Too many childcare workers earn less than £5 an hour

The childcare workforce in England is underpaid, overworked and undervalued with one in eight workers earning less than £5 an hour, according to the Social Mobility Commission (SMC).

Credit: Ann in the UK/ Shutterstock

Low pay, a high workload and a lack of career development for early years workers is having a serious impact on the provision of childcare for children under five, according to the SMC's report 'The stability of the early years workforce'.

The report is based on research carried out by the Education Policy Institute (EPI). It found the average wage in the sector is £7.42 – less than the minimum wage.

'Overworked'

Childcare professionals also work longer hours than people in comparable occupations. Some 11 per cent of full-time early years workers reported working more than 42 hours per week, compared to just three per cent of retail workers.

Only 17 per cent of early years workers receive job-related training, according to the research.

Despite a high proportion of workers being passionate about childcare, the early years sector has a high turnover of staff with 37 per cent leaving their employer within two years.

The report highlighted signs of instability in the 280,000 strong early years workforce – which includes childminders, nursery assistants and early years teachers – with too few new entrants replacing those leaving the sector.

According to the report, the main barriers to a stable workforce are low income, high workload and responsibilities, over-reliance on female practitioners, insufficient training and career opportunities, low status and reputation and a negative culture and climate within the organisation.

”The early years workforce is vital in helping to narrow the development gaps between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those from more privileged backgrounds”, said Steven Cooper, interim co-chair of the SMC.

“We must do everything we can to ensure that childminders and nursery workers are valued more by ensuring we pay them a decent wage, give them a proper career structure and ensure their workload is reasonable.

“The Commission will be pressing the government and employers to take urgent steps to improve the stability of childcare provision in these critical years.”

COVID-19 pandemic also threatens the survival of nurseries and early years settings. The Commission stated the COVID-19 outbreak had 'caused considerable disruption to childcare providers since lockdown started in mid-March, generating financial instability for many workers'.

The Commission is urging the government to match the operational costs of providing childcare to take account of rises in inflation and the national minimum wage. It also recommends a early years career strategy that includes attracting older workers to the profession.

'People leaving for better pay'

Stella Ziolkowski, the director of quality and training at the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said the report findings “echo” NDNA’s own research “which showed reductions in the numbers of qualified staff, high turnover and people leaving for better pay elsewhere”.

“Nurseries would love to pay their staff the salaries they deserve, but the government has only increased its hourly funding rates by 1.8 per cent in the last four years”.

The NDNA argues funding rates have “not kept pace with rising costs”, with inflation alone at 3.2 per cent between 2016 and 2019.

The National Audit Office has found the Department for Education’s assessment of costs do not match reality.

Stella Ziolkowski said: “Funding rates must be based on realistic measures” to ensure “childcare providers are able to properly reward staff, keep them in the sector and build them into the early years leaders of tomorrow.”

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: "Years of inadequate government investment into the early years has resulted in unacceptably low salaries across the sector, with many practitioners regularly working long hours for little or no additional pay.

"Is it any surprise, then, that more and more are opting to leave and seek employment opportunities elsewhere?

"With the huge challenges that the coronavirus pandemic has created for the childcare sector, it's clear that much more government support is needed if providers are going to be able to not just stay afloat, but to continue to recruit and retain quality early years professionals".

Liz Bayram, chief executive of PACEY, said: “For far too long childcarers have had desperately low incomes, relying on in-work benefits to make ends meet.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a sharp light on the fragility of a sector that is critical for the future well-being and education of our youngest children as they seek to catch up from the time they have lost.”