Why won't you leave? The question we should be asking nursery staff who choose to stay in the profession

Workforce statistics in the field of early years education and childcare (EYEC) are frequently tendered as proof of how the UK system of nursery recruitment and retention is flawed, failing or broken. Figures vary by sources, but the messages are consistently stark – particularly in reference to sector-wide inequalities, pay and working conditions. Starting salaries of £16,000+ for private nursery teachers (Swain, 2020) are at least £9,000 less than those for their school-based counterparts (see DfE, 2020), and 45 per cent of workers seek state benefits to supplement their wages (Social Mobility Commission, 2020). Seventy-two per cent of staff cite job-related stress as a reason for leaving the profession (Early Years Alliance, 2021) and annual rates of turnover (24 per cent) are well above the national average (National Day Nurseries Association; NDNA, 2019). Workforce gaps are hard to fill and have forced many nurseries to hire temporary staff, restrict their hours of provision and limit the programmes they provide (Early Years Alliance, 2021). To compound matters, recruitment has proved additionally challenging in the wake of Brexit and Covid-19 (Sullivan, 2022).