The Department for Education (DfE) have launched a recruitment campaign to encourage more people to join or return to the sector.

The “Do Something Big”, DfE recruitment campaign also includes a trial, which will take place in 20 local authorities in England from April, offering a £1,000 cash sign-on bonuses.

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan said:

“Parents shouldn’t have to choose between a career and a family and our expanded childcare offer is going to make sure of that.

“From April, hundreds of thousands of parents of 2 year olds will get 15 funded hours. This is good for families and good for the wider economy – ultimately putting more money in parents’ pockets at the end of the month.

“The fantastic nurseries, childminders and professionals across the childcare sector are central to the success of this rollout and our new recruitment campaign will support them in continuing to deliver the flexible and high-quality childcare parents need.”

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced in March last year that eligible families of children as young as nine months in England would be able to claim 30 hours of ‘free childcare’ a week.

Under the plans, working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare from April.

Recruitment has continued to plague the sector and this year the same problems will intensify. Sector leaders and representatives have stated that this £6.5 million campaign will not be enough to stem the urgent recruitment problems. While the sign-on bonus might have short term relief, it does not offer a long-term solution.

Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said:

“We at the Alliance have long called for the government to do more to promote careers in the early years, and so there is no doubt that launch of this new recruitment campaign is a positive – though very overdue – step.

“We know that, despite its challenges, working in the early years is one of the best possible careers to have, and so we hope that this campaign will help raise awareness of the fantastic job early educators do day-in and day-out to both potential new educators and the wider public.

“That said, given that we are now less than two months away from the first phase of early entitlement expansion, we’re clear that any suggestion that this campaign alone will be enough to drive up educator numbers in time to meet rising demand is ludicrous, and demonstrates a complete lack of understanding both of the sheer scale of the staffing crisis facing the sector.

“What’s more, while a £1,000 cash incentive may encourage more people to join the early years in the short term, it does little – if anything at all – to retain both new and existing staff in the long-term. As such, if there is any chance of this campaign having a lasting impact, there must be just as much focus on staff retention, and ensuring that we do not continue to lose knowledgeable, experienced educators at the rate that we have been over recent years.

“This means the government investing what is needed to allow providers to pay fair wages, establishing clear paths of career progression and, crucially, recognising that those working in the sector deliver not just ‘childcare’ but vital early education.

“After all, there is little point in attracting more people into the early years if the realities of working in the sector make it impossible to convince them to stay.”

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