Nursery World - Low-pay profile of childcare

Low pay, low status and poor career progression have unsurprisingly emerged as the main barriers to expansion of the Scottish childcare workforce, in a major survey commissioned by the Scottish Executive. Early findings of the study, which will be published in full in the spring, indicate:

Early findings of the study, which will be published in full in the spring, indicate:

* Pay rates were low in both pre-school centres and out-of-school clubs, especially for trainees, with 75 per cent and 50 per cent respectively paid less than 4 an hour. Among supervisors, more than half in pre-school centres and 32 per cent in out-of-school clubs earn more than 7 an hour.

* Two-thirds of out-of-school clubs and one-third of pre-school centres who had to recruit staff last year encountered difficulty. Lack of experience and qualifications were the most common barriers to recruiting the right staff.

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