The very women who spend their working lives looking after other people's children want to stay at home and bring up their own children when they have a family. This desire to be hands-on mums stems from a firm belief that being there for their children is the right thing to do.
This finding emerged in a study carried out by the Thomas Coram Research Unit. When combined with the familiar story of low pay, low status and poor terms and conditions within childcare, it has huge implications for nursery owners' efforts to retain staff, and the Government's goal to recruit an extra 150,000 childcare workers over the next three years.
The pressures of low pay and the desire to bring up their own family mean that 52 per cent of the nursery workers taking part in the study expected not to be working in day nurseries in five years' time.
The scale of the possible exodus is in part due to the age of the workforce. The TCRU research, carried out on behalf of the former Department for Education and Employment (now DfES), involved more than 2,000 childcarers, both staff and students, predominantly childless, white women in their early 20s. As a result, many can be expected to start a family in the next five or so years and move out of nursery work, at least until their children are older.
The study found that:
* 89 per cent of student childcarers would expect or prefer not to work full-time or at all while their own children were under pre-school age.
* Only 9 per cent of students would opt to work full-time, although 27 per cent of ethnic minority students would consider this option.
* 26 per cent of nursery managers and 34 per cent of other staff expected to take time away from employment in the next few years for family or other caring reasons.
Focus group participants expressed two sets of beliefs about the issue of mothering and employment:
* First, that mothers should be available for their children, regardless of employment, so it was imperative that work fitted around school hours.
* Second, their children should not be cared for by others. Grandmothers or fathers were an acceptable alternative, but not formal care services.
One playwork student said, 'I would only allow my mum to look after my little boy. Even if I had the money, I wouldn't pay for childcare... I just won't trust people... if my mum couldn't look after my son, I wouldn't work'.
Another childcare student, not a mother, expressed the ideal for parental care when she said, 'Babies are starting nursery at three months, and (parents are) going to work, full-time, from 8am until 6pm. (They get good care)... but they should be with their mum or dad.' Childcarers' views on combining work and care is one factor that takes them out of employment, at least temporarily. The survey also found that childcarers keenly feel the low pay and low status in their work (see box, above right). These factors are already providing a strong incentive to move jobs. Nearly three-quarters of managers reported staff leaving in the previous 12 months and voiced disquiet about the number and choice of potential recruits, indicating signs of a labour and skills shortage within the childcare sector.
At the same time, childcarers are highly committed to their field over time (see box, left). The problem, therefore, is how to capitalise on the commitment of staff, without losing them from the workplace.
We think, therefore, it is time to take stock of the profile of childcarers and consider what kind of workforce is needed, how it should be rewarded and what policies can be put in place to encourage skill and diversity.
The Government has already begun to address these issues. The DfEE launched a national recruitment campaign last year, with the aim of widening the appeal of childcare work, raising its status and investing in training, but not in such a way as to 'over-professionalise the profession'. Specific recruitment targets have been set to increase the diversity in the workforce: men (6 per cent by 2004); people with disabilities (15 per cent); ethnic minority backgrounds (6 per cent) and those aged 40 or over (40 per cent).
But this approach is essentially reformative: it seeks to build on what is, rather than transform the basis of childcare work. There is an ambivalent approach to the role of professional qualifications, with a focus on widening the labour supply rather then deepening the skills base of all childcarers.
The question of pay needs to be addressed, however. Is it acceptable for most childcarers' wages to be hovering around the minimum wage? If not, how should their wage levels be addressed? The impact of the Childcare Tax Credit (CCTC) on salary levels is yet to be assessed, but it may prove too limited to make a major impact.
So far, few families (136,000 in November 2000) have been able to take advantage of the CCTC, and where they have, the average amount paid is only 36 per week. The only other method of increasing salaries at present is a general increase in nursery fees, which may prove unaffordable for many parents and leave many nurseries unable to compete.
The challenge now for the new Government is not only to tackle the issue of low pay in the early years sector but to encourage and support childcare employers to be more family friendly in their working practices. NW * Dr Clare Cameron is co-author of the TCRU report
PAY AND CONDITIONS
It is well known that childcare work is low paid, but we were surprised by just how low wages were for full-time and part-time workers in our survey.
Year Annual Hourly rate
Nursery workers 2000 7,700 4.17
Nursery managers 2000 13,400 7.36
Nursery nurses (LFS*) 1997-99 4.89
Average for non-manual 1997-99 9.46
female employees (LFS*)
* Labour Force Survey (1997-1999)
Views on pay
* One third of staff cited pay as the main reason for leaving.
* One quarter of managers and half of other staff said they were dissatisfied with their rate of pay.
Terms and conditions
Hours 80 per cent of the staff surveyed had worked between 31 and 48 hours the previous week, and 75 per cent of managers, and 17 per cent of other staff, had worked unpaid hours.
Contracts 76 per cent of staff held permanent contracts.
Holidays The average number of days of paid holiday was 20.
Occupational pensions 45 per cent of managers and only 10 per cent of other staff.
Further information
* Entry, Retention and Loss: A Study of Childcare Students and Workers by Claire Cameron, Charlie Owen and Peter Moss is available, priced 4.95, from DfES Publications, PO Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Annersley, Nottingham NG15 ODJ (reference number RR275). Copies of the research brief are available free of charge from the same address. Research briefs and reports can also be accessed at http://www.dfee.gov.uk/research.
