Childcare pledge ‘to hit other care sectors’

Nurseries and other childcare providers will “likely” recruit staff from other parts of the care sector as the industry expands to meet a Scottish Government target, a Care Inspectorate report has warned.

Ministers are committed to increasing the number of hours of free childcare eligible youngsters receive from 600 to 1,140 by the end of this parliament.

But the report warns the expansion of staff working in early years needed to achieve this could have an impact on other parts of the care sector.

While it said the childcare industry “coped well” with the increase to 600 hours of funded care for all three- and four-year-olds, as well as vulnerable twoyear-olds, it said daycare services were increasingly struggling to fill vacancies – with the number finding it difficult to do this rising from 30% in 2014 to 35% in its latest research.

The early learning and childcare (ELC) sector em- ploys 39,030 staff in settings including childminding and local authority and private nurseries.

A “major expansion” of this will be required to provide the increased number of hours. The Care Inspectorate said: “We recognise that expansion of the ELC workforce will likely draw on sections of the population who are also being recruited to work in other parts of the social care workforce.

“It is therefore important for national and local workforce planning strategies to take account of this, ensuing there is an overall increase in the ELC and wider social care workforce rather than increased competition for the same pool of potential recruits.”