the two-year-old places.

I think even the sector privately admits it is.

We will increase the rates again next year too.

But the big thing we’ll do in the new year is launch a comprehensive recruitment campaign to encourage people into this sector. Launching in January, the campaign will be promoted across all sorts of channels. We are really encouraging people to come and join the sector and realise the difference they can make to give children the best start in life.

Our snapshot survey showed 55 per cent of early years staff are ‘struggling financially’, while 5 per cent are ‘on the breadline’. Some respondents said they relied on their partner’s income to survive. Would you say this is the main barrier to recruitment and retention?

Through the Government’s considerable increases in the national living wage, we have tried to address pay, and through our increase in funding rates. But we know from talking to the sector, pay is just one factor. They also talk about other issues to do with workload and bureaucracy. Our EYFS changes today are both to try and make it easier for providers to get people into the sector, but also to make things easier for people in the sector. And that’s down to things like verifying your documents by using electronic copies rather than paper.

As you know, there are a whole series of things where we’ve tried to ease that pressure on people within the sector, which will hopefully bear fruit.

We constantly review the money going into the sector. We have a survey of 10,000 providers, findings of which we use to set the rates of funding and really understand the costs that people are facing.

It’s a hugely important sector. We want to keep it flexible too.

I don’t for a second diminish the importance of pay, but I think it’s one of a number of factors.