350 staff need for childcare promise

EDEL KENEALY

The number of childcare workers in South Lanarkshire needs to increase by more than 50 per cent if the area is to successfully expand free childcare.

South Lanarkshire Council confirmed this week that an estimated 950 staff will be needed to deliver the early years care promised by the Scottish Government.

There are currently only 600 full-time equivalent posts at the local authority.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon committed to providing 30 hours free childcare a week to three and four year olds and some qualifying two year olds from August 2020.

But public sector union Unison says local authorities will struggle to recruit the necessary staff to deliver this promise.

Responses to Freedom of Information requests by Unison Scotland to every council and every college in Scotland show that there is an estimated gap of 12,000 full-time equivalent posts.

Currently there are 11 ,702 people in training – meaning a significant shortfall – even if every single person both completes their training and goes on to work in childcare.

Kay Sillars, of UNISON Scotland’s education issues group, said: “The Scottish government urgently needs to increase the number of college places, but this isn’t enough.

“The key to recruiting and retaining staff in the numbers needed is to improve pay and terms and conditions across the sector.

“The proposed benchmark of the Living Wage is far too low. You can earn the real living wage in many supermarkets without a qualification.

“If the Scottish Government wants to encourage people to undertake training and the responsibilities of delivering a high quality early years service they need to value what this overwhelmingly female workforce does.”

Stewart Nicolson, head of education at South Lanarkshire Council, said: “The council recognises the importance of a skilled workforce to the successful delivery of the expansion of early learning and childcare and will undertake the next phase of its recruitment strategy early in 2019.

“We currently have just over 600 FTE members of our various early years teams and this will need to increase by around 350 additional members of staff by 2020. We are confident we will be able to reach that target.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “We recognise the challenges of recruiting the additional staff required. It will be difficult, but we are confident it is achievable.

“We have announced measures that include funding to enable providers to pay all childcare workers delivering the funded entitlement at least the real Living Wage.

“We are committed to significantly expanding the workforce to deliver the transformational expansion of hours of funded early learning and childcare from 2020 and we are launching the next phase of our national recruitment campaign to encourage a diverse range of people to join the sector next week.”

Currently three and four year olds in Scotland are entitled to 600 hours per year of free childcare.

It is envisaged the expansion of free childcare will be delivered by a mix of local authority nurseries, nursery classes attached to schools, partnerships offered by private or non-profit nurseries, and some childminders.