However, the demand for women in the workforce over recent years has made childcare essential. The Government has sunk a lot of money into this sector, but it has never addressed the pay or career structure of the carers. It does not see childcare as a profession, no matter how much it stresses its importance.
This has not prevented the Government from making enormous demands on childcarers. On top of the issues of responsibility and care there is the constant pressure to upgrade training and qualifications. Of course the care and safety of children must be paramount, but when neither of these is acknowledged in either pay or promotion, what is the incentive?
Scandalously, many childcarers are paid the minimum wage. For this meagre amount the Government gets a:
* qualified childcarer
* skilled first aider
* health and safety expert
* teacher
* dietician
* administrator.
How can single childcarers afford high rents or a mortgage? A member of my staff applied for housing under the keyworker system. She discovered that childcarers were not on the list but lecturers, who earn four times more, were! When there was a petrol crisis teachers got priority but not childcarers.
We have a well-qualified workforce which, for the moment, is willing to take insulting wages for their skilled work. It will not last much longer.
If the Government is genuine about its commitment to supporting childcare they will introduce a funded pay and career structure for childcarers.
