Commenting as the government launches a new childcare recruitment campaign, with new pilot to trial £1k sign-on bonuses, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“Working with children in the early years can be one of the most rewarding careers in education. The development at that age is so significant, and has such an impact on future life chances, you can make a really big difference.

“However, the reality is, that we are not paying our early years workforce enough to make it an attractive proposition, and that is a key reason we have a recruitment crisis.

“There is also a real problem with retention, not just recruitment, as people find they cannot work in their chosen field and earn enough for (for example) families of their own. Introductory bonuses alone won’t fix long-term retention and supply enough staff. There is no real sense of an effective workforce strategy here, just attempts at sticking plaster solutions.

“It is frustrating that the government seems to have realised quite so late in the day the issue with early years staffing. NAHT has been warning about it since the new free childcare scheme was announced. We are now left with little time to recruit new staff, even with this campaign.

“The other huge hole in the government’s scheme is the insufficient funding behind it. There still won’t be enough settings offering enough places if they can’t afford to do so. Government needs to put appropriate funding behind this to make it work – both for recruitment, but also direct funding to nurseries for places.”