Nearly 350,000 people work in childcare among the million-strong care workforce in Britain, according to a report by the Thomas Coram Research Unit. Mapping the Care Workforce: Supporting joined-up thinking suggests that there are pervasive recruitment and retention problems within both the social care and childcare sectors. The study found that compared with other care workers, childcarers' pay was particularly low, and a high proportion of childcare workers - 58 per cent - lived with children for whom they had parental responsibility, compared with 40 per cent of social care workers. The full report is available from the Institute of Education on 020 7612 6050 for 8.95 plus 1 p&p.
Nearly 350,000 people work in childcare among the million-strong care workforce in Britain, according to a report by the Thomas Coram Research Unit. Mapping the Care Workforce: Supporting joined-up thinking suggests that there are pervasive recruitment and retention problems within both the social care and childcare sectors.
The study found that compared with other care workers, childcarers' pay was particularly low, and a high proportion of childcare workers - 58 per cent - lived with children for whom they had parental responsibility, compared with 40 per cent of social care workers. The full report is available from the Institute of Education on 020 7612 6050 for 8.95 plus 1 p&p.
, which draw on the same pool of recruits - mainly young women with low levels of qualifications. As the level of qualifications of school leavers is increasing, this pool of recruits is shrinking. This increases competition, which is further intensified as qualification requirements within the care sector rise
