Finding enough nursery staff to deliver the Government’s “radical” pledge to boost free childcare for working parents is a challenge, the children’s minister has admitted.
Nurseries across London have raised fears staff are fleeing the sector and can get better paid jobs at supermarkets. It comes after ministers promised to give 30 hours of free childcare a week to working parents of children from the age of nine months.
Claire Coutinho, the minister for children, families and wellbeing, admitted the workforce challenge is “very much on my mind”. She told the Standard: “The other challenge now is not just funding, it’s workforce. We are trying to look at the whole picture for nurseries and childminders to make sure we can solve as many problems as possible so we can get there.”
Ms Coutinho added: “When I go round and talk to nurseries, the bigger challenge they talk to me about is often workforce. That’s something which is very much on my mind, and we have taken some action already.”
The Government is consulting on removing the requirement for some childcare staff to hold a GCSE in maths, and reducing the number of more qualified staff needed per child, in a bid to boost the workforce.
