Home working is threat to Sunak’s free childcare plan

NURSERY staff who want jobs that allow them to work from home are threatening Rishi Sunak’s free childcare scheme, an expert has warned.

The Prime Minister has pledged to offer working parents of two-year-olds 15 hours of care a week from April, while working families with children up to the age of four will eventually get 30 hours of free childcare a week.

However, the plans have come under criticism this week following reports that the sector’s staffing crisis, as well as delays to funding packages and issues with IT, risked jeopardising the rollout.

Yesterday, an early years’ expert warned the sector’s recruitment crisis is so dire that even with sufficient government funding, there is not enough staff available to meet the rising need for childcare places.

Prof Sally Pearse, the strategic lead for early years at Sheffield Hallam University, said many childcare workers had re-evaluated their careers during the pandemic and are continuing to leave the profession for jobs that give them more flexibility, such as working from home, and better pay.

She said: “Obviously if you work in early years you do not have the option to work from home, you’ve got to be fully present and fully focused the whole time and for very little pay, so I think a lot of people reevaluated during lockdown.

“If you’re not going to be paid what you should be and not valued in the way you should be then there are other options open to you that are a lot less stressful and a lot less responsibility, so I can fully understand why we struggle to recruit.”

Meghan Meek O-connor, a senior policy adviser at Save the Children UK, said: “Staff in the early years sector are skilled workers dedicated to supporting children but are operating in a system stacked against them financially.

“We know many are leaving the profession altogether when faced with low wages and spiralling operating costs.”

It comes amid suggestions an extra 40,000 additional early years staff would be needed to be drafted into the sector when the plans are brought in.

The Prime Minister’s flagship free childcare scheme, first announced by Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, at the Budget last year, will ramp up over time so working families with children aged between nine months and four years old get 30 hours of free care a week.