Nurseries face race to tackle staffing crisis

A recruitment crisis in nursery schools could see half of highly qualified staff retiring within 25 years, a report has warned.

Education Policy Institute analysis found that a large proportion of staff with degree-level qualifications were aged over 40. One in five were aged over 50 and set to retire within 10 to 15 years, the report said, adding that younger staff were increasingly unlikely to be well qualified.

In reception classes almost 16 per cent of staff were unpaid volunteers, while the number of unpaid staff in independent nurseries rose by 60 per cent between 2008 and 2013. The think tank said it “cast doubt on the capacity of the younger workforce to keep the proportion of graduates steady, let alone for it to increase”.