The findings come from a two-year project run with the London Early Years Foundation and the Early Years Alliance, which highlights the benefits of flexible working to support recruitment and retention.
The organisations said the Childcare Pioneers project, which worked with three nursery settings, ‘lays the groundwork’ for future progress. Timewise ran workshops with nursery managers and head office staff to discuss flexible working options in their settings.
The report, published today, estimates that the equivalent of 17,850 childcare workers could be recruited if more roles were advertised with flex and part-time options.
It recommends that the Government’s planned review of the early childhood education and care provision and workforce should include in its plan improving access to flexible working ‘as a key strategic pillar’ and should consult the sector on this.
Timewise director of policy, Clare McNeil said, ‘Even in time and resource-constrained nurseries, we have shown it is possible to create flexibility for staff which boosts morale and wellbeing. It is clear we need to increase part-time and flexible work to make the sector more competitive and to meet the staffing shortfall for the new entitlement. We are calling for flexible working to be placed front and centre of a new workforce strategy to attract more people into the early years sector and see early years professionals receive the conditions and respect they deserve.’
The analysis is based on Department for Education estimates that 35,000 extra staff are needed to enable the expansion of the childcare offer by September 2025.
The calculations assume that the DfE latest estimate continues to be based on a full-time equivalent calculation of 35 hours per week, with the need met by people working a range of hours per week. The ranges of hours per week used have been based on the 2022 Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers, which includes a table of working hours and proportions working part-time by type of provider, for several dates. The latest survey (2023) does not include this table.
The report said that levels of part-time work across the early education and childcare sector have fallen across the majority of settings since 2018-19, 'making it harder for childcare educators who have caring responsibilities of their own to combine work and care.'
It says that latest available estimates suggest that 93 per cent of non-workers would prefer a part-time or flexible job than a full-time role.
'Our analysis of official data finds that even returning to levels of part-time work that existed in the childcare sector in group settings five years ago would fill the equivalent of 17,850 of the 35,000 full-time equivalent vacancies needed,' it states.
The report, funded by JP Morgan Chase and Trust for London, includes practical examples for providers of how flexible working patterns could be used in nursery settings, including one provider who began experimenting with alternative shift patterns, placing adverts for part-time shifts of 15 hours a week part-time only.
This was for the job of a part-time Level 3 practitioner, term-time only, working two days a week, wither on Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday between 9am and 4.30pm.
In the foreword to the report, the CEOs of the Alliance and LEYF, Neil Leitch and June O’Sullivan, said, ‘Our organisations have both already sought to introduce improved policies and advice to support good practice across our nursery settings.
‘Yet we are also acutely aware that, for our nursery managers, managing the preferences of our people can be challenging in the context of the major staff shortages facing the sector. Childcare Pioneers provided practical support to enable a more proactive and consistent approach to flexible working requests, while maintaining our commitment to high quality care that provides consistent care for children and meets parents’ needs for flexible provision.
‘The project lays the groundwork for further progress. It makes a strong case that the Government’s new rights to flexible working should be accompanied by the support, resources and evidence to enable innovation in the early childhood and education sector.
‘Improvements to flexible working can play an important role in tackling the current recruitment and retention crisis facing the sector, and in so doing support Government ambitions to extend access to childcare for more families over the coming years.’
With flexible working becoming increasingly common across other frontline sectors, such as nursing, Leitch said it was vital that early years providers got the support they need to make this new way of working a reality, so that ‘hard working education professionals’ can reap the many benefits of flexible working.
He said, ‘We know that flexible working helps support mental health which in turn builds a happier, more sustainable workforce. That said, there's no doubt that making it work in the early years, where continuity of education and care is so vital and staffing pressures on settings are already so acute, presents unique challenges.
‘What the work of Timewise does make clear, however, is that flexible working isn't – and shouldn't be – only for those behind desks.’
Case study
Ellie from Storkway Nursery, an Early Years Alliance nursery based in Greenwich, said she jumped at the chance when her manager recently proposed flexible working of compressed hours, four long days instead of five, because it meant she was able to spend an extra day with her son before he starts school next September.
‘It’s a very precious time,’ she said. ‘When I worked five days a week I barely saw him. Even with an “early” early finish it was 5.30 by the time I was home and in winter this meant you could forget about having any sort of outdoors fun.
‘I have to think about my team too and the potential repercussions it has on them. This needs to be an arrangement that works for all parties. My room is the busiest room, so it’s just a case of being mindful of scheduling my day off when the least children are in. I don't want to be at home leaving my team under immense pressure with loads of children. I would rather come in and be there to support with that.
‘The way I see it, it’s positive all round. If we can find a working pattern that suits our needs, we’re more likely to want to stay in our setting which in the long run is really beneficial to the children. If we leave, the nursery becomes more reliant on bank staff which means lots of different people and the children can become very distressed.’
