Interview - Ben Black

How do you see the new National Living Wage affecting the early years sector?

Slowly, to start with at least. They haven’t set the rates for the National Living Wage particularly ambitiously. The most obvious immediate impact is that many providers will need to start paying a bit more. That will lead to more people being attracted to childcare and fewer people leaving, which will be good for everyone – except the operators, obviously!

What will it mean for the status for early years professionals?

Well, it’s good news. It’s a societal abomination that childcare workers are paid so little. The reason they are is a historical error that has become embedded into the way we think about the caring industry. Want to know why the Finns have the best education system in the world? Because they pay teachers more. So paying care workers more is the first step to giving carers the recognition they deserve, which will attract more and better people into the industry and in turn will lead to better care.

How do you see the quality of childcare being affected?

As long as the industry broadly survives then it’s good news. More people will be attracted to it as a career. The key to better childcare is getting more people into the industry who genuinely enjoy looking after children. But people will only follow their vocational calling if the pay is right as well. The UK would be about £500 billion better off if people did the jobs they were best at. That means lots more women being engineers and coders and lots more men being childcarers. The key to getting more individuals and more graduates into childcare is paying them more. In theory it’s quite simple if it wasn’t for those pesky economics!

How will the NLW combined with the 30 hours entitlement affect childminders and nannies?

I’m quite worried about the prospects for the nursery industry. National Living Wage, the shambles that is the introduction of the increased free entitlement, and the general move to more agile working is all bad news. Sure, a few of the big chains make healthy profits, but lots of small nurseries struggle. The market’s struggles will be good news for childminders and all forms of informal childcare, not just nannies. Childminders are flexible and relatively cheap – they deserve much better press and a much more proactive body representing them. That is starting to happen. As for nannies, it will take another couple of years, but by 2020 there will be an easy way for parents to find good childcarers online (and by good I mean referenced and interviewed) for exactly when and where they need them. Just look at what is happening in the US. That will be great for everyone but the nursery market.

• www.myfamilycare.co.uk is dedicated to helping employers support their employees with balancing work and family.