Recruitment and retention of high-calibre childcare staff is reaching such a crisis level that managers are searching for new ways to create competitive and attractive employment packages.
Nursery managers are struggling to hold on to longer-serving members of staff who are leaving for jobs that suit their own family lives better. Many positions offered within new forms of provision, such as wraparound care and Sure Start, can offer more money or longer holidays, or both. They can be more attractive propositions for nursery staff coping with the demands of their own families.
One way for nurseries to counter this threat to staff retention is to launch schemes offering subsidised childcare. Obviously, there's a big question of cost in offering staff discounts on fees. But a subsidy scheme, when coupled with the childcare tax credit element of the Working Families Tax Credit, could enable many nursery workers to afford their own employer's rates.
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