All Childbase staff to benefit from National Living Wage

As well as introducing the mandatory National Living Wage (NLW) for workers aged 25 and over months before it is legally required to do so, Childbase, an employee-owned company, has taken the decision to pay all its staff working across its 46 settings, no matter their age, the increased rate of pay.

From April 2016, employers will be required by law to pay their workers aged 25 and above the National Living Wage of £7.20 per hour.

Childbase, which says the pay deal will be particularly beneficial to its 381 practitioners under 25 years old, is also increasing the wages of its modern apprentices by 6 per cent to £5.25 per hour. Currently Childbase has 34 modern apprentices, however the number is set to double in the next 12 months.

Virginia Mead-Herbert, deputy chief executive of Childbase partnership, said, ‘The move to introduce the National Living Wage now is but a step in a decade-long company drive to achieve professional recognition, pay and benefits for our early years practitioners who are not only carers but educators of the very young.’

Ms Mead-Herbert said the pay deal is going ahead despite the ‘climate of uncertainty’ surrounding Government funding for the 30 free hours of childcare.

‘We are committed to providing excellence as standard for all our children and continuing to drive up standards further. That means establishing a base pay-rate for all lower wage earners while maintaining existing profit-sharing, well-being and training initiatives,' she added.

Emily Tanner, a 24-year-old unqualified practitioner who works at Childbase’s Meadow View Day Nursery in Buckinghamshire, said, ‘I am delighted that we, as a company, are doing this for the under-25s because there are a lot of us with children who are studying for qualifications and can’t do lots of overtime.’

In 2017, all members of staff that work for Childbase will receive an additional 60p per hour as a result of the nursery group moving to 100 per cent employee ownership.