Building a stable workforce: recruitment and retention in the child care and early years sector

Abstract

The paper presents findings from research aimed at identifying effective approaches to the recruitment and retention of child care workers, conducted to assist the UK Government's Childcare Strategy. The paper explores the practices and views of child care employers, Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) and child care workers in a range of settings (including day nurseries, playgroups and out-of-school care). Two key issues explored in the paper are the need for greater employer responsibility for increasing diversity in the child care workforce; and for a stronger emphasis on staff retention, through improved human resource practices in parts of the child care sector. Copyright # 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. IntroductionIn a buoyant economy, recruiting and retaining workers can present particular challenges for some employers. The child care sector has long experienced such difficulties, despite the intrinsic attractions of working in the sector and the high levels of occupational commitment (see for example Cameron and others, 2001a). The child care sector plays a crucial role in the economy by assisting women with children to work outside the home. Therefore problems of recruitment and retention in child care can impact on other sectors. Indeed, concerns have recently been expressed for the ability of the child care sector to recruit sufficient staff to cope with rising demand for child care from working mothers (see Wilkinson, 2002). Because parents will have different preferences for hours of work, as well as the sector they wish to work in and have the skills for, a strong child care sector may be a strong influence on their participation.The UK child care and playwork sector employs an estimated 275,000 paid staff 1 across a wide range of settings, including day nurseries, pre-schools and playgroups, nursery and reception classes in schools, out of school and holiday schemes, and crèches. Many settings, such as playgroups and after school care, offer only part-time employment because of the length of child care sessions while others, such as day nurseries, also offer full-time jobs. Existing research has found child care providers to experience problems both recruiting staff and retaining them (see for example, Cameron, 1997;SQW/NOP, 2002) and recent studies suggest that such problems are increasing (see Cameron and others, 2001b; IDS (Income Data Services), 2001). A survey of nurseries found a third of providers had difficulties with staff retention, and two-thirds had recruitment problems (IDS, 2001). These studies have provided valuable data on the extent of recruitment and retention problems, but more exploration was required on the reasons for these difficulties, including whether employers' practices might be a factor. This required qualitative research to identify practices, experiences and views of employers and child care workers.The research presented in this paper was carried out to assist the UK Government's National Childcare Strategy and particularly its recruitment c...

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